Kings dedicate basketball court to Sacramento community center
Kings dedicate basketball court to Sacramento community center originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
As the Kings look to build off last season's success in 2023-24, they're making sure to have a similar impact off the court, too.
Over the weekend, the Kings dedicated a basketball court to the Mack Road Valley Hi Community Center in Sacramento. Third-year guard Davion Mitchell and rookie Colby Jones were in attendance, along with team president John Rinehart. It was the 17th court refurbishment done in the Sacramento region.
"First, I want to start by thanking everybody at the Valley Hi Community Center," Rinehart said. "The work that you do here for the community, providing a place for our youth to spend their time and just grow as individuals and be the next generation of people that we're going to have in our community. So it's really great."
The Sacramento Kings Foundation partnered with Kaiser Permanente to bring the court to life, which originally was created by the Kings and Kaiser Permanente in 2014, and has since been refurbished and refreshed with a new black and grey color scheme and the Kings fan-favorite script logo.
In 2010, the Mack Road Partnership was established to focus on safety/security, economic development, marketing, advocacy and beautification projects. Since then, the Mack Road Partnership has remodeled the community center to host a variety of classes, a farmer’s market, sports activities, a free meal program and a place for positive interactions with Sacramento law enforcement.
"With the Kings, [owner] Vivek [Ranadivé] has always said that we need to be much bigger than basketball," Rinehart continued. "We have to be good students of our community and one of those things is to give back to the community in a positive way. And days like this where we have these beautiful courts where our youth can come and play and learn sportsmanship, respect and really just the importance of getting out and being active is something that's so great and something that we're very, very proud of.
"So this day is about the community. We are thrilled and joyed to be out here with the community."
For Mitchell, 25, he shared what it means to him to give back to the community and the importance of having a safe place for young hoopers to play.
He even revealed some of his future goals for his hometown of Hinesville, Georgia.
"It means a lot," Mitchell told NBC Sports California's Kyle Draper. "Especially because that's what I want to do in my area in Hinesville, Georgia. Build a court, or build a gym so I can give back to the community so kids can have somewhere to go to work out and to have the resources to get better at basketball.
"Also just to have fun. It's kind of tough in a smaller city. The recreation centers still have volleyball and things like that. So just trying to do something for the community for the people that want to play basketball."
