Boris Diaw and Kenneth Faried
Planting Seeds
Spurs forward Boris Diaw explains the work he’s doing to help educate and teach basketball to young players in Senegal.
I traveled back to my father’s homeland, Senegal, for the first time in a few years to visit my family and also to host a clinic at the SEED Academy. I’ve been working with SEED for years but realized that not much was being done for young women basketball players in Senegal, so I partnered with SEED to help launch the girls school. I’m really dedicated to helping the girls in the classroom and on the court and leading the clinic was an amazing experience.
It has been great being able to support the program and help run the women’s academy. When I arrived, the girls were really happy to see me, and they were smiling a lot and wanted to show that they can do great things on the court and in the classroom. It was a short clinic but we were able to go through a lot of drills and the older girls helped me coach, which was really cool. When we first practiced in the morning, the 16-year-old girls helped me to teach the 11-, 12- and 13-year-old girls how to dribble, pass and shoot. When we came back in the afternoon, we made the drills a little harder but the girls picked it up right away. It showed them that there is always room for improvement and you can add little things to each drill to get better. It was fun to see improvement that quickly.
During my visit to Senegal, I also went to visit my father’s hometown of Mpal. He is now the mayor there, so I got a great reception when I came. I established the Babac’Ards foundation in Senegal a decade ago to help develop education, and I hadn’t been back in three or four years—being able to see how much the town and the country had changed was amazing. Coming back as the mayor’s son and an NBA Champion caused a lot of excitement and everyone was very happy to see me. The whole trip was really magical.
I captured my travels on Instagram (@diawboris) and on a physical camera. Earlier this year, I went on a safari trip and brought my camera with me and took photos of wildlife that were used for the July edition of National Geographic For Kids. Each offseason I try and get better with my camera—I have a really deep passion for photography and sharing my travels through pictures.
i'm looking forward to the game coming up. what time is it gonna be at?
Phenomenal. Boris Diaw's doing a great job at being bigger than just a pro basketball player. People like him make the world a better place.
Diaw: Grayest NBA player of all-time?
Boris is the best, tbh.
Damn if the Spurs got Diaw earlier in his prime..
He'd be on some other team with a max contract.
I don't think so. The player that he reminds me most of is Brian Williams/Bison Dele', minus the depression. They were both very focused outside of basketball. For most players, basketball literally IS their life, and they're lost and adrift when their career ends. Boris seems to want enough money to support his outside interests, and support a retirement. He's going to be the happiest 70 YO you'll ever see.
What an awesome human being
Why do we have so many good guys???
Just not ing fair
I am absolutely sure God would root for the Spurs had Manu not turned his back on him.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)