A noble cause

Kareem Maddox, the pride of Oak Park, will play for U.S. in World Cup of 3-on-3 basketball




SUBSTANCE AND STYLE—Kareem Maddox, 29, an Oak Park High grad, will represent Team USA at the World Cup of 3-on-3 men’s basketball in Amsterdam this month. Maddox, an All-Ivy League forward at Princeton, wants to earn a roster spot for the U.S. in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo next summer. Courtesy of Kareem Maddox

SUBSTANCE AND STYLE—Kareem Maddox, 29, an Oak Park High grad, will represent Team USA at the World Cup of 3-on-3 men’s basketball in Amsterdam this month. Maddox, an All-Ivy League forward at Princeton, wants to earn a roster spot for the U.S. in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo next summer. Courtesy of Kareem Maddox

Kareem Maddox and basketball go together like Prince and purple rain.

The game is inextricably intertwined in Maddox’s soul like double helix strands of triple double velociraptor DNA embedded in a hunk of petrified amber.

“I retired from basketball twice now,” Maddox said, “and yet I’m still playing.”

As human victory cigar Jeff Goldblum postulated in “Jurassic Park,” life, uh, finds a way.

For Maddox, basketball always finds a way.

The Oak Park High graduate starred for the Princeton men’s basketball team from 2007 to 2011, earning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. He played two years of pro hoops overseas, in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, before focusing on his career as a radio journalist. He returned to the hardwood in 2016-17, playing professionally in Poland.

He hung up the sneakers a second time but then joined a professional 3-on-3 league. He chuckled while recalling one tournament circa 2014: He played in a “gross and terrible” Brooklyn gym in front of John Rogers, the godfather of 3-on-3 basketball; Steve Mills, the current New York Knicks president; and Craig Robinson, the brother-in-law of President Barack Obama. Robinson also works in the Knicks’ front office.

EVERYBODY LOVES KAREEM—Kareem Maddox powers to the hoop during the Ariel Slow & Steady’s run to the USA Basketball national 3-on-3 championship on May 4 in Las Vegas. Courtesy of USA Basketball

EVERYBODY LOVES KAREEM—Kareem Maddox powers to the hoop during the Ariel Slow & Steady’s run to the USA Basketball national 3-on-3 championship on May 4 in Las Vegas. Courtesy of USA Basketball

This long and strange journey has catapulted Maddox to the top of the game.

“He’s one of the best 3-on-3 players in the world,” U.S. head coach Joe Lewandowski said.

The pride of Oak Park will represent Team USA at the World Cup, the most important 3-on-3 basketball tournament of the year. The World Cup runs June 19-24 in Amsterdam. Maddox will leave this week for a training camp in France.

This U.S. squad has a chance to solidify its resume for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo; 3-on-3 basketball will be an Olympic sport for the first time next summer.

“Getting to put on the USA jersey and play for the country . . . it’s an opportunity I had to grab,” the 29-year-old Maddox said on the phone while car horns exchanged pleasantries on a New York City street. “There was no way I wasn’t going to at least try to make it.”

Follow sports editor Eliav Appelbaum on Twitter @EliavAppelbaum.

Follow sports editor Eliav Appelbaum on Twitter @EliavAppelbaum.

The Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors are currently battling in the NBA Finals, but Maddox will spend this summer trying to help the U.S. capture its first World Cup gold medal.

Maddox’s skills suit the game perfectly.

“He can dribble, pass and shoot. That’s exactly what you need in a 3-on-3 player,” said teammate Craig Moore, 32, who holds Northwestern University records for 3-pointers made in a career (320), season (110) and game (nine).

At 6-foot-8 and 225 pounds, Maddox can maneuver in the post and dance nimbly along the perimeter. Few basketball players boast his versatile palette, especially intangibles that don’t appear in box scores.

“He’s very thoughtful about others and about playing basketball,” Moore said. “He’s always introspective. He can be quiet sometimes, but he’s always got a well-rounded opinion. . . . One thing our team always wants to do is get his opinion because it’s usually a thought-out opinion, and it’s usually a little different from everyone else’s.”

Dan Mavraides, 30, who played four years of college basketball with Maddox before joining his close friend on the 3-on-3 circuit, compared Maddox to Paul George.

“He’s a rare talent in many ways,” said Mavraides, who lives in West Hollywood and works as an investment advisor in Beverly Hills. “He has an athletic 6-foot-8 NBA body, but he controls the ball like a guard. . . . When I think of Kareem as a basketball player, I think of his length and versatility. Paul George is the closest player I can think of. Kareem guarded the best players in the league our senior year—he guarded Jeremy Lin at Harvard.”

Maddox and Mavraides have known each other 12 years.

“To still be playing basketball after all these years is really something we’ve been cherishing,” Mavraides said.

Lewandowski shared his praise of Maddox.

“He knows how to play and he plays the right way. He’s a warrior,” said Lewandowski, who is also head coach at Point Park University in Pittsburgh.

Last year, Maddox’s Ariel Slow & Steady team, also known as the Princeton 3-on-3 squad, played 17 tournaments in 14 countries. Princeton, which has won two straight national championships, is ranked No. 6 in the world, and players live in New York, L.A., Chicago and Seattle.

Princeton teammate Robbie Hummel, who played for the Minnesota Timberwolves and at Purdue, will join Maddox at the World Cup, as will Canyon Barry and Briante Weber.

Zahir Carrington (Lehigh) and Damon Huffman (Brown) join Maddox, Moore, Mavraides and Hummel on the Princeton squad.

Basketball doesn’t pay all the bills. Maddox works as a producer for Gimlet Media, which was recently bought out by Spotify. He produces “The Pitch,” a podcast in the spirit of “Shark Tank.” The son of Iman Zaki and Alan Maddox, the U.S. star has one younger brother, Jay.

Kareem Maddox finds a way to balance work, life and basketball. Summer is his busy season. On Monday, he arrived home from the Chengdu Masters tournament in China. He’ll be in France and the Netherlands this month. In July, he’ll go to Mexico City.

And on and on it goes.

Instead of working out to music, these days Maddox pumps up the volume for podcasts about venture capital or Gimlet media. He sits on a plane for 15 hours, staggers off and bangs in the paint with Boban Marjanovic doppelgangers.

He’s probably exhausted, but life is wonderful.

Maddox is a trailblazer. He’s ushering in the first 3-on-3 basketball wave to the U.S.

“We’re really excited about this sport and our place in it,” he said. “We’re really the first team that’s played this much in the states. We feel we have a chance to shape the economy of the sport here in the United States.

“At the end of the day, you step between the four lines and you’re playing basketball.”

In a nutshell

• Kareem Maddox, 29, an Oak Park High grad, will play for Team USA at the World Cup of 3-on-3 men’s basketball June 19-24 in the Netherlands.

• Robbie Hummel, Canyon Barry and Briante Weber join Maddox on the U.S. squad, which wants to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics next summer.

• Maddox, a 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward out of Princeton, was the 2011 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. He played three years of pro basketball overseas.

• Follow Maddox’s World Cup journey on his Instagram page @kareemmaddox.