{"id":808841,"date":"2026-07-17T23:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/808841\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T23:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:04:19","slug":"nba-all-star-ralph-sampson-passes-the-ball-to-lynchburg-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/808841\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA all-star Ralph Sampson passes the ball to Lynchburg youth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) \u2014 Basketball Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson made a stop in the Hill City on Friday to encourage the next generation.<\/p>\n<p>On his way to Roanoke from his home in Harrisonburg, Sampson visited the Lynchburg Boys &amp; Girls Club to give some game-time advice. <\/p>\n<p>Standing 7&#8217;4&#8243;, Sampson is an NBA all-star who started his career here in the Commonwealth. As a player at the University of Virginia, Sampson was awarded college national player of the year three times. <\/p>\n<p>He went on to play professionally for the Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings and Washington Bullets.<\/p>\n<p>SEE ALSO: <a href=\"https:\/\/wset.com\/news\/local\/wythe-county-voters-may-weigh-1-sales-tax-to-fund-72m-in-school-projects-july-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wythe County voters may weigh 1% sales tax to fund $72M in school projects<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On Friday morning, Sampson spent time shooting hoops, sharing stories from his basketball career and offering life lessons that reach beyond the court.<\/p>\n<p>He said pouring into the younger generation is one of the most rewarding parts of his career.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To come back to this Boys and Girls Club and to see these kids has been always something that is in our family to do and give back,&#8221; Sampson said. &#8220;So I enjoy it, and seeing their smiles and faces like that is really special for me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sampson said that becoming a successful athlete starts with being a good kid. He encouraged the children to focus on motivation, attitude and a plan, reminding them that success is built long before game day.<\/p>\n<p>He also shared his own journey to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Sampson credited supportive coaches, strong motivation and a commitment to hard work for helping him reach his goals.<\/p>\n<p>Sampson said he hopes to return to Lynchburg with his sons to host more basketball clinics and continue mentoring young people in the community.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Especially in the state of Virginia, we like to leave our footprint,&#8221; Sampson said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve got some programs we want to institute here with the city and a scholarship program for kids. So we want to leave an impact. You know, I just like to give back.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) \u2014 Basketball Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson made a stop in the Hill City on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-808841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}