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The Homecoming Event

Ja Morant's path to NBA stardom began on a ten-by-ten concrete pad in rural South Carolina—a slab so removed from the usual pipeline that he was lightly recruited and largely overlooked by major programs. That overlooked origin story became the throughline for this past weekend's Nike and Hibbett activation in Sumter: Don't Sleep on Sumter.

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The rollout unfolded across three distinct moments, each reinforcing the narrative that this wasn't merely a shoe launch but a community investment.

Friday: Pep Rally and First String Announcement

Crestwood High School, Ja's alma mater, hosted the weekend's opening ceremony during the football team's season opener. The event featured the marching band, dancers, and a live DJ—standard high school spectacle elevated. The moment that signaled intent came when the football team took the court wearing the unreleased Nike Ja Twelve Time, a $90 silhouette that won't hit broader retail for another month.

That evening, standing beside Hibbett leadership just before kickoff, Ja announced Crestwood's entry into Hibbett's First String program—a partnership that includes $50,000 in direct donations to boys and girls basketball programs, scholarship opportunities for players, and career pathways at Hibbett corporate. This was the weekend's substantive news: not a celebrity appearance, but a capital commitment.

Saturday: The Exclusive Drop

Saturday morning, the Hibbett location in downtown Sumter converted its front section into a dedicated Ja Morant shop. Inventory included the Ja 4 "Dark Mode"—widely considered the strongest colorway of the Ja 4 line to date—alongside the Ja Twelve Time and earlier iterations of the Ja 3. Both releases arrived a full month before their nationwide availability, making this small-town retail location the only access point.

The storefront itself carried symbolic weight. Every Hibbett maintains three brand logos; this location now displays a fourth: Ja's personal mark mounted alongside the Nike Swoosh. The message was unambiguous—this is Ja's store.

That exclusivity and geographic specificity reflects Hibbett's operational philosophy. For decades, the retailer has prioritized underserved markets that larger chains ignore—small towns, overlooked zip codes, communities off the typical retail map. A major sneaker release landing first in Sumter, population under 14,000, rather than in flagship cities, is uncommon enough to signal genuine commitment rather than marketing theater.

Sunday: The Court Dedication

The weekend culminated at the source—the backyard in nearby Dalzell where Tee Morant, Ja's father, had planted a basketball hoop on that original concrete pad decades earlier. Nike and Hibbett had refurbished the court into a full regulation surface, complete with a center-court Ja logo and branded sideline markings.

Tee stood at center court with Ja and his granddaughter Kaari and recounted the origin: a Kmart hoop, a ten-by-ten pad, and a vision to teach his children the game away from formal circuits. The emotional arc—from concrete foundation to now-official court—gave the weekend its narrative anchor. By afternoon, dozens of local kids were running pickup games on the refurbished surface.

Design and Release Details

The Ja 4 "Dark Mode" continues the trajectory of Ja Morant's signature line with a darker, more refined execution than earlier colorways. The Ja Twelve Time, priced at $90, positions itself as an accessible entry point within Nike's basketball ecosystem.

Both silhouettes are currently available only at Hibbett's Sumter location, with nationwide release scheduled for one month out. This staggered retail strategy—early access in the athlete's hometown—has become a Hibbett hallmark, following a similar A'ja Wilson activation in Atlanta earlier this year.

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Private pilots call it “the $100 hamburger” — flying to another airport, grabbing a quick meal and then flying back. Pilots do this for fun or to log more hours in the air to get advanced licenses. But as the saying implies, the meal trips can be expensive given fuel, plane rental fees and other costs.

It’s unclear whether a hamburger was involved, but one Tuesday morning last March, Sumter County Sheriff’s Capt. Chris Moore flew the department’s Cessna 172 to Wilmington, N.C., flight records show. On social media, he posted a photo of a cloudy beach from the Oceanic, a restaurant at Wrightsville Beach, with the comment, “Little chilly.” That afternoon, he flew back to Sumter.

It wasn’t the only time Moore flew beyond Sumter County’s boundaries in the department’s plane.

