ORLANDO - About to begin his second season with the Orlando Magic, Mo Bamba knows how much his youngest fans look up to him, both literally and figuratively.
Standing at 7-foot-1 with a 7-foot-10 wingspan, one of the longest in NBA history, Bamba is on a mission to motivate children and help steer them in the right direction.
On Friday, just a few days before joining his teammates for the start of training camp, the 21-year-old showed up at Pineloch Elementary School in Orlando and surprised students with a Papa John’s pizza party for their academic achievements.
“I take it (being a role model) very seriously,” he said. “Part of the reason why I wanted to do this is because no one’s ever quite done this for me and just to be able to give these kids something to remember, it means the world to me.”
Bamba, who attended the celebration with his mother, father, sister, cousin and a couple of close friends, had a blast interacting with the students during the lunch. What made the visit to the school most gratifying, he says, was seeing all the smiles on their faces.
Another person who couldn’t stop smiling all afternoon was the principal of the school, Stacey Price. Extremely proud of what the students have accomplished in the classroom to this point and how hard they have worked leading up to this unique occasion, Price was thrilled that Bamba and the Magic were there to encourage the children to stay on the right track.
“They (students) have such respect for knowing that people want them to achieve, want them to be successful, want them to work hard,” she said. “They hear from us all the time, but when they hear it from somebody else, they start to go, ‘oh, well maybe they are serious, maybe I do need to do this, and maybe I can make this happen.’ I want them to see that the deck is not stacked against you. You have the ability to have the life that you want and the life that you deserve. And I want to help them get there. It’s amazing.”
"I love our children. They are just incredible, so resilient, so full of love. This isn't just about a good foundation for education, but this is building a foundation for life," she added.
Bamba and other members of the Magic, including Community Ambassadors Nick Anderson and Bo Outlaw, were eager to come to Pineloch to cheer on the kids after finding out how much progress they have made in subjects such as English, Language Arts and Mathematics. Aside from the pizza, each student received a Magic youth basketball and a Bamba poster.
Fully committed to helping children reach their full potential, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft recently made a donation to A Gift for Teaching, a nonprofit organization that assists teachers in fulfilling classroom and school supply needs for students in Orange and Osceola counties. Through the program, 17,000 students from 287 public schools in Central Florida will be directly impacted. Earlier this month, Bamba provided supply-filled backpacks to over 150 students in Harlem, N.Y., his hometown, as part of an ongoing educational initiative he began a year ago.
This is just the beginning, he says, of what he hopes to accomplish ultimately. Bamba, determined to lift even more children’s spirits, has plans on visiting other schools in the future and he encourages students, teachers, and parents to engage with him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at @TheRealMoBamba to discuss additional collaboration ideas.
“I’m sure it is very motivating for them but at the same time it’s super motivating for myself,” he said. “One, it makes me want to do more things like this and two, it makes me want to achieve excellence on the court so that I will have this platform to be able to do something meaningful for them.”