Editor’s note: Nuggets center Marcus Camby has been writing a diary for The Denver Post while in Johannesburg, South Africa, this weekend with the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders group. The program is designed not only to identify young basketball talent in Africa but features community outreach initiatives that include building reading centers and organizing forums to discuss issues such as the impact of poverty and HIV/AIDS prevention.
(Sunday) was the last day of the camp, and it was mainly basketball. We didn’t have any community events to go to.
We had our championship game, with two of the 10 or so teams winning the most games advancing to the final. We also had two sets of all-star games and a dunk contest. We got guys excited about that. And then we had a big, big barbecue on the soccer field for a final goodbye, an exclamation point of the whole week.
It’s kind of sad, like when you go to camp as a little kid, and have to leave. All these kids seem like brothers to me. No telling when I’ll see these guys again.
But I might see a select few some day in the NBA. A lot of these players have great potential, going on to college to further their education. Some of these guys are really raw. Some NBA scouts literally picked them off the street. Some of these guys are fishermen, and have never played basketball in their life. Each day you could see them get better and better. A lot of these guys never had tennis shoes before, especially the guys with size-22 feet. One player had a size-22 foot but was cramped into a size-16 shoe.
When I came back to the hotel, I was barefoot. I gave everything I had to these kids, including my shirt. They were living pretty good in the hotel, but now they have to go home to poverty.
I leave (tonight), after I see Nelson Mandela. Everybody is excited about that. He’s 87 years old and not in such good health, but the NBA has allowed us to spend like 25 minutes with him. That’s like the icing for me, to go see Nelson Mandela.
But it’s already been the best trip I’ve ever been on in my life. I encourage every NBA player to come and do this. A lot of people over here want to see NBA players. We have a lot of support over here and these people need our help.
