No matter what level of basketball you play, whether you’re a casual hooper or a player with big aspirations, pickup games are always a great opportunity to work on your game or just to have fun outside organized games. It’s rather simple: Just head to your local gym and start playing against people that are already there.
Unfortunately, things don’t run that smoothly every time. The gym could be empty and a player is forced to shoot around on their own. Conversely, opponents could vary in skill, leading to weak or overpowering competition. Players also may be unwilling to pay for a gym membership just to hoop.
With the PlayR app, created and co-founded by first-year entrepreneurship and innovation major Noah Williams, players can connect and hoop much easier, and can earn rewards and level up.
“The main goal of it is to make basketball more accessible and cheaper for everyone,” said Williams. “The way I’m doing it is creating this app where you’ll be able to log in, create or join pickup games in your city in seconds.”
The app includes features such as tracking your leaderboard and stats, and leveling up your account, from 60 to 99 overall, similar to the video game NBA 2k.
While the app hasn’t officially been launched yet, with Williams pointing towards a potential release date in April, he said that the app will be launched in popular cities based on a voting phase. Cities that reach 25 votes will become an official city at the launch. So far, the app has received votes from over 140 cities in 40 countries.
“The goal is [to connect] every city in the world, every town, where there’s basketball players. I want people to be able to use this to just create the easiest way to be able to get out there and make friends and play the beautiful game of basketball,” Williams said.
According to Williams, the idea for the app first came into play last September, and along with his close friend Patrick Kilfoil, who plays Division ll basketball for St. Martins University, they set out to make their idea a reality. Developing the game themselves, they used AI models within the app to generate cities, courts and games.
Kilfoil said, “We’re just gonna have people with one click of a button, get to play against people with your same skill level…you get to play against people who care about the sport as much as you…If I play Division ll basketball, I’m gonna relate more to another Division ll basketball player than I am to someone that’s never touched a basketball before.”
To test out the app, Williams has held tournaments at Koret for USF students to try it out for themselves.
Jackdan Eyike, a first-year marketing major and avid hooper who won one of the tournaments, spoke about the experience. “Everyone came ready to hoop. I heard about the event through PlayR’s Instagram post, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to be a part of it,” he said. “Anytime there’s an opportunity to compete and connect with other hoopers, I’m there.”
Eyike, who’s played basketball for 12 years, has strong faith in PlayR. He explained how growing up, especially in high school, there were times where he went to the gym to try to improve his game through pickup, but often found the gym empty.
“It was frustrating not knowing if competition would be there,” he said. “If I had an app like PlayR back then, where I could see who’s running, set up competitive games ahead of time and know exactly where the action is, it would have saved so much time and made development way easier.”
First-year international business major Ibrahim Alkhatib added, “I had a blast playing in the tournament. Granted I am a basketball beginner, I still definitely see PlayR as something players can use…I love the goal of this app, I think it should have been made decades ago, and I see it going a long way.”
The app has also received a couple grants from USF. Outside of the University, it has garnered a decent amount of support, collecting 1.6k followers on all platforms. Williams and Kilfoil have also shared their app idea with several Division l college players and professionals, and even brought the idea up to Mayor Daniel Lurie, who, according to Williams, “loved it.”
To Williams, while the app is huge in promoting inclusivity in the world of basketball, the app is also a stepping stone towards a bigger goal. “Basketball is one of my greatest joys in life, and combining that with being able to travel the world, going to these different cities and spreading basketball to everyone, I want to use it as a catalyst to, later on, build courts around the world,” he said. “So when there’s neighborhoods or towns or countries that don’t have much access to actual courts, I want to be able to come in and use the funds, use the money from the app, to build those courts there.”
To learn more about the PlayR app, visit @playr_mobile on Instagram.
