Their ride to the NBA Finals has meant the world to Derek Fisher and his Oklahoma City Thunder teammates. But it also means something special for the children at The City Rescue Mission in OKC.
Thanks to the Thunder’s trip to the NBA Finals, NBA Cares has teamed with volunteers from HP and State Farm to put together a new NBA Cares Learn & Play Center inside The City Rescue Mission for children living there to use.
Derek plays a game with children at the NBA Cares Learn & Play Center (Getty Images).
This marks the eighth year that NBA Cares has made such a donation to a youth center in a city where the Finals are being hosted. The Thunder have had a partnership with the City Rescue Mission since 2008, making it an obvious choice for the location of the new center. The City Rescue Mission currently houses 37 homeless families and a total of 45 children. They also provide meals and a safe place to dozens of other families every year.
During a series as important as the NBA Finals, players work hard to maintain a singular focus on the task at hand of winning an NBA title. But for Derek, there are other things that matter too. So Fish had no problem taking time out of his Finals routine on Wednesday to visit The City Rescue Mission and help dedicate the new Learn and Play Center.
"We just want to say thank you," Derek said. "Because even though a lot of the focus is on us as a team and what we’re trying to do to get ourselves one of these nice things right here (The Larry O’Brien trophy) we feel it is the work that you do on a daily basis that far outweighs anything we could ever do on the basketball court."
A busy Finals schedule couldn’t stop Fish from providing support for a valuable and important mission with NBA Cares (Getty Images).
The center has been transformed for the Finals, as Thunder colors adorn its walls, but those aren’t the most important changes made to the center. NBA Cares has also provided brand new HP computers, a library of thousands of new books so the homeless children at The City Rescue Mission may have a place to learn and grow.
"I don’t think there’s any question that it will change someone’s life here," Derek told the Oklahoman. "No matter what goes into it, if one person’s life is changed by having this space and the opportunity to use these facilities then it was all worth it. One person can change the world. One person can change the community."
Derek and teammate Lazar Hayward read to students (Getty Images).
Also on hand with Fish for the ribbon cutting were teammates Reggie Jackson, Eric Maynor, Cole Aldrich, Royal Ivey and Lazar Hayward, NBA commissioner David Stern, coach Scott Brooks, Thunder GM Sam Presti and team chairman Clay Bennett and his wife Louise Gaylord Bennett. Derek’s mother, Annette Fisher also made the trip, as did Kevin Durant’s mother, Wanda Pratt.
To read more about the new Learn & Play Center, click here.
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