The clap starts like it has for decades now, in the perfect rhythm for a basketball devotee to trot from the sideline to the starting lineup at center court. This center court is the old Catholic high school Mackin in Washington, D.C., down a residential street near Dupont Circle.

For 44 years, these same players, most from the Georgetown University Law Center's class of 1977, have celebrated this opening day. Nearly all of them still practicing attorneys, the players have held some of the most significant jobs around town. When 9 a.m. on Saturday rolls around from September to late July, they play for two hours, as hard as they work.