Los Angeles Lakers rookie forward Kyle Kuzma has burst onto the scene this year and despite some recent struggles, remains the team’s leading scorer at 16.4 points per game. Kuzma also has passions outside of the game of basketball and a big one for him involves his hometown of Flint, Mich.
Flint is a city struggling right now with violence and a water contamination crisis that has been ongoing since 2014. Regardless, it was the work he put in there that helped Kuzma become the player he is today.
Now that he has made it to the big stage of the NBA, Kuzma shared his plans to continue to give back to his hometown, via Joey Ramirez of Lakers.com:
But he also has big ideas for the future of Flint, saying he wants to go “the whole nine” with children’s basketball camps, community events and youth programs.
“I’ll always be back there,” Kuzma said. “They always say you never forget where you came from. For me, that holds dear because I love my city.
“I want to be a positive figure in my city for years and years to come. I don’t want to be one of those guys that talks about their city and then all of a sudden forgets about it. I don’t want to be that type of guy.”
This shows the type of person Kuzma is and how important it is to him to lift up his city. Especially when it’s a city like Flint, that is struggling with so many issues right now.
Kuzma going back there and holding camps and community events would be huge for the children of that city and motivate them to rise above their surroundings. It is obviously important for Kuzma to be a role model and that’s part of the reason he is a cornerstone of this Lakers team.
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