In this 2025 New Year message, Hector Perdomo, founder of the Naismith International Basketball Foundation, outlines the organization’s mission to revive Dr. James Naismith’s original intent for basketball—love, peace, and sportsmanship—and to apply those values to modern social challenges. He shares his personal journey from a Taino‑heritage upbringing in Puerto Rico and a hard‑knocked Boston childhood, including periods of homelessness, to becoming a community leader. Perdomo announces the 2025 Naismith Good Sportsmanship Tour, which will visit youth detention centers beginning in Florida and continue to Minnesota’s Venture Village, aiming to reduce recidivism by providing mentorship, scholarships, and modern skill training such as drone operation. He emphasizes that basketball was given to the world for free, criticizes its commercialization, and stresses that the foundation operates without funding from major sports bodies. The video ends with a direct appeal for donations via naysmithfoundation.org, framing contributions as essential to delivering hope, resilience, and educational tools to at‑risk youth.
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New Year, man. New Year, new things. New Year, new things. What's up, everybody? Hope everybody's doing well. My name is Hector Perdomo. I'm with the Naismith International Basketball Foundation, and this year, 2025, we're going to bring the world the importance of why, number one, I'm still alive. You know, um, I met the youngest grandson of Dr. James Naismith, who was the inventor of basketball. Long time ago, back in 2000. And never in my life have I figured I'd be where I'm at today, being able to live and, uh, bring what this world needs, and that's love, peace, and happiness. You know what I mean? Bring this to the world of basketball and make sure that everybody understands why basketball was invented. And basketball wasn't invented because of what it is now. Too many people do not understand or do not even know who Dr. Naismith is, you know. I mean, Dr. Naismith, the reason why basketball resonates with so many people, it's because he, he lived our life, you know. He lived our life. Our life was a struggle. Dr. Naismith was orphaned at 9 years old, you know, and, um, nobody knows about who Dr. Naismith this, but by golly, you're gonna learn today. Like Mr. Kevin Hart said, I can't take credit for that one. All right, Kevin, that's on you, puppy. You know, and we wanna bring happiness. We wanna educate people, not just for basketball. We wanna take this to a level that's never been taken before. Today I'm actually headed to Minnesota to Venture Village. We're gonna go and have a conversation Hopefully we do what's never been done, is bring Dr. Naismith back to the native land, to the tribes of this world, to the tribes of North America. Me, I am of Taino descent. I was born in Puerto Rico, you know, Guayama, pueblo de los brujo pa' que sepa babá, you know. I speak a little bit of Spanish, not too much, but I can defend myself, and I love to create dialogue in any way I can. What we want to do is just do what's right, you know. And this world has been commercialized in basketball, and it's not, not, not right. It's not right at all, you know. Uh, yeah, it's great that people make money and stuff like that, but it ain't about making money. Basketball was given to the world for free. That's what a lot of people don't even know, you know. Uh, foundation doesn't get any money from the big names like the NBA or the NCAA or any of these high school programs, you know. So I'm out here on my own, you know, uh, trying to make this happen. And I would love if you guys could help me, you know. Any donation would help— a dollar, 50 cents, a quarter, I don't care. But everything that I create is going to be created to give back to the kids. Uh, this year, 2025, we want to implement the Naismith Good Sportsmanship Tour. 2025, reduce recidivism. And our goal is to impact the young men and women that, uh, that made bad decisions, you know. And that's, that's part of life. I mean, too many people in this world nowadays think that things are supposed to be given to you and things are supposed to be easy. That's far from the truth, you know. I, uh, I got married when I was a young man, and the reason why I got married, because I seen where I going. I grew up in Boston, uh, Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Chelsea, Lawrence, Methuen, you know, all the areas that, uh, that it's, it's tough, you know. But I'm glad I did that because I'm— it's, it's something that you need to understand in life. You gotta, you gotta go through struggles. You gotta work hard. You gotta make— you gotta make what you can make. And don't just be— and if you do have stuff given to you, be grateful for it. Don't think that you're supposed to happen. But guess, guess what? Tomorrow's never promised, okay? That's the one thing I learned, and I learned a, a lot almost every day. I mean, I remember when I was married, from one next to— from one night to the next, I'm homeless. I've been homeless 3 times, you know? And, uh, I never, never took the easy way out, you know? I mean, you could— I grew up— I said I grew up in the hood, the Roxburys, the Dorchesters, Dudley, Jamaica Washington Street, Tremont, you know I mean, South End, the Cathedral projects. Learned a lot right there, baby, you know. And, uh, you got to be grateful for what you have and learn from what other— the mistakes other people have made, and even especially your own mistakes. And if you keep doing something and you do the same thing over and over and you expect something different, you, you're cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, you know. You got to understand in life you can't keep doing the same thing. Look at the road I'm on. If the road would stay straight, I would never get to where I'm going. Because the road to life, the road in life is not straight. The road to life is gonna be all bends and weaves and ups and downs and turns and dips and hills and climbing mountains. And it's the way you, the way you, the way you wake up every morning, you know. Every morning you can wake up and be grateful that you're alive, regardless of what age you are, you know what I mean. The younger the better, you I mean, the more— the younger you understand that life isn't promised is when you start growing up. And the thing about life, you always want to be a student. You don't want to think that this world is for you. This world's given to you, you know. And like I said, if stuff has been given to you, you got to be grateful, man. You can't just think that this is, this is how life is. No, this participation trophy ruined everything, ruined generations, you know. The, the, the reason why sport was created was is to build resilience, not just to win. No, it's not always about winning. You got to learn how to lose before you learn how to win, you know. And when you learn, you hopefully grow, you know what I mean. Look at Michael Jordan, man. I mean, this guy got cut before he started. So what you think that installed in him? That he has to work harder. God rest his soul. Kobe Bryant. Why do you think Kobe was so, so tenacious because he never stopped, uh, crafting his craft, you know. And if the more you practice, the more you— the better you get. And practice doesn't— practice— no such thing as practice makes perfect. That's, that's BS, you know what I mean. Practice builds confidence. Confidence builds perseverance. Perseverance builds will. And will builds confidence. So as you can see, it's cycle of life, you know, learn from what you're doing, learn every day. You know what I mean? The most important thing in life is student. That's what Dr. Nation's biggest goal was. Student athlete, not athlete student. How can you be an athlete before you're a student? How are you going to learn a sport, learn anything before you study? Before you fail, you're going to fail. Learn to fail. And when you fail, learn to learn from how you failed, why you failed. You know, be smart. Don't do the same thing all the time. Change. Change is inevitable, you know, because if you don't change, you end up like the dinosaurs and you'll be extinct, you know. So learn how to change, learn how to get better, you know, because if you don't, that's going to be tough, man, you know what I mean. And that's why we're going to go into these youth detention centers, because that's where they Smith Good Sportsmanship Tour is headed. Uh, we want to start here in Florida and, um, we want to go to these detention centers and, and talk to the kids and the young men and women, hopefully even the people that work there. Hopefully want to inspire them to be better, you know, and, and, and learn stