An international superstar appeared at VGB IF’s “internal basketball tournament” yesterday afternoon. The visit was planned.
Basketball superstar Kevin Durant made a surprise visit to Elinsborg School’s basketball court, or what is known as the Tensta KD Court, yesterday.
– It’s a bit surreal for everyone, says Yacouba Barry, club manager at VGB IF.
Yesterday afternoon and evening, various clips and images were spread on social media where NBA star Kevin Durant was seen playing basketball with young Tenstabors. It turned out that the basketball player made a quick visit to “his” court at Elinsborg school. News agency Järva contacted Yacouba Barry at VGB IF, who took the initiative for the basketball court and who planned the surprise itself.
Kevin Durant visited Tensta yesterday, how come?
– He redid the basketball court there last year, his foundation sponsored it and we have had activity there for many years, says Yacouba Barry on the phone.
He talks about how the plan, which was inaugurated last year , became a reality after they attended an event in Kungsträdgården where they met Hoop Dreams.
– They work with similar things, to redo surfaces and we talked about the surface in Tensta, which is perfect to do something with. They were doing Red Bull events then, so we pushed for that to bring life to that surface.
Hoop Dreams and Brilliant Minds in turn contacted the Kevin Duration Foundation, which wanted to invest in sponsoring a basketball court.
– Brilliant minds had contact with the KD Foundation. It was not an easy process to redo that plan, says Yacouba and says that they had to rely on the municipality for the plan to become a reality.
The fact that Kevin Durant showed up just yesterday has to do with the fact that he and his agent were going to be at an event that Brilliant Minds is holding right now in Stockholm.
– Then he wanted to see his plan, but we wanted it to be a surprise so we said we would have an internal tournament for our members, says Yacouba Barry.
On social media, you can see that the visit was appreciated, with many young people crowding around the tall basketball player.
How was the response?
– It’s a bit surreal for everyone, but it’s also what they need in the area to believe in themselves, a little more. It is a superstar, but it seems that not everyone knows him in Sweden.
Yacouba Barry concludes by saying that the most important thing for VGB IF is that it should be fun, but that in turn it can generate good results.
– It is most important to have fun, but we also believe that it can be something positive to come from Tensta. We notice that now when things are going well for our teams .
