It isn’t everyday as a fan of basketball or more specifically a fan of Kevin Durant, where you get to meet him or even better yet, are gifted with a pair of his game worn sneakers. Things of this sort are priceless and Kevin Durant has made these priceless moments happen for two children recently.
Back on December 27, 2015 while KD was sidelined due to a minor toe injury, in the stands was 5-year old Keaton Barron who is pictured below holding Durant’s size 18 ‘Christmas Day‘ game worn Nike KD 8. At the time young Keaton was holding a sign which had three individual check boxes for his “2016 Goals”; Beat Cancer, Book Trip To Disney Land and lastly MEET KD. Barron being just 5 years old had beat Leukemia after his successful last round of chemotherapy, so his parents took him to the game where the Thunder faced off against the Kings. Upon noticing his sign, KD then made his last goal come true as you can see in the provided twitter video via: the Thunder’s account, the sign was checked off and KD left his John Hancock.
From last night. Kevin Durant provides inspiration and an unforgettable moment for one little boy with cancer. pic.twitter.com/zuvmBbOEyY
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) January 5, 2016
While the video doesn’t show the exchange, thanks to ESPN we were able to see photos of the two together as well as Keaton holding the pair of priceless KD’s. With wanting to meet KD his whole life, he plans on keeping the sneakers in a protective case and eventually wear them when he gets older.
Giving back is usually an initiative the NBA focuses on with their NBA Cares campaign but for many athletes they do a lot more giving back on their off time that usually goes unnoticed and as for KD, Keaton Barron was just the first recently. The next good deed on his part came way of a young lady by the name of Brooke Wolcott who is a 17-year old diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. CF is a condition that weakens the lungs and digestive system. Brooke’s story is quite different than Keaton’s as it was her caregiver at the Texas Children Hospital and mother, Kristy who brought her daughter’s story to light. Recently apart of the ‘Make A Wish’ Foundation, Brooke’s wish was to meet Kevin Durant and that didn’t go as planned.
It was first the caregiver, Cami Hoffman Smith who initially brought the story to light and then her mom Kristy followed suit by the two of them posting respective statuses on Facebook,
Once Kevin caught wind of this story about Brooke, he then took to his Instagram to share a photo of himself holding a pair of KD 8’s that he planned on wearing and would then give to the young lady.
Since then, Brooke has responded with a repost of KD’s original showing how thankful she was and how much this meant to her.
Great job KD! Will this continue to be a trend of his, I wonder will he make headlines again this week for giving away a game worn shoe to make a young child’s wish come true.
