Everyone has their own special interests and hobbies. Whether it’s watching TV, playing a sport, knitting, jewelry making, or whatever it may be everyone has something they enjoy doing in their free time.
For Anthony, that thing was basketball.
Anthony Muobike is a young kid from Edmonton, Canada, and he’s recently gotten a lot of attention. Anthony loves to play basketball and when he has some free time, he’s outside shooting hoops.
He would go out in his driveway and dribble for hours at a time.
That’s literally all he did. Anthony didn’t have a basketball hoop. He would go outside, grab a ball, and dribble around his driveway and his street, unable to shoot the ball at anything.
Neighbors start to notice
The neighbors would often see Anthony outside dribbling away. One day while he was outside, one of the men came up to Anthony and asked him if he likes to play basketball. Anthony’s response, of course, was yes.
The man was Ian Ray and he had seen Anthony dribbling without a hoop and decided to ask about it.
Anthony thought that he was annoying people with his dribbling and was worried that he had upset Ian. Ian wasn’t upset – in fact, Ian had just thought of an idea. Instead of just watching Anthony dribbling all day, he decided to do something.
A viral post
Ian went on his Facebook and made a post that would soon blow up.
Ian explained to his followers that Anthony spent all of his free time outside. When he wasn’t outside, he was watching his siblings and making sure the dog was ok. Ian’s ask was if anyone who happened to have an old hoop would be willing to donate it to the kindhearted kid.
Donations start pouring in
The post soon blew up and people started donating to get Anthony a brand new hoop!
An inspiration
The donations poured in and Ian was soon able to present Anthony with not just an old hand-me-down hoop, but a brand new one. It was a dream come true. The two built the hoop together and soon, Anthony was able to take his first shot.
Anthony’s story inspired people in an incredible way.
Feeding his passion
Since there were more donations than was needed for the single hoop, the rest went to gift cards for kids who needed sports and outdoor supplies. Anthony’s dribbling passion ended up helping more than just himself.
Since the post originally went up, it’s already been shared more than a million times.
The resulting generosity soon brought Anthony’s mom to tears. To top it all off, a recruiter from a private Toronto basketball program asked if Anthony would be interested in joining their team next year – a literal dream come true for Anthony. Even more, LeBron James gave him a shoutout on his Instagram, telling him that he had another fan in him!
Leticia, Anthony’s mom, was overwhelmed.
In an interview, she was all tears as she explained how much it all meant to her. A mom really just wants to see her kids succeed and now Anthony has some of the tools to see that dream become a reality.
Watch the story in its entirety below. There’s no doubt Anthony is surrounded by an incredible community!
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