{"id":444348,"date":"2026-08-26T19:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/444348\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T19:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:58:13","slug":"nba-star-from-oakland-giving-away-free-backpacks-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/444348\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA star from Oakland giving away free backpacks \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oakland High legend and Portland Trail Blazers phenom Damian Lillard is giving back to the community where he forged his epic basketball career.<\/p>\n<p>The nine-time NBA All-Star, born and raised in Oakland, announced on social media that he is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DccMrbivPeB\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsi=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sponsoring a backpack giveaway<\/a> at the Ira Jinkins Recreation Center in East Oakland \u2014 not far from where he grew up and a place he frequented every day as a youth. The backpacks will be filled with school supplies for kids in the local community. Lillard is also funding renovations to the center, including major upgrades to its basketball courts.<\/p>\n<p>The event will feature games, music, and food. Backpacks will be available while supplies last. Here are the details:<\/p>\n<p>When: Saturday, Sept. 5, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.<br \/>Where: Ira Jinkins Recreation Center, 9175 Edes Ave., Oakland<\/p>\n<p>Lillard is not the only NBA great to come out of Oakland. Other notable legends include Bill Russell (McClymonds High) and Gary Payton (Skyline High School).<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oakland High legend and Portland Trail Blazers phenom Damian Lillard is giving back to the community where he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,2454,184,7,2523,12577,332,9858,15,4730,181,129,100,143,145,144,127],"class_list":["post-444348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-basketball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-celebrities","tag-coffee-break","tag-east-bay","tag-east-oakland","tag-education","tag-k-12-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}