SPORTSFEATURE - Etan Thomas - NBA star, Grenadian relief worker

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC, Sep 10 - Two years after Hurricane Ivan swept away lives and livelihoods, an NBA star player with Grenadian roots has returned to watch his own contribution to rebuilding the island nation play itself out, literally.

Etan Thomas, the 6-foot 10-inch centre with the Washington Wizards, was back in the Spice Isle just ahead of the two-year anniversary of Hurricane to watch a local basketball tournament held in his honour.

It was an opportunity for young people in communities across the island to forget, at least for a few days, the toll of two billion dollars worth of damage, more than 12 per cent of the population unemployed and several social ills including increased drug use and drugs trafficking, domestic abuse and higher levels of poverty.

“There was definitely a lot of infrastructural damage,” Thomas says reminiscing about what he saw on his last visit. “I remember a lot of the hotels I would come to before...they were destroyed by Ivan. But the people still had so much hope, they weren't down and everybody knew things were going to be okay.”

Young men, in particular, have emerged as one of the most vulnerable groups in post-Ivan Grenada, and last year Thomas donated US$40,000 to funding youth programmes and repairing basketball courts across the country. And he got the NBA and other players to donate US$100,000 dollars as well.

During his stay in Grenada, Thomas spoke with many young people encouraging them to stay away from drugs, practice safe sex and make the right choices.

“Back in the States, they're cats who should be playing basketball,” he tells an audience of close to 300 young people assembled at Macdonald's College in St Patrick's, assembled to hear him speak.

"We played on the same courts and some of them are better than me, but you know what, it was the choices they made that kept them from their dreams. I made different choices and I followed my dreams and you can do the same."

Many of his friends are now dead or in prison. "A lot of the guys I played with talked about the positives of being in a gang, the camaraderie; you could make some quick money and have protection. I looked at it and said, 'well you know you're killing your own brothers and you're doing the work the enemy wants you to do.' That's why it was never appealing to me."

At the Sauteurs tournament in the parish of St Patrick’s where his grandmother was born, Thomas scored the first goal on the still-unfinished court, which has to be resurfaced.