Not too long ago, Thunder guard Dion Waiters was cheering on youngsters performing agility ladder drills and sweat-inducing burpees at the cardio station during his last visit.
This time, Waiters brought his positive presence complemented by an easygoing countenance to the skills station as anxious middle schoolers lined up in position at the elbows on the court. One by one, participants dribbled their way around cones like weaving through traffic to find the gratifying sight of the ball simply going through the net.
The drill continued until the next whistle summoned another group.
Waiters along with Anthony Morrow and Josh Huestis made a stop to the Thunder Fit clinic, presented by Homeland, and met up with 65 surprised students from Hefner Middle School on Thursday as part of NBA FIT Week.
For Waiters, cultivating basketball skills would lay the foundation for an active and healthy lifestyle.
“This is where it really starts at. Getting the fundamentals down first,” Waiters said. “They have an advantage to get a kickstart like this. They have an opportunity to start working on their game now.”
Holding court at the nutrition station, Morrow dispensed advice on developing healthy eating habits while navigating the visuals on the large MyPlate display board in hand. Afterwards, the sharpshooting forward clapped and barked words of encouragement during an activity that tested the participants’ food group knowledge through a relay race.
"Nutrition and health wise, it's important for kids just to know the basics, the food groups, got to get 60 minutes and work out every single day and just little things like that,” Morrow said. “A lot of them already do that, so I was impressed.”
Serving as de facto scorekeeper and shooting advisor, Huestis was in the middle of a frenetic shooting game pitting two competitive teams in a race to six made baskets. His station gave participants the chance to hone their shooting form while stoking competition and fostering esprit de corps.
Looking on, Huestis already saw the strides made with this group. Working together towards improvement was a key development as groups rotate through the different stations.
“I can already see they’re getting a lot better since they started here,” Huestis said.
The clinic gave the students an extraordinary experience to learn about viable long-term living habits with help from the trio of Waiters, Morrow and Huestis. Moreover, the activities involved reinforced NBA FIT’s key pillars: ‘Be Active, Eat Healthy and Play Together.’
“It’s an incredible experience because some of these kids will never have an opportunity to even see the Thunder players, much less get to be with them, play with them and then have healthy things taught to them as well,” Hefner Middle School Principal Toye Mitchell said.
“Days like today with our kids can change their lives,” Mitchell added. “Give them a future. Give them some hope. That’s what we want for all of our kids.”
Watch: Waiters, Morrow and Huestis Lead a Thunder Fit Clinic as part of NBA FIT Week