SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Spurs forward Keita Bates-Diop recently took time out of his schedule to promote life-saving techniques with student-athletes at Central Catholic High School.
This educational class means plenty for Bates-Diop as his younger brother's life was saved thanks to CPR.
His brother collapsed on the basketball court in 2017 when he was 16 years old. Certified athletic trainers at the high school began to perform CPR with an automated external defibrillator (AED), and his younger brother’s life was saved.
Now he wants to help San Antonio youths learn the importance of CPR and AED training and the techniques in case a situation arises.
Joining Bates-Diop were Methodist Healthcare System's certified cardiac trainers teaching life-saving skills to the Central Catholic High School student-athletes and JROTC members.
San Antonio's Methodist Healthcare provided hands-only CPR and AED training equipment while Bates-Diop shared his personal story to bring awareness about the value of these life-saving skills.
The Spurs continue to be very active in the local community.
Recently, guard Tre Jones joined the Westside Family YMCA to help young athletes hone their basketball skills and lead a basketball training clinic with the Spurs Youth Basketball League.
It means a lot. I've talked about it before but making sure that I'm trying to get back to the community, obviously," Jones said. "All these kids have so many dreams and aspirations of basketball, but it might be other things. And to just try to be here, be able to help out in any way possible."
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