On Saturday, June 27, air traffic controllers can be heard on public radio transmissions guiding Moore and the Sumter sheriff’s plane into Cape Fear Regional Jetport near the North Carolina coastal towns of Southport and Oak Island.

Moore’s wife soon posted on Facebook that he had flown her and their son to the Cape Fear area. She described how the approach “took us out 11 miles over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of NC before we moved inland for the landing!” Her post said that a tailwind helped make the trip a speedy 50 minutes instead of the three hours it would take in a car. She included aerial photos and the hashtags #Cessna172 and #pilotwife. “What a great quick trip, just to go grab breakfast!”

Such a trip also could fly into murky ethical airspace.

South Carolina law prohibits public officials and employees from using their government positions to obtain an economic benefit for themselves, relatives or associated businesses. In a 2019 case, the state Ethics Commission cited an Upstate fire and rescue employee for using a department SUV for a Disney World vacation in Florida even though she had permission to use the vehicle. The commission issued a public reprimand and a $2,450 fine.

In response to The Post and Courier’s findings, Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis said he temporarily suspended use of the plane until he better understands the procedures for passengers and costs for two of Moore’s trips. He said he plans to ask Moore to reimburse the department for those flights.

At least eight S.C. law enforcement agencies have helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft, including the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. The agency bought its Cessna in 2013 with drug seizure money, and its aviation unit has two active pilots: Sgt. Fred Moore, a reserve deputy who has been chief pilot for more than a decade, and Capt. Chris Moore, who runs the patrol division and used the plane extensively to learn how to fly. They are not related.

In an interview, agency officials said they used the Cessna for prisoner transfers, surveillance and search-and-rescue missions. But flight logs show that the plane was used about 85 percent of the time for lessons and training.

“It's a dangerous activity if you don't stay trained up in it,” Chief Pilot Fred Moore said. “So we do a lot of training related to the aircraft.”

During the interviews, Fred Moore, the more experienced pilot, answered most of The Post and Courier’s questions, including ones about his colleague, Chris Moore. Sheriff Dennis said he’d flown in the plane only once, and that was years ago.

To get a basic pilot’s license, students must do “cross-country” flights of more than 50 miles. The plane’s flight log shows the March trip to Wilmington was done for that cross-country requirement. As for Chris Moore’s social media post from the beachside restaurant, “I think he was eating lunch,” Fred Moore said.

The cross-country requirement means pilots must go beyond the county’s boundaries, he added. “It’s pretty much your option where you pick your long cross country. So I would say the reason for picking something like that would be that it's more beautiful there than it would be in, say, Valdosta, Georgia.”

An invoice from Sumter Aviation to the department showed 4.5 hours of instructional training that day at a cost of $225 for flight instruction.

The June trip to Cape Fear was listed on flight logs as “Autopilot Test/Training/Instrument.” The log did not identify any passengers. Fred Moore said the department typically identifies only crew and prisoners and not other passengers. He said he wasn’t aware of the Facebook post that mentioned Chris Moore’s family members being aboard and that the trip was “just to grab breakfast!” An invoice shows the Sheriff’s Office was billed $175 for aviation fuel that day.

A pilot’s license and access to a plane are valuable commodities. Renting a Cessna 172 can run between $155 and $200 per flight hour, according to rates advertised by South Carolina flight schools. It costs upwards of $10,000 to get a basic license and an additional $10,000 or more to fly under instrument flight rules, which allow pilots to fly in clouds and poor visibility. Commercial licenses take even more time and money but can lead to lucrative careers.

Pilot’s licenses are costly in time as well. For a basic license, the Federal Aviation Administration requires pilots to log at least 40 hours of flight time. Records obtained by The Post and Courier show the Sumter sheriff’s plane was used heavily by Chris Moore for training and lessons. Public tracking sites show the plane flying just a handful of times in 2024. But in 2025 and 2026, the department used the plane roughly six times a month on average. Records show Chris Moore spent more than 130 hours with instructors, and these training costs exceeded $5,800.

