Steven Adams and Enes Kanter of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Photo / Getty Images
New Zealand NBA star Steven Adams may have recently signed a new deal that has seen him become one of the highest paid players in the league, but yesterday he swapped the basketball court for a book, an elementary school and a pair of dogs in Oklahoma City.
Joined by
teammate Enes Kanter, the pair visited the library of Cleveland Elementary School, where they read Tad Hills' "Rocket Writes a Story" - a children's book detailing a dog's struggles and eventual breakthrough in its ability to read and write - to 50 third-graders.
The two Thunder players were accompanied by a pair of therapy dogs, a 140-pound Newfoundland called Denali, and a four-year-old Labrador named Buddy.
Both dogs came from A New Leash on Life Inc., an Oklahoma-based organization whose aim is to enrich the lives of others via pet training programs, such as service dogs and therapy dogs.
"The purpose of the dogs is to bring happiness and good thoughts to people when they're having a difficult time coping with something," said Barbara Lewis, executive director of A New Leash on Life Inc.
