Lonnie Walker IV Donating 300 Pairs of Adidas to Hometown Basketball League

Walker teamed with Adidas executive Eric Wise to give back to kids in their hometown of Reading, Penn.

Thanks to some help from Adidas executive and fellow Reading, Penn. native Eric Wise, Spurs rookie Lonnie Walker IV was able to assist in donating 300 pairs of sneakers worth more than $30,000 to children in Reading's Blacktop Basketball League, according to Mike Drago of the Reading Eagle.

Walker signed with Adidas prior to San Antonio taking him with the No. 18 pick in the draft in June. Wise, who like Walker attended Reading High School, helped push Adidas toward the young guard after seeing him in high school with the Red Knights and in college at Miami.

"It's a cool thing to have an executive at Adidas like myself and Lonnie be an Adidas athlete, and both of us from Reading," Wise, who played football and basketball before graduating Reading High School in 1996, told Drago. "I would love to use this to show kids that there are multiple ways to be successful in and outside sports."

Walker, who graduated from Reading High School in 2017, helped bring the school its first state championship in boys' basketball that same year and played in the Blacktop Basketball League when he was growing up.

Blacktop Basketball League board member Wynton Butler told Drago Adidas "Crazy BYW" sneakers will be given to players on the eight teams that reach the four championship games in the league, the middle and high school student interns who help operate the league, youth players who are considered in need, Reading's KTB youth program and the high school boys and girls programs. Wise told Drago he wants to get Walker to the championship games July 26-27.

In his one season at Miami before heading to the NBA, Walker averaged 11.5 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists.