LAHAINA, Hawaii — At halftime of the Maui Invitational semifinal between national powerhouses North Carolina and Auburn on Tuesday night, musician Steve Grimes took the court with his guitar.
The roughly 2,400 souls packed into the Lahaina Civic Center were rapt as Grimes spoke about the 102 lives lost, thousands of homes and structures ruined, and 20,000 trees destroyed in the Aug. 8, 2023 wildfires. He then sang “Lahaina Town,” a song that he was inspired to write in its aftermath.
[Note: See below for more photos of the Maui Invitational and scenes of Lahaina during Maui Invitational week.]
Amid a raucous, high-level athletic event, it was a somber reminder of the tragedy that took place mere yards away along either side of Honoapiilani Highway.
Tournament organizers heralded the return of a nationally prominent event like the Maui Invitational as an important step toward normalcy for the Lahaina community.
Tournament officials told Spectrum News that the event was expected to bring an economic impact of upward of $22 million from more than 6,000 people coming to Hawaii specifically for the tournament.
It brought several surprises for a national TV audience. No. 4 Auburn looked the part of a national title contender over three days and beat Memphis 90-76 in the championship game. Meanwhile, two-time defending national champion UConn went 0-3 as the No. 2 team in the country, stunning onlookers near and far.
But how did community members themselves feel about its return 15 months removed from tragedy?
In interviews conducted by Spectrum News in Lahaina and Kaanapali throughout the tournament, the answer ranged from tepid approval with caveats to full-throated support.
Two prominent sports figures of Lahaina, Lahainaluna football co-head coach Dean Rickard and waterman Archie Kalepa, said many locals were wary of the influx of thousands of visitors at a still-fragile stage of the recovery process.
Some homes are still being rebuilt, but many other lots are still barren with gravel poured over where the base of structures used to exist. Many of the homes that are still standing are uninhabitable because of toxins from the fires.
However, Rickard and Kalepa understood the tournament’s return to be important to many.
“We need to get back to seeing a sense of normalcy,” said Kalepa, who was part of the Maui surfing community (whose members received an ESPY Award for their efforts to bring supplies in from the harbor in the early days after the fires).
“You know, having this basketball tournament there has been a good thing,” Kalepa said. “It’s great for the economy, for the hotels, because the hotels have done so much to help the community (with temporary lodging for displaced residents). This might be a way for them to recoup, for this short period of time, some of the economic loss that they put forward to help our community.
“But on the same note, we feel like, ‘oh wow, here we go, we’re being invaded again.’ And it’s just feelings that we go through, for people who lost everything — lost our community, lost our homes.”
Increased traffic during Maui Invitational week was an annual norm that local residents were used to. Kalepa was hopeful that increased sensitivity from visitors would offset the uptick.
As various Lahaina burn zones have reopened to local traffic in the months before the tournament, families had been quick to point out instances of tourists roaming through their blocks, Rickard said.
Rickard said he noticed a roughly even split, 50-50, among Lahaina people he'd seen voice opinions on the subject.
“I’m glad it’s back but at the same time there’s a lot of people that aren’t,” Rickard said. “I’m one of those guys who see the importance of it returning, but at the same time understand the mentality of the resident community might be a little too early, too soon. There’s a mixed feeling, because a lot of the Lahaina residents depend on tourism dollars, and attracting big events and working out at the hotels. They really want this thing to come back because that’s what’s been putting money in their pockets and food on the table. They welcome it.
“And then of course on the other side, you have those who feel it might be too soon. They don’t want the tourists coming here and treat it as an opportunity to gawk at what happened.”
The crowds lived up to expectations with packed stands for nearly every game of the tournament. With historic lodging venues in Lahaina town like the Pioneer Inn lost to the fires, fans, media and other support staff were quartered almost exclusively in hotels along Kaanapali Parkway, north of Lahaina proper, with many shuttling to and from the arena via tour bus instead of driving a rental vehicle.
Kalepa, who lives on the Leaali‘i Hawaiian homestead lands adjacent to the Lahaina Civic Center, said during the tournament that he had not noticed fans encroaching on the neighborhood.
