Magic players are likely already back in town and beginning to work out together a few weeks ahead of training camp at the end of the month. The simmering of the season coming up is near. There will not be a whole lot more traveling going on from these guys.
There was plenty of that for Magic players throughout the summer. For basketball reasons — Tobias Harris and Victor Oladipo went to Las Vegas for training with the U.S. Select Team; Oladipo was in Washington for training and the Goodman League; Harris took a trip back to Knoxville for some training; Andrew Nicholson was in Europe with Team Canada; Evan Fournier has helped get France to Saturday’s 3rd Place game at the FIBA World Cup.
That is a lot of travel.
It has also brought the opportunity to make some community impact in Orlando and around the world.
We will start at home where Tobias Harris on Friday donated $50,000 to Orange County Public Schools through the funds he won as part of the Rich and Helen DeVos Community Enrichment Award. Much of that is heading to the Nap Ford Community School in the Parramore area, an area of significant need in Central Florida.
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“To be able to impact different kids’ lives and work with the organizations in the schools that we’ve been able to build relationships with, that’s the biggest thing to me,” Harris told John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com. “It’s special to donate the money and seeing tears on (Porter-Smith’s) face. That lets me know deep-down inside that the money is going to the right cause. That’s for the kids and I appreciate this opportunity quite a lot.”
It is a pretty incredible donation to a major area of need in the Central Florida area. Education is the biggest way to impact children’s lives and change cycles of poverty. Money alone does not solve the problem, but Harris and the Magic’s commitment to children programs and education through these donations sure help.
That was not the only thing Harris did this summer. He also traveled to Africa as part of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program. That proved to be an eye-opening experience, as he told Bob Herzog of Long Island (N.Y.) Newsday:
"“It opened my eyes about a lot of things. Just helping those kids in Africa learn basketball and being in the community with them. The best part of the trip was seeing how happy those kids were to see us. They come from so little but they really appreciate life. It was definitely a different culture out there. Everybody was grateful just to be living.”"
Harris also conducted his yearly camp in the New York area for kids — where, if you remember, his brother pulled off a sneak attack Ice Bucket Challenge.
Harris was not the only world traveler. Andrew Nicholson was fresh off his European tour with the Canada national team before he went to China on a NBA event.
Like Harris, the NBA’s trip overseas involved a lot of basketball camps and appearances for local children. Nicholson also did promotional appearances for Peak shoes.
Both Harris and Nicholson still had plenty of time to work on their games even with all these travels. They are pros, after all. And they were not the only ones going around impacting communities at home and around the world.
The time for traveling though is winding down with training camp just two weeks away. Almost time to get back to work.