Cutting through
Invest in our communities
More than 37 people have been fatally stabbed in the capital since the beginning of the year.
12,980 knife crimes took place in London in the year up to September 2017, there were 37,443 across the UK as a whole.
Back in March, promising basketball star Tyrese Walters-Lawrence became part of the statistics. He had been stabbed by a masked group in West London.
It was a senseless gang attack that left the 19-year-old with a severe cut to his leg.
The path Tyrese, and athletes like him take is that of role model. He wants better for himself and his family, and to push away from the gang culture that has engulfed his peers.
Instead he has chosen to dedicate his time to basketball.
That’s his escape.
I saw Tyrese play for the first time on Saturday down in London at The Hoopsfix All-Star Classic. It’s a showcase for Britain’s top young talent run by Sam Neter who runs an independent video highlights website in basketball, Hoopsfix. He funds the event himself through ticket sales, sponsors, and a lot of good will.
The inner basketball community came together to support the event.
People travelling from across the UK to volunteer to put up banners, mark the floors, man the doors, transport equipment — you name it people gave up their time.
I didn’t ask everyone of them why they did it. I didn’t need to. They love the sport and the opportunity it creates for young people. The opportunity to help inner city communities escape, like Tyrese.
The game itself was a sell-out, not a seat spare as over 700 spectators crammed in to watch two games and a dunk contest. Kids looking up to these young talented athletes, who infact, are just a few years older, 16–19 year olds — the kids who chose a different path.
Players they can speak to, hang out with. A path they can follow, something real… role models.
Several professional players also came down to watch, amongst them — Dan Clark, Tayo Ogedengbe, Jesse Chuku, Orlan Jackman, Luke Nelson —why? Because they get it, they understand what events like this can not only do to support the sport we love but also to support what it stands for.
An event they would have played in. Again a connection to this pathway out.
There’s something more real about basketball than other sports, more of a connection, something somehow so eminently tangible.
It’s largely ran by people on the ground giving up their time across the country to coach, support, volunteer to give other people opportunity.
There can be no doubt of the cut-through that basketball can have to support deprived areas of our society.
With on-going national debates about funding, I can’t help thinking we are missing a trick.
More events like this, that are run on a shoe-string, are part of the answer. They need to be supported and invested in.
In my opinion, this is exactly where our funding will make a difference not just at the real heart of basketball in this country but to help tackle the wider challenges we face as a society.
If we are to make a palpable difference we should use sport as a positive influence in our communities, we must invest in giving our young people a route out. An escape.
