PORTSMOUTH, Va. — For four days every April, the center of the basketball world is at Churchland High School in Portsmouth.
The Portsmouth Invitational Tournament brings 64 college seniors to the city from April 15 to 18. NBA teams, European scouts, agents, and media descend on the city, filling hotel rooms and spending money at local businesses.
PIT Chairman Mike Morris said the event is the biggest moment of the year for Portsmouth.
"It benefits the economy here in Portsmouth, as well as the marketing and uh notoriety that they get," Morris said. "And then just the community, the whole entire community embraces this event. It's been the event in Portsmouth for 72 years. And so the entire community embraces it."
The showcase of history dates back to 1953. What started as a local adult basketball league and all-comers tournament turned into something more. Morris said one team cheated, so others added high school teams, and then college players joined to have the best team.
"From then on, every team started to bring a college player," Morris said.
Now, the tournament is a job interview for the college seniors with more than 250 NBA scouts.
"So they’re going to have an opportunity to play, obviously," Morris said. "We did agility testing this morning, so all the NBA team will get their score from agility testing, they’ll get all their heights and weights, which is very important to them, so they want to see athleticism, how athletic they are from the agility test."
Big-name NBA players like Jimmy Butler and Dennis Rodman have come through the city for the tournament, but there are people behind the scenes who make it possible.
Pinky Gingell, PIT headquarters chairman, has been running the headquarters for almost 30 years. She drives six hours from Pennsylvania every year to be at the Renaissance Waterfront Hotel in Portsmouth.
"I have a great crew, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate them," Gingell said.
Gingell and her crew work long days getting all 64 players checked in, rooms assigned, and taken care of around the clock before the games at Churchland High School. She said Portsmouth neighbors have been amazing, and as a basketball fan, her crew is just as invested.
"The nice thing is when PIT comes around, they send me a message. Are you good with your crew? Good to go. And we, we have it down," Gingell said. "We each have what we're, you know, specialize in. Emily's great with getting them rooms assigned. Laurel just does a little bit of everything. And it's long days. There's times we don't get out of, you know, the headquarters till really late, but I know every year that I can count on them."
Ticket information is available here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
