Kevin Durant will be tasked with being a role model for the next generation of kids, especially ones part of a minority that are trying to carve up a successful life.
The Golden State Warriors‘ new addition will lend his voice to My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Success Mentors Initiative, whose launch aimed at promoting the importance of mentorship, most importantly in the minority community to try and reduce absenteeism in school.
“We’re thrilled to have Kevin Durant support this important initiative to keep kids in school and on track to success,” said Broderick Johnson, Assistant to the President and Chair of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force. “Kevin is an incredible role model, whose reach extends from kids of all ages who follow his every move on the court, to adults who admire his hard work and perseverance. Kevin’s personal journey is emblematic of the transformative power that a mentor can have on a young person’s life. That power to change a kid’s life is at the core of My Brother’s Keeper.”
This campaign is a part of My Brother’s Keeper initiative, which the White House launched back in 2014.
Earlier in the year, his teammate Stephen Curry filmed a public service announcement to promote the importance of mentoring alongside President Barack Obama. Carmelo Anthony, Al Horford, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Marcus Smart.
“Born and raised in Seat Pleasant, Maryland, I grew up in a high-need community – one with higher rates of poverty and lower graduation rates than the rest of the state,” Durant wrote in an email blast sent as part of the campaign. “For me, having the support of my mom was critical, but the support of mentors like the people I met at the local Boys and Girls Club, or my community activity center, or even my youth basketball coach also helped ensure that I was able to graduate from high school and pursue my dreams.”
Professional athletes are often looked at as potential role models, since some of them have come from poor sectors of the country and have worked their way up to a very successful life and overcame the odds of becoming victims of poverty and crime that often involve those communities.
Durant's story should serve as inspiration of someone who put the work in and had the right people around him to make pursuing his dreams a viable possibility.
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