Basketball players on the girls and boys teams walk into a room set up to reveal the new equipment provided by NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving.
Columbia High School boys and girls basketball players got new shoes and apparel thanks to Kyrie Irving, who grew up just outside of South Orange and became an NBA all star and gold medal Olympian.
Irving has pledged to provide CHS and several other schools with similar gear for three years, totalling about $30,000 in value for each school.
“We spent our childhood on the courts at the Baird” in South Orange, said Brett Carroll, Irving’s best friend who represented Irving at the reveal at the high school on Saturday. The reveal was part of the school’s media day for winter sports.
Carroll said he and Irving, who he has known since third grade, grew up in West Orange along the border with South Orange and liked playing on the courts at the Baird.
“We’ve been best friends since eighth grade. We’ve always talked about doing something like this,” Carroll said.
Irving has a shoe deal with the Chinese sporting goods company ANTA, a five-year partnership signed in mid-2023 after Nike ended its deal with him over antisemitic remarks.
Those remarks gave the South Orange and Maplewood School District pause before agreeing to accept the merchandise.
Superintendent Jason Bing told NJ.com that he spoke to Irving’s representatives about his past remarks and brought that information back to the district’s Facilities, Finance And Technology Committee to consider before accepting the gift.
Irving attended Roosevelt Middle School in West Orange, Montclair Kimberley Academy and St. Patrick’s before moving on to Duke University and becoming the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. He is a nine-time all star who won an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers and a gold medal in the Olympics for Team USA. He currently plays for the Dallas Mavericks though he is injured at the moment, recovering from a torn ACL.
Irving is also a chief creative officer at ANTA, where he leads his own signature line, the KAI 1. ANTA is the world’s third-largest sportswear company by revenue and market capitalization, ranking behind Nike and Adidas. Its brands include Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson, DeMarini and Louisville Slugger.
“We thought this was a good way to represent the brand,” Carroll said of the donation. “It was a perfect opportunity to help the kids and grow the brand.”
The other schools receiving donations included West Orange High School, Orange High School, East Orange Campus High School and Roosevelt Middle School, Edison Middle School and Liberty Middle School, all in West Orange. The West Orange Junior Mountaineers Travel Team received a similar package as did one school in California and two in Texas.
The equipment given to the teams includes uniforms, practice jerseys, warm ups, book bags, socks, lifestyle shoes and running shoes for the coaches.
“This is the first wave,” Carroll said. “We’ll send more throughout the season.”
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