MIAMI (WSVN) - Parkland students met, took pictures and practiced with Golden State Warriors players before the team’s game against the Miami Heat at the American Airlines Arena.
Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr invited middle and high school students from Parkland to meet with the reigning NBA champions ahead of Wednesday’s game.
“To try to put yourself in their shoes, I can’t imagine at any age,” Kerr said. “They’re trying to do something that we all should be doing, which is protect each other.”
The students are working to improve gun control.
“It was a great event. I got to meet the head coach of Golden State and actually meet NBA players, which is pretty cool,” gun reform activist Ricky Pope said. “I don’t want to be an NBA player, myself. I’d rather be president.”
“Steve Kerr is definitely always been a very loud voice and has been supporting us from the very beginning, so we always appreciate it,” gun reform activist Tyah-Amoy Roberts said.
The students are mentored by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Teacher Jeff Foster.
“This month has been especially hard because it was the anniversary,” Foster said, “so, I mean, when it turned to Feb. 1, I just got a chill saying it, you can just feel the tension ratcheting up again, you know, because the PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] is real. Now, just to see them running around and getting alley-oops from [Golden State Warriors Guard] Shaun Livingston and [Golden State Warriors Forward] Andre Iguodala, so I mean, they’re just kids, and they’re enjoying this. You know, you replace the bad memories with good memories like this, and that’s sort of the hope of this.”
The students also took pictures with NBA All-Star Forward Kevin Durant and practiced shooting with former NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry.
“They’ve done so much in the wake of the shootings,” Curry said, “speaking out, using the platform now that they have, and the entire student body, so for them to come and just have fun, enjoy themselves, and that means a lot.”
Kerr has continued to be involved since the massacre occurred on Feb. 14, 2018. Soon after the massacre, Kerr corresponded with a few students from MSD who got politically active.
“One thing I know is that our citizens’ safety should be priority number one,” Kerr said. “The young people are gonna win.”
The Warriors (43-17) will play the Heat (26-33) at the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami Wednesday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
The Warriors are holding onto a one-game lead over the Denver Nuggets for the first seed in the NBA’s Western Conference.
The Heat have lost nine of their previous 11 games and are one-and-a-half games back of the Charlotte Hornets (28-32) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
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