“Dream big, never stop working and never forget where you come from.” This quote from Luguentz Dort, which now accompanies two photos of him on a wall at Calixa Lavallée High School, represents the professional basketball player well.
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Although Dort had not yet arrived in Montreal to take part in a very special sports class with the coaches of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s youth team, his name was on everyone’s lips Wednesday afternoon, on the eve of a preseason game against the Detroit Pistons at the Bell Center.
“In elementary school I saw a documentary about him and he made a video for us,” said secondary school student Mitchelle Larose. It’s also really nice of the Thunder to give us 100 balls.”
“It’s not every day that we do an activity like this at school. And it’s cool to miss class to play basketball!” added Abigail Jean-Pierre.
For her part, Abigaëlle Tambwe, also in secondary school, was keen to say that Dort was an inspiration.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t selected for the school team but because I persevered I was given the privilege of being invited to the event. There is a role model for me, especially when I was discouraged about basketball.
Abigaëlle Tambwe Photo Mylène Richard
Hope
Among the people present on the soil of Montreal-North, where it all began for the Thunder Guard, was notably his former mathematics, social universe and science teacher, the young “Lu”, aged 12 or 13.
“I remember he had to expend a lot of energy! But he was someone who worked a lot. He wanted to be successful, not just in the gym. “The sporting aspect certainly had priority for him, but he also did what he had to do in his studies,” he remembers
Kamal Kacher Photo Mylène Richard
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Even among Calixa-Lavallée’s staff who had not worked with the man who changed schools several times before realizing that his studies would allow him to go to the United States and play, the pride was palpable .
“Seeing a guy like Luguentz Dort, who grew up in Montreal and played basketball at this school, reach the NBA gives hope to young people here, whether in basketball or other areas of their lives,” noted Junior Luke, a former Alouettes player, now coach of the Calixa-Lavallée soccer team.
Junior Luke Photo Mylène Richard
“Hyperactive”
His former classmate and ex-teammate Marc Charles remembers him as a “very quiet guy who did his business in his corner.” He was shy and independent.
But as soon as friends got together, “we teased each other a lot, we laughed, we were always joking.”
Charles also described Dort, with whom he communicates almost daily, as “hyperactive.”
“We ran all over the school! He also loved competition and we challenged each other.”
Marc Charles Photo Mylène Richard
There, a former football player, the transition to basketball wasn’t so easy.
“We still developed quickly. We played at Saint-Laurent Park and there [le quartier] Parc-Extension,” recalls Charles, who initially couldn’t predict that Dort would one day play in the NBA.
“But by the third year of high school I started saying he could go far. He wasn’t sure, but I told him that he had the potential, that he was good and that he was starting to be physically suitable for the job,” Charles said of the 6-foot, 220-pound athlete he worked with He was supposed to spend part of Wednesday evening together.