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Mr. Vegas and His Pops
By JORDAN IKEDA
RAFU STAFF WRITER
Friday, March 13, 2009
Gerald Morita and his father are the main men behind the Las Vegas Invitational Basketball Tourney.
JORDAN IKEDA/Rafu Shimpo
From left, Members of Hoops for Friends, Brad Onomura, Robin Kobata, Frank Nishimura and Janice Jinkawa and Gerald Morita stand in front of the Buddha at the California Hotel in Las Vegas.
When you think of Vegas, you think gambling and casinos. You think over-the-top shows. You think scantily clad or completely unclad, er, performers. You think lights and smoke and music and glitter.
If you’re Japanese American, you probably also think basketball.
And if you’re thinking Vegas and basketball, the man to get to know is Gerald Morita. Morita is a key member of Hoops for Friends the Southern-California-based, non-profit group that is responsible for organizing one of the largest Japanese/Asian American hoops tournaments out there, the annual Las Vegas Invitational.
Morita won’t strike you as Mr. Vegas. He doesn’t dress Vegas. No Rolex. Just a sportswatch. He’s not incredibly tall. Maybe 5’8. He doesn’t have a booming play-by-play voice. Just a calming, nasally, self-deprecating tone. He’s a sports junkie, a baseball junkie really, who squatted behind home plate for 30 plus years, refereed high school hoops for 20, continues to collect sports memorabilia and bleeds Dodger blue.
Okay, so he ain’t no Danny Gans. Hell, he ain’t even Carrot Top, but make no mistake about it, without him, a whole bunch of ballers would miss out on their annual opportunity to play their favorite sport during the day and gamble and drink and party Vegas-style at night.
“I think we look forward to it every year,” Robin Kobata, who works with Morita on the tournament, told the Rafu Shimpo. “Even though it’s like stressful, and you’re up all night, and trying to manage…It’s like Christmas. You think, September is a holiday for us—it’s the Vegas tournament.”
This past February, the California Hotel and Casino hosted its annual Tournament Comp weekend, a means to show its thanks and appreciation for the tournament’s participants. Four hundred rooms were made available and a banquet dinner was provided that saw over
500 people flood the Ohana room.
“This year, because of the economy, we thought they might not do it or do the dinner,” said Morita. “They treat us really well.”
The California Hotel and Casino has for the past 16 years seen to the accommodation of the 2,000 participants and spectators from California, Arizona, Utah, Hawaii, Washington, Illinois, and Massachusetts that make the trip out to Vegas each September for the tournament.
The Cal connection was one made by Morita’s father, Albert, who knows everyone from the casino’s owner, Bill Boyd, all the way down. Albert, who ran a gas station out in Los Angeles for years, is also responsible for getting his son to do the tournament in the first place.
The tournament actually started a few years before the younger Morita became involved. It was a lot smaller, maybe three divisions and 20 teams as opposed to the 25 divisions and some 200 teams the Invitational now draws. It also faced some legal issues when a kid got his head stuck in one of the gym’s bleachers causing a huge fiasco that led to gym rates going sky-high.
Morita had been playing in the tourney and his dad had been helping out, but due to the legal issues, the tournament as previously constructed had reached the end of its relatively short lifespan.
“After they had problems with that insurance thing, my dad was sitting at the bar with one of the casino managers,” said Morita who had been playing in every tourney until his knees gave out on him three years ago. “He was telling him that they can’t run it anymore because they couldn’t get the schools, couldn’t get the insurance. It just so happens that that guy’s wife worked for the school district. He said, ‘I can get you the gyms if you can get the insurance.’”
Problem one, solved.
“On the way home on that same trip,” continued Morita, “We ran into some insurance guy who said that he could get us the insurance.”
Problem two, solved.
“The next thing I know, my dad handed me all the info and told me to run the tournament,” said Morita. “That’s how it started.”
From that unlikely, dare I say lucky, genesis, the Vegas Invitational has flourished and become a staple in the Japanese American community, one in which this writer in particular has been attending since high school, since before I was legally allowed to partake in Sin City.
Because of Morita, I have been able to bond with my Arizona cousins (our team, A Bronze Forever), grow up learning the Vegas culture, and spend time with friends and family all while struggling to play the game I love.
“Really, Gerald is the tournament,” said Kobata. “Honestly, he does all of the calls to the gyms, arranging all the hotels. He does all of that.”
Of course, Morita, who has hung up his Air Jordans for a nice pair of bowling shoes, remains ever humble. “There’s got to be a good 15 to 20 people involved with the planning and production. I mean, I get all the credit for it, which is kind of not fair,” Morita said with a chuckle.
Frank Nishimura and Brad Onomura both lend their helping hands, but Morita’s two most valued assets are Kobata and Janice Jinkawa who many might recognize for her work with NAU basketball.
“Janice and Robin run everything once we get up to Vegas. There is very little I have to do unless something goes wrong,” said Morita. “I work well with them. For the past few years, things have been a lot easier for me.”
But, things haven’t always been smooth sailing. A few years ago, Morita almost quit. He used to book all the rooms with the Cal. Four years ago, he showed up to the tournament and was told that the hotel was 200 rooms overbooked and that he would need to move 200 people to other hotels.
“I told them that I’m not going to do that,” he said. “A guy on my team, we had to drive over to Stardust and pick him up and then drive back north of downtown. It was a big inconvenience.”
The next year, he wrote the general manager and told him that he appreciated everything that had been done for him, but that if the rooms were overbooked again and he was asked to move, then he wasn’t going to do the tourney anymore.
The following year it happened again.
Morita’s father once again saved the tournament. The casino’s owner, Bill Boyd called Morita’s father directly.
“Bill Boyd is a really, really down-to-earth person,” said Morita’s father. “He told me, ‘I’m very sorry. Don’t give me an answer now. I want you and your son back and I’ll step in.’”
Morita presented his conditions, Boyd agreed and then personally saw that they were met.
d“All in all, everybody is happy,” said Morita’s dad. “That’s the main thing. I enjoy what I’m doing because this helps a whole lot of people and it helps the Cal. All these young kids, they’re the future gamblers.”
The tournament will forge ahead into its 17th year this coming September with Morita and the elder Morita at the forefront.
In fact, the father and son duo represents the two different sides of Vegas.
Morita is the Strip sans the flash. He rapidly expanded the size and scope of the Invitational. He works hard to make everything run smoothly. And he brings in the young blood.
Morita’s dad?
He’s downtown. He’s got the connections. He’s oldschool. And he’s been there since the beginning. |
