‘Building character through basketball’

Richard Dankworth sums up the two-week basketball clinic he and ex-NBA player David Wood intends to bring to the Commonwealth sometime in May or June as “Character-building through basketball.”

In an interview just a couple of hours before the former dean and athletics director of the University of Nevada left for Guam yesterday, Dankworth admitted that basketball players, especially in the NBA and some in the college ranks, have become bad role models for the youth.

He said “selfishness abounds in the pro game” and some of this has even seeped to the college level. Dankworth said through the basketball clinic, he hopes the youth would realize that not all NBA players are all about themselves and some are even exemplary citizens fit to be role models.

Dankworth said one such player is Wood. Although, the 6’9” forward never played under him, Dankworth said he saw a lot of Wood while he served as dean of the University of Nevada in the late 1980s.

By all intents and purposes an NBA journeyman, Wood averaged 3.9 points in a seven-year professional career that had him don the jerseys of the Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, and Milwaukee.

He may not have the uncanny basketball ability of NBA stars, but the mere fact that Wood was able to last seven years in the world’s most competitive basketball stage—mostly through blue-collar hard work—was testament enough that he was something special.

After retiring from the NBA in 1997, Wood played in Europe and even had a stint with the Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs of the Philippine Basketball Association in 2001. He also played in the Continental Basketball Association with the Rockford Lightning and the Yakima Sun Kings.

Like Wood, Dankworth was a college athlete and excelled in football and track. He said it is through the basketball clinic that he hopes he and his team would be able to connect with the youth.

He said he, Wood, and a couple of more former “ballplayers”—Dan Dix and Mike Brown—will conduct a basketball clinic this coming summer that would teach the youth “not only how to be successful in basketball, but how to be successful in life.”

“We hope to teach life through the context of sports, in this case basketball. We feel the greatest investment we can make is building character. The youth of today will be the leaders of tomorrow and the value of their character today determines the kind of leadership they will champion in the future,” he said.

Dankworth said Wood is fresh from suiting up with the Champions for Christ squad in Thailand where they played against the country’s national basketball team and India’s.

He said they got to know about the CNMI and the Basketball Association of the Northern Mariana Islands when they met with FIBA Oceania president Steve Smith while they were holding the same basketball clinic in Palau last year.

Dankworth also said he is happy with the overwhelming response the idea of holding a clinic on Saipan has gotten from BANMI officials.

“I’m encouraged and very humbled by the response. I’ve been getting great support from BANMI during my stay here and would like to thank Eli [Rangamar], Rufino [Aguon], Mike [Muna], and Mike and Rose [White] for being such perfect hosts,” he said.

Dankworth was also impressed with Saipan’s beauty and verdant surroundings. “It’s such a beautiful island and I’m anxious to bring the rest of the team here.”

Aside from his meeting with BANMI officials, Dankworth also was the special guest of the Saipan Rotary Club’s weekly meeting on Tuesday, where he spoke about the basketball clinic being planned. Dankworth is also a Rotarian.