So you are a former US SB basketball star . You're also a philanthropist . This is also your second book .
Um And so I , I started getting these opportunities to like , bring kids onto the hat on into the , the gym , like half time and give them a , you know , awards and give them signed jerseys . And yeah , I started doing like all this philanthropy through this university . And then , yeah , once I wrote a book , um then those events started to like kind of build and build and build to the point where it was like an everyday thing .
You're How Old Again as of yesterday . Um Again , you're a speaker , a philanthropist . Um This is your second book .
Well , yeah , I , I think uh a lot of that stems from my relationship with my friend of mine that passed away from sickle cell disease was he was someone that I watched Battle for years and never complained . Uh And he sort of had this belief in me and um I just sort of felt like I owed it to him to like , try and help others maybe don't , you know , aren't as lucky to have met someone so powerful and so inspirational . Um But I also just feel like , more simply writing books takes so long and it's such a , like a long arduous process that if you're gonna spend years of your life writing something , it should be something you're , like , really passionate about .
Um And then I actually had some um really cool opportunities while I was a player as well to go and visit like children's hospitals . And uh yeah , I mean , it , I think I like , I think I reflect on my time as a player and think about how that was the best thing I ever did , you know , is like , give back to people that are maybe going through a a are not , maybe are going through a much tougher time than any of us realize . Um And so I , I started getting these opportunities to like , bring kids onto the hat on into the , the gym , like half time and give them a , you know , awards and give them signed jerseys .