Dana Anderson, a Maui firefighter for 16 years and longtime basketball fan from Makawao, has for years attended the Maui Invitational annually — including last year when it was played at the Stan Sheriff Center on Oahu because of the recent fires.
He has been stationed at the Lahaina firehouse the last few years, right outside of the Civic Center.
Anderson was expecting it to return this year, especially after federal relief authorities relinquished use of the Civic Center in late summer.
“They weren’t really using the facility, so I was kind of surprised how fast (tournament officials) got everything going up, since I work right here,” he said. “They only started bringing everything in for the past couple weeks.”
As he spoke in one corner of the Civic Center between games on Monday, he looked out at the hardwood where the likes of Anthony Edwards, Zion Williamson, Rui Hachimura, Kemba Walker and many other soon-to-be NBA pros have competed.
“It’s baby steps, still healing. Our community, the little things matter,” Anderson said. “See things get back to normal. I hope it’s a big boost in the economy. I see some people who normally come here for these events are showing up.”
The tournament brought back Maui entertainers to perform cultural dances and music during halftimes of games, a longstanding tradition.
A local youth basketball team was recognized and a Lahaina-based vendor that hand-crafts lei in color schemes of the various visiting teams was back in business, albeit under new leadership as its longtime operator was preoccupied making repairs on his damaged home.
Overlapping with most of the Maui Invitational dates, Pop-Up Makeke put on a “Lahaina Festival” at the Royal Lahaina Resort in Kaanapali, featuring local vendors, food and music, hoping to attract locals and tourists alike.
One merchant was Jade Rickard, a Lahaina native and the 24-year-old owner of Moreamore Jewels. The 24-year-old lost her location of business during the fires and insurance has not covered everything, she said.
“I honestly gave up for maybe a year,” said Rickard, of no direct relation to Dean Rickard. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get back out there again, because it’s so hard as a small business to get your foot in the door after you lost everything. But these little pop-up events … it makes it fun for all of us, to see all the tourists come back and meet everybody again. I really do enjoy it a lot.”
She said she’d seen an uptick in crowds at restaurants with the Maui Invitational in town, but had not noticed much additional foot traffic to her business.
“Things take time,” Rickard said.
Johnny Lingao, the Maui Humane Society’s wildfire community liaison, manned a booth on the last day of the Lahaina Festival on Tuesday. For the last year-plus, Lingao has managed the MHS’s Lahaina facility to provide a veterinarian presence on in West Maui since two such locations were lost in the fires.
He said the way tourism has returned in balance with recovery efforts has encouraged him.
“I feel like everyone’s doing their best to complement both, because yes, there is a lot of development, rebuild, cleanup and recovery that needs to happen,” Lingao said. “But also too, there’s folks that live elsewhere that still want to support Maui as best they can. So, moments like the Maui Invitational and Lahaina Festival kind of brings everyone to this environment, ecosystem to support each other.
“I feel like, for the most part, everyone who comes here to visit comes here with the right attitude as far as respect and trying to not see this as a place of disaster tourism.”
Throughout the Maui Invitational, participating players said they were cognizant of the plight of Lahaina.
Memphis coach Penny Hardaway, the co-MVP of the Maui Invitational in 1992, was asked by Spectrum News to compare his experience from then and now.
“It was the same. Lahaina has always been great to all the teams coming over,” Hardaway. “They show the appreciation from the first day. They come out and they support. That's the great thing. You can tell they want this tournament back here, like after the wildfires, and that it belongs here, and that it'll be here for a lot longer. We're happy to come every time because it's such a beautiful place with beautiful people.”
As for those who put on the tournament, it was like a return to old times in Lahaina Civic — the color-coordinated sights and reverberating sounds. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the wildfires, the Maui Invitational has only been held on Maui itself two times in the last five years.
Famous hoops figures like of Michigan State legend Magic Johnson were on hand to support their teams. But one key missing presence was the late college hoops commentator Bill Walton, who passed in May. He was honored with his specially crafted chair vacant and draped in lei along press row.
Gene Honda, the longtime public address voice for the NCAA Final Four and the Maui Invitational, summed his perspective up in a sentence.
“It’s very simple: I’m thrilled to be back here in Maui, and that’s all I need to say,” Honda said.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.