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Larry Hughes, normally quiet as a meek mouse and cool as dry ice, is excited to talk.
“I’ve been rooting for LeBron [James] the whole time,” Hughes, who teamed with James in Cleveland from 2005-08, recently told SLAMonline. “I was upset when he caught all that slack. I made a couple calls last year to see if the [Miami] Heat needed another player down there just to have his back. I rock with him like that. I was pulling hard for him to get this ring.”
Hughes is excited about his friend’s recent big Championship win in Miami. And he’s excited about his own upcoming big weekend win back home.
“I’m hosting a fundraising weekend for my foundation, July 6-7, in St. Louis,” says Hughes, who most recently played for the Orlando Magic. “On Friday, we’re doing a Dunk For Donors event. Then, on Saturday, we’re doing a ‘Roaring ’20s’ theme. That’s the main fundraiser.”
Hosted by Hughes’ 12-year-old foundation, the Larry Hughes Family Foundation for Organ and Tissue Donation, the weekend of for-a-good-cause-festivities is the first of what Hughes hopes will become an annual event.
The Dunk For Donors contest, set to take place Friday night at Christian Brothers High, Hughes alma mater, will include eight to 12 participants, most of whom will be local talents with professional playing experience overseas.
Twenty-four hours later, on Saturday night, the Foundation has arranged a Roaring ’20s Casino Night. Also set to take place at Christian Brothers in Missouri, this school-turned-casino will be rocking with 1920’s costumes, funny money, signed memorabilia, and NFL ticket giveaways.
The goal of the Dunk contest is to get people to register for organ donation and to honor those who already have signed up. Proceeds from the casino night will go to Hughes’ Foundation, with an acute focus on tissue and organ donation, something he hopes to further educate people about in the St. Louis community.
“I think this will go a long way as far as to make people aware that we need donors,” Hughes, who lost his brother in 2006 due to an organ-related ailment, says.
For more information about the weekend visit LHughesWorld on Twitter.
