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Retired pro basketball player Kym Hampton made a special trip to Asbury Park School District’s Thurgood Marshall and Bradley Elementary schools Wednesday afternoon.  

The visit to the city’s summer recreation program was facilitated in part by by friend Connie Breech of the Asbury Park Police Department and Board of Education, and program head Genise Hughes, who also serves as the district’s College and Career Readiness coordinator.

Hampton, who was drafted as the number four pick in the 1997 WNBA Elite draft, played three seasons with the New York Liberty [from 1997 to 1999]. Following a 12-year pro stint in Europe, she retired due to worn cartilage in her right knee.

There’s no slowing down this mom of a 12-year-old female basketball player following in her footsteps. Since retirement, Hampton did a bit of modeling, acting, and R&B and jazz singing. She is among the original Cover Girl Queen Collection models, Lane Bryant’s V-Girls, and featured in Glamour, Essence, and other magazines.

But the Pre-K to 7th-grade summer campers didn’t know any of that. All they knew was Hampton could help them with their game.

As the youngsters practiced their shots, dribble and gall handling, the former power forward gave inspirational tips.

“It’s more so, not sharing my expertise, but the fact that I was just like them,” Hampton said. “I was once a young kid at one time who didn’t have any direction or any idea of what I wanted to do but how I tried a few things and I decided that I like them, and how I spent my time developing those skill sets in order to take me places – to college on a free scholarship, to travel the world and to play professionally.”

Hampton said it’s less about the 1 percent of the population who get to become a professional athlete but about the lessons one learns being an athlete.

“How to sacrifice,” she said. “You learn honesty and truth about yourself. If I throw a bad pass at my teammate and it went out of bounds, I can’t blame my teammate for that. I have to take ownership.

“It’s about when you take ownership and how that builds those relationships and camaraderie, as well as self esteem,” she said. “You learn confidence and self worth. There are just so much lessons and that’s what I want to share with the kids.”

Her words of advice to the youngster: Just participate. Forget about whether you will grow up to be an athlete who can get a scholarship or not, play, have fun, learn how to win, how to lose. Just learn that some days you will be better than other days but learn how to fight and to strive and how to put the work in. Those are things that are going to get you through on a day to day basis.

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