Most of the time, Levelle Moton is as humble and soft-spoken as a former basketball star can be. Ask him about the basketball league some friends and he started this year, though, and he is uncharacteristically proud.

Did you know, I asked him Monday, that your league would be this successful so fast?

"In all modesty, yes," he said as we sat at the scorer's table screaming, trying to be heard above the roar caused by one spectacular dunk or net-swishing shot after another.

Moton, the assistant men's basketball coach at his alma mater, N.C. Central University, started the league with some friends. Former UNC Tar Heels star Jerry Stackhouse and boyhood pals Chuck Jones and Donyell Bryant, a trio Moton referred to as "the Kinston boys," were his partners.

The league, the SJG Greater North Carolina Pro-Am, finished its inaugural season at NCCU's McDougald-McLendon Gymnasium this week.

The competition throughout the summer was, in a word, fierce, although Monday's championship game was anti-climactic after Team Noel -- led by former UNC Tar Heel star David Noel -- jumped out to an early double-digit lead and never lost it. The crowd, though, seemed more interested in exciting plays than the final score, anyway.

"If you have quality basketball, people will come from 100 miles away," Moton said. "Then, when you add the word 'free,' yeah, we thought it would take off."

For the past several years, the Chavis League at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh was the only place to see high-level, organized basketball during the summer. That's where college stars and high school hotshots try to make a name for themselves playing with and against area professional players twice a week in games with referees and bleachers full of fans.

Despite the hundreds of appreciative fans who came out to McDougald-McLendon twice a week, Moton said the motive for starting the league was not solely to provide entertainment. Part of the reason for it, he said, "was a matter of a lot of NBA players coming home and wanting to have some quality competition before they go back to training camp." Pro players from around the NBA have been coming to Durham for years to be trained by Moton.

Several pro players suited up, as well as players from Duke, UNC and N.C. State. Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe would have no doubt gazed longingly at the frontcourt of the team that included present Pack star Brandon Costner and former standouts Josh Powell and Marcus Melvin.

The nascent summer league was not just about hoops, though, said Moton, who is NCCU's third all-time leading scorer. "This is important for the school. It's something to bring the school and the community together."

That it did. It also brought out some politicians. Trying to keep one away from a microphone in a gymnasium full of potential voters is as difficult as keeping Shammond Williams, another former Tar Heel who played, from hoisting one of his long-range jumpers. State Rep. Larry Hall couldn't resist the temptation: He issued a proclamation thanking Stackhouse, Moton, Bryant and Jones for their effort.

Just before the championship game, Mayor Bill Bell -- see, I told you -- addressed the crowd. "Good things have been happening in Durham. This is one of the good things."

The crowd roared in agreement.