RETURNING HOME\u00a0<\/p>\n
While I was back in New York, I stopped by my\u00a0old\u00a0neighborhood and\u00a0started reflecting.\u00a0While some things had changed, others\u00a0remained\u00a0the same. I saw the same hustle and grit of a community regarded as the largest\u00a0housing project in Manhattan, with 17 buildings housing approximately 5,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One change\u00a0immediately\u00a0caught my attention. The basketball court I grew up\u00a0playing on\u00a0had been moved, and the newer court was chained shut, with no rims on the hoops.\u00a0Standing there, I\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0help but wonder what\u00a0my path\u00a0might\u00a0have looked\u00a0like\u00a0under these circumstances.\u00a0Would I have made different choices without easy access to sport? What can I do to help those coming\u00a0after\u00a0me?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those questions stayed with me. More importantly, they made me think about what responsibility I have today to help those coming\u00a0after\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That court is where my journey began, and seeing it\u00a0again\u00a0reminded me\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0power\u00a0of\u00a0sport.\u00a0It renewed my\u00a0commitment\u00a0to\u00a0support young people in communities like the one that shaped me. As I shared in my keynote, dreaming big takes patience and perseverance. But firsthand, I know what access to sport can create.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SPORT BEYOND THE COURT\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I spoke to the graduating class, I encouraged students to dream bigger than\u00a0feels\u00a0comfortable, stay patient with the process and focus on who they become along the way. As I reflect on my own journey, I realize those same lessons still apply today. While the game itself was important, the impact of sport extended far beyond the court. The lessons I learned through basketball helped shape not only who I became, but the leader I am today.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RETURNING HOME\u00a0 While I was back in New York, I stopped by my\u00a0old\u00a0neighborhood and\u00a0started reflecting.\u00a0While some things had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21254],"tags":[21290,59437,59438,21278,37043,59436],"class_list":["post-81967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adidas","tag-adidas","tag-community-impact","tag-future-leaders","tag-leadership","tag-mentorship","tag-power-of-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}