Read the full story on SportsLook - [ODDS and EVENS] Dwayne Evans Shares Love of the Game at Youth Basketball Clinic
For Dwayne Evans, the opportunity to give back, to pay it forward, involves sharing pointers about the game he loves.
Evans has been a professional basketball player since 2014. He's entering his third season with the B.League's Hiroshima Dragonflies, the reigning champions.
A few weeks before the daily grind of the regular season began, the 32-year-old American forward held a basketball clinic for local junior high school students in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture.
The event, dubbed the Quick Clinic '24, was free, thanks to Evans' generosity and time.
In an upbeat 25-minute phone conversation with Odds and Evens, the Illinois native spoke about his passion for playing basketball and the enjoyment of interaction with Japanese students on September 1.
And he wants to build off the fun and energy of the first clinic in Kure.
"The aim is to do it a few times during the year," Evans told me. "Obviously, the [B.League] schedule kind of gets hectic."
Setting up a Basketball Clinic
How did the Quick Clinic materialize?
"It was something I created on my own just because I knew obviously that I didn't have a ton of time," Evans pointed out. "But yeah I wanted to get kids in, pass on what I know and have fun in the process."
The Dragonflies were not involved in organizing or staging the recent clinic. But Evans let the team know his plans to get involved in the community in this way, and he said the team was happy he committed to staging the clinic.
One of Evans' friends, AJ Koikoi, who works in international relations for the United Nations in Hiroshima, helped out, spreading the word about the clinic to local junior-high school coaches and traveling teams' coaches.
"There were some skilled kids in the camp, and I had a good time," Evans said.
What's in a Name?
Like me, you may be wondering why Dwayne Evans decided to launch the first of his Hiroshima Prefecture events with the name Quick Clinic.
Here's his explanation: "Because a lot of the things I was teaching in the camp [are] how to be faster, how to make quick moves on the court."
Initial talks about the idea for a clinic began between Evans and Koikoi during the B.League playoffs in May.
An estimated 30-35 students, both boys and girls, participated in the clinic on September 1. Six staff members were also involved in the day's basketball camp.
More than 2½ hours of basketball activities took place, followed by Evans handing out autographed mementos to the students. The students and staff also posed for photographs after the clinic.
A focus of the clinic was just "trying to teach them some of the things that help me out on the court, some of my [best] moves that kind of help give me an advantage on the court."
Continue reading the full story on SportsLook.
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Author: Ed Odeven
Find Ed on JAPAN Forward's dedicated website, SportsLook. Follow his [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.
