James Thompson's basketball journey took him from his homeland America and Baton Rouge to China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Russia and in the end Montenegro.
KK Budućnost Voli's player spared some time for MNE magazin after the ABA League's match against Cluj to talk about the importance of sports.
How significant was it for you that you chose sport as a healthy way of life, what did sport bring you?
– Growing up, as a kid you don't think sports would be such a big thing. You love playing basketball, so you just do it for fun, but it has been great. It has really brought a lot of different things and joy to my life, to be able to play it on a great professional level and get to travel around the world while doing it, see different parts of Europe, China, to have a better life for me, my family and everything like that.
What life habits, skills and values have you acquired through sport, in what way has sport made you a better person?
– Sports helped me become mentally stronger, especially playing overseas. You are away from home for half a year. Especially if you have a family, like mom, dad, they don't really travel.
It taught me a lot of values. Just the little things, like seeing the fans after the game. That means a lot to them. Even like, say for instance, we lose a game or whatever, the fans still want to be happy, they want to meet you.
It taught me to be a better person in that aspect and to see the bigger picture in life.
How much do you think sport contributes to mental health and in what way?
– I think sports contribute a lot because sometimes people have many things going on, especially when you are overseas. Nobody really knows what you have going on mentally off the court. People just see you show up and play basketball. So I think, for sports in general, it helps you get away from whatever you have going on in life. You only focus on the practice or the game. When times get bad, it helps you to still think I'm thankful, I'm grateful, I'm playing basketball at one of the highest levels, making a great salary. You have a lot of other things going on in life, but when you think about how blessed you are to be in the situation to be able to play, provide for family, make little kids happy just with the little things, it's great.
What is your view on digital addiction, especially of children and youth and what is the importance of sports in that segment of life?
– I think digital addiction now, back to when I was younger, it's more developed. All the kids are on the iPads, phones. When I was a kid, I would usually go outside or if I'm inside, I played a video game and stuff like this. We never were on Instagram, TikTok and stuff like that all the time. I think kids should be outside more instead of just scrolling and stuff all day. I don't think it's healthy.
For sports, they get to come out, feel the energy from us for two hours out of the day, so they are at least not on their phone for that long, they're locked into the game.
There's a lot of stuff on social media that kids don't need to be seeing, so I think for sure, they need to have some kind of age block or something on this.
Certain countries have a limit – you have to be a certain age to be on Instagram and TikTok.
What would be your key strategies to keep youth and children away from digital addiction and involve them into sports?
– The easiest thing for a parent to do is to say: ,,Here.”, give them the phone, let them occupy their mind. But I think the parents need to be more strict in that area when it comes to phones and digital stuff – try to take away the phone and stuff, no matter how upset children are, tell them to go outside, go play, go be a kid, go enjoy life, go run around, play basketball or do something else.
Even me sometimes, I'd be on Instagram, especially when you don't have nothing to do, bored, but for sure, I think parents need to make the kids go outside more. If they're not playing sports, introduce them to something, any kind of hobby, go do some art or something, anything to keep their mind occupied. Kids have a lot of energy, put them in a lot of different hobby stuff, so they can just keep being active.
What is your message to children, why should they choose sports?
– I think the kids should choose sports because not only is it a great way to get your mind off of things, it's like, you're playing sports, you don't, like I said, really think about all the outside stuff that's going on in that moment. I think it will help a lot of kids mentally.
It's also a good way to meet new people. I've met so many people all over the world while playing basketball, that I'm still friends with. Just from playing a sport.
Great way to be active. You're not just sitting at home all day, you can be active.
It's a great way to help you and others financially. I think it's a great thing for kids, for their future, for their own health, their mental health, for their family, financially. If you want to just help your mom, you know, your mom always take care of you, your dad, it's a great way to give back to them, to help them, show them a ,,thank you” for putting you in that situation.
(The article is published as part of the project ,,Children, sport and young people: Promotion of healthy lifestyles through sport and avoidance of digital addiction”, which MNE magazin is implementing in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Media)
B.R.
Photo: MNE magazin