Daequan Cook, the 6-foot-5 shooting guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder, looked down, flashed that same megawatt smile he’s showed an NBA defender or two after rippling the net chords on a 3-pointer and said, “Sure.”
He grabbed the treat, tore through a corner of the plastic with his teeth and handed it back to the beaming boy.
This was the flip side of the NBA lockout.
While owners and players have been squaring off publicly for more than four months now to see who gets the bigger piece of the league’s financial pie, Dayton’s two NBA players — Cook and Miami Heat rookie Norris Cole — were giving back Tuesday afternoon.
They showed up at Kemp Elementary on Dayton’s East Side at the request of Renaldo O’Neal, who had coached them both at Dunbar High School and is now the new principal at the Pre-K through 8 school.
O’Neal and his students were giving back as well, Tuesday.
To raise money for the McKinney Vento Homeless Children and Youth Program — which services more than 800 students in the Dayton Public Schools system, said liaison Christine Pruitt — O’Neal had the Kemp kids collect pledge donations to support their 30-minute walk-a-thon around the school grounds.
Any student who brought in at least $1 could take part, and those who collected $5 or more would receive various prizes, including those stubborn ice pops, during the walk.
To give the day some real celebrity status, O’Neal — a good basketball player himself at Wright State — called on Cook and Cole.
“They both told me if the lockout was still on and they were in town, they’d be here,” said O’Neal. “They haven’t forgotten where they came from. They’re always willing to do what’s best for their hometown and Dayton Public Schools.”
When Cook was a high school senior and Cole a junior, they led Dunbar to the Division II state title. Cook then spent a year at Ohio State and jumped to the pros, where he was a first-round draft pick, played three seasons for the Miami Heat and was traded to the Thunder last season.
Cole played four years at Cleveland State, was the Horizon League Player of the Year last season, also became a first-round pick, and after a pair of draft-night trades ended up with the Heat.
Monday, the players’ union announced it would dissolve and pursue an antitrust lawsuit against the NBA, a decision that’s helped put the season on the precipice. Tuesday, players missed their first paychecks.
“I guess you can’t miss what you never had,” Cole said.
Cook, on the other hand, said he was “very antsy” now: “I’m a restricted free agent with a year on the table. ... But at least today this is for a good cause.”
And a cause that’s becoming more necessary, Pruitt said: “There are a lot more foreclosures in our community and such a loss of employment, and we’re seeing parents have to make difficult decisions whether to pay the rent or feed and take care of high school kids. And now we’re seeing a lot of 17- and 18-year-olds forced out of the homes. They’re the ones coming into our program. The face of homelessness is changing. It’s not just the guy pushing the cart down the street — it’s people who look like you and me.
“This is a bad situation right now.”
Tuesday, though, there was a lot of good at Kemp.
“You saw that especially when Cook and Cole noticed Neal Lain, a fifth-grade special needs student, sitting in his wheelchair. He had raised more than $60, the second most of any Kemp student.
The two NBA players came over and posed for a photo with him, then Cole handed him a pair of NBA warm-up trunks he’d brought along.
Lain’s mouth opened wide, he rocked back and forth in his wheelchair, and he clapped and clapped and clapped.
This was the flip side of the NBA lockout.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2156 or tarchdeacon @DaytonDailyNews.com.
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