The tournament was created to provide a way for amateur players to receive exposure to college coaches.

The Applebee’s King James Shooting Stars Classic consists of traveling amateur basketball teams categorized into brackets according to their ages. These brackets include ages 10 and under to ages 17 and under.

College coaches and scouts from more than 200 different colleges will make their way to the tournament to watch and evaluate players as future recruits. 552 teams of nationally-top- ranked players will come to Akron to showcase their talents throughout the weekend on 77 basketball courts around town.

The King James tournament is organized by the Northeast Ohio Basketball Association, founded by Dru Joyce II. Its mission is to enrich the lives of youth and teach life lessons through the sport of basketball. Joyce coached LeBron James from when he was 10 years old through his high school career. In 2003 he was named National Coach of the Year by USA Today.  He currently coaches at Akron’s St. Vincent St. Mary High School.  

Joyce said the tournament is growing quickly. "We started in 2006 with 318 teams. We added 147 more to that total the next year, and this year we’re over 550 teams and have kids coming to Akron from nearly every state in America and from Toronto and Montreal," said Joyce.

The tournament is family friendly and all games are open to the public.  Weekend passes will be available at area Sheetz stores or at each game site for $17 (students and seniors are $15) or daily passes are $10 for adults and $8 for children, students and seniors. Children under the age of six are free.