L.A.'s Little Tokyo Looks to Basketball to Revive a Community, With Help From the Lakers

Relatively few Japanese-Americans live in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles these days. Over the years, younger generations have moved out and gentrification has moved in.

But there's an effort underway to attract Japanese-Americans and rebuild a community that has watched the demise of other ethnic enclaves in Los Angeles.

The effort centers on the building of a recreational center called the Budokan of Los Angeles that draws on the community's long-standing sports leagues. Spawned during the World War II internment of about 115,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans, these leagues helped ease the difficult lives of the internees.

Of all the sports, basketball stuck. If you grew up Japanese-American in Southern California, there's a good chance you played in a league, or know someone who did.

One important gift that has spurred the community's decades-long fundraising effort came from the Los Angeles Lakers. Packed away in a Torrance warehouse is old basketball court flooring for the planned gym, donated in 2014 from the Staples Center, where champions like Kobe Bryant have played.

Read the full story via KPCC