NBA star fights obesity one court at a time

Published 3:45 pm Monday, October 5, 2015

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — In the area surrounding an elementary school in Oklahoma City, there are two basketball courts. One is situated in the middle of an area park where there is only one basketball goal, no net, no lights and it’s in a high crime area.

The other court is located on the school’s grounds. It’s also in pretty bad shape. The court is sunken in the middle so water collects when it rains.

When Kevin Durant was young, he grew up playing on those same types of courts in Washington, D.C. Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder want kids around the country to have the same opportunities he did.

“I just wanted to teach these kids how I was brought up and the values I learned from being outdoors,” Durant said. 

The former NBA MVP donated a new basketball court to North Highland Elementary School Monday in part to get kids off the couch and back into a healthy lifestyle.

“One day I was just reminiscing and I felt that being outdoors molded me into the person I am, the player I am,” Durant said. “And I wanted everybody to feel the same way I felt.”

North Highland is the second school to be part of Durant’s Build It and They Will Ball Courts Renovation Initiative. It’s the first in the United State to get the refurbished courts bearing Durant’s name.

Even before the new court arrived North Highland Park principal Anita Jones said the school’s old court was open 24-7 and provided the community’s youth a place to be active. That will not change. 

“At 5 p.m. every day, you can hear the ball bouncing, you can hear the kids come into the court and they play until the sun goes down,” Jones said. “It’s a place for them to come and be safe and to play.”

Jones said Durant’s passion to refurbish and build new courts is due to the way he was raised.

“Kevin said this community is a lot like the community he grew up in,” Jones said. “A lot of single parents, high poverty area. And he wanted to give back and he wanted the kids to know that he cares. It’s so important when you have celebrities and you have those people that are there that will reach back and try to pull somebody else up.”

The goal of the initiative is to increase the number of high quality basketball courts accessible to underprivileged youth across the United States and internationally.

“It’s organic I think,” Durant said. “We didn’t always have access to a gym. There were basketball courts on every corner when we were kids. With the level of technology now-a-days, we’re starting to shy away from that.”

The statistics support Durant’s concerns about the growing lack of youth involvement in outdoor activities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity affects about 12.7 million children under the age of 19. The rates tend to be especially higher in low-income households.

That is why Jones was especially grateful for Durant’s donation. With her school being located in a high poverty area, any help getting kids to want to be outdoors and playing is appreciated.

“I think it is very important,” Jones said. “We live in a society now where a lot of students that suffer from obesity and juvenile diabetes because they don’t have those interactive skills. They are not active. They are couch potatoes. So this is a way for them to come out, get involved and be active and just have fun and be kids again.”

According to the Food research and action Center, more than 30 percent of low-income preschoolers are overweight or obese. Even though it’s a small step, Durant wants to try and curb those numbers with something simple like providing kids a place to play.

“Living an active lifestyle, I think that’s something as a community, we’ve gotten away from,” Durant said. “Just having this opportunity to refurbish an outdoor court means a lot to me. I think something like this, even though it’s on a small scale, it can help for years and years to come.”