Oak Harbor graduate Mike Lacey is rubbing elbows with some of the country’s best basketball players this summer. Make that trading elbows.

Lacey, a 2003 OHHS grad, is playing in the Jamal Crawford Seattle Summer Pro-Am League, a basketball curcuit formed in 1996 by then pro Doug Christie. Christie, a Seattle native, wanted to provide a competitive avenue for the city’s best high school, college and professional players to grow and continue Seattle’s illustrious basketball tradition.

Current professional player Crawford, another Seattle native, now sponsors the league.

The talent in the league is dispersed evenly with at least one current NBA player on each of the eight teams. The idea is to create competition and for the top players to set a standard of play for the others on the team.

The league includes area NBA players Crawford, Nate Robinson, Spencer Hawes, Isaiah Thomas, Tony Wroten and Lacey’s teammate Brandon Roy.

Throughout the summer other NBA stars make guest appearances. This year Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, LaMarcus Aldridge, John Wall and Brandon Jennings are slated to drop in.

The purpose of the league is to create competition and not publicity. The league’s original name was “All Hoop, No Hype.” In the past games were played at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club, but it has outgrown that venue and now plays at Seattle Pacific University’s Brougham Pavilion.

Games are generally played every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the first of several contests usually beginning at 1 p.m. The league runs through Aug. 11.

Besides playing in the pro-am league, Lacey competes for the Seattle Mountaineers, members of the American Basketball Association. ABA scouting director Randy Redwine also coaches in the Crawford league and selected Lacey for his club, the Vandals.

The Vandals, along with Roy, include former University of Washington stars Will Conroy and Mike Jensen.

Lacey, who played at Central Washington University in 2005, said, “Playing with guys like Jamal Crawford and Mike Jensen, guys I grew up watching play at Rainier Beach and the University of Washington, is kind of surreal. I have found myself at times wondering what I’m doing on the court with these guys, but after a few trips up and down the court I’m thinking more about the game than the people that I am playing with.

“The most impressive thing about playing with these guys is the way they make everyone around them better.”

The first time Lacey played with Crawford, he was “nervous and excited at the same time.”

During the game Lacey passed up a few shots, and afterward Crawford told him to “shoot the ball; you got this, don’t worry about passing it back to us.”

This surprised Lacey. He said he thought all the NBA players would want to dominate the ball; however, he found them “very humble and willing to help others succeed.”

He added, “These guys give back so much to the community of Seattle and to the state of Washington; they are always willing to take pictures and sign autographs.”

Lacey lives in the Magnolia district of Seattle and is an instructional assistant in special education at Overlake Specialty School through Overlake Hospital of Bellevue.

Lacey may live in Magnolia, but his hoop dreams are taking shape at Brougham Pavilion.