Chris Moore has been recognized for his work ethic and approach to policing. In 2024, The Sumter Item gave Moore its “Best Law Enforcement Officer” honor in its Best of Sumter honors. In a profile, Moore told The Item that he’d long seen himself as "a big traffic enforcement guy.” He said he valued people who were dedicated to law enforcement work and didn’t make excuses. “Not saying you should come to work when you're extremely ill,” he was quoted as saying. “But sometimes, you take the needs of the office over some of your personal stuff.”

Beyond the instruction and training, several other flights went beyond Sumter County boundaries, including one last September to Ellijay, Ga., which is about an hour and a half north of Atlanta. Additional flights took the plane to Pickens County and Sarasota, Fla. Fred Moore said all three of those trips were to pick up prisoners and transport them to Sumter.

Last April, the sheriff’s plane became more difficult to follow when the agency requested that its tail number be removed from public tracking sites. Other law enforcement agencies, including the State Law Enforcement Division, S.C. Department of Natural Resources and Richland County Sheriff’s Office, don’t block flight path histories on many of their aircraft.

Fred Moore said the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office should have blocked the tail number “long before we did it. But in the interest of transparency, we did it because people were monitoring law enforcement activities.”

The department blocked the tail number at about the same time several posts about the plane surfaced on Sumter community Facebook pages. Moore said the decision to block the tail number wasn’t related. “We don’t respond to social media.”

But the plane surfaced in social media channels a month after the department blocked its tail number. On June 10, the Cessna 172 left Sumter and flew to Manning. Though it didn’t have a tail number, flight tracking data showed an unidentified Cessna 172 landing in Manning and flying over Lake Marion. The log book for the sheriff’s plane listed its mission as “Training/Flight Maneuvers/Landings.” No passengers were identified. The Sheriff’s Office was charged $96.21 for fuel, records show.

In a Facebook post, Chris Moore’s father had this explanation:

“Special treat today! I got to go flying with my son and youngest grandson,” the post said. A photo showed the three of them in the plane, smiling, with the interior matching the sheriff’s plane. “I had a great time,” the post continued. “We flew in a Cessna 172 over my house and around Lake Marion. He picked me up at the Manning airport after flying from Sumter. I was too busy watching than (sic) to take many pictures but did get a short video approaching Manning and the landing. Can’t wait to do it again.”

Twenty-five dealers from South Carolina and North Carolina will gather at this year's 2026 Annual Sumter Coin and Currency Show sharing 56 tables on Aug. 28-29. Sumter Coin Club is excited to present this free show to the public featuring rare United States and world coins, paper money, silver and gold bullion, tokens and medals, hobby supplies and books, and other fascinating collectible items. Attendees may bring their own items for appraisals as dealers will be there to buy, sell and/or trade. Organizers are expecting 700 or more attendees from across S.C. and the entire Southeast.

The show will highlight an ANACS Grading & Authentication Services table for convenient on-site submissions. The American Numismatic Association will have a district representative table, along with a table for the South Carolina Numismatic Association & Midlands Coin Club (Columbia) and a table for the Camden Coin Club. A Scouting coin collecting merit badge clinic is planned for Saturday at 10 a.m. with prior registration by contacting midlandscoinclub@gmail.com.

This record-breaking historic event will take place Friday and Saturday, Aug. 28 and 29, at the spacious and beautiful Saint Mark Banquet and Conference Center at 2320 Four Bridges Road just 2 miles north of Broad Street off Camden Highway (Hwy. 521) or from points west off Stamey Livestock Road. Friday hours will be 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday hours will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Attendance is free with required event registration just inside the main entrance; uniformed security will be on site during the entire event. Parking is free and plentiful. Free hourly attendance door prizes will be presented to winning registered guests. This event has enjoyed extensive national advertising in numismatic publications and websites for the past six months.

The nonprofit Sumter Coin Club has 115 members and averages 52 members at every monthly meeting. They meet at Sumter's gorgeous Patriot Park Pavilion, 380 General Drive, every third Tuesday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. All ages are welcome, with a "YN Roundtable Meeting" ("Young Numismatists") from 6:30 to 6:50 for ages 6-17. No experience is necessary, and visitors are welcome to attend the family friendly meetings. For more information, see the active Sumter Coin Club Facebook page or contact SumterCoinClub@gmail.com, or visit www.sumtercoinclub.org.