Homegrown former NBA player hosts ‘Academy of Hoops’ in Northwest Philly [gallery]

On Saturday, boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 18 made their way to the Finley Recreation Center for “The Academy Of Hoops,” a basketball clinic lead by Alvin Williams, whose path to an NBA career traveled through both Germantown Academy and Villanova University.

Williams, who played for the Portland Trail Blazers, Toronto Raptors and, briefly, the Los Angeles Clippers during an 8-year NBA career, founded the Academy “to provide student-athletes with an environment to improve their skills, enhance their knowledge of the basketball industry and prepare them for opportunities within the sport.”

For the youths, the additional perk was the opportunity to “meet, interact and learn from professional basketball players.”