NBA champion Marreese Speights. Photo: Jr NBA Indonesia
A very lucky group of of aspiring basketball players in Jakarta got a big opportunity from a big guy with a big heart yesterday. Specifically, the kids got to attend a basketball coaching clinic led by Marreese Speights, a player for Golden State Warriors – the team that recently won the 2015 NBA champions.
Speights, along with Junior NBA head coach Chris Sumner, worked with a group of 55 elementary and junior high school age kids from the Yayasan Dompet Dhuafa foundation and the Panti Asuhan Desa Putra orphanage who were chosen to be part of the Jr NBA Indonesia National Training Camp.
“I am happy to train them. Many of these children dream of being able to win a basketball championship and this program can help them realize their dreams,” Speights said, as quoted by Antara.
During the practice session, Speights and Sumner worked to teach the kids about basketball fundamentals like dribbling, passing and shooting. As you can see from the photos, the kids seemed to really get into it.
Speights and Sumner are in Jakarta as part of the NBA Cares program, which brings NBA players and coaches to underprivileged school kids throughout the world in the hopes of inspiring them to follow their dreams. They will be conducting more training sessions before leaving Jakarta on Sunday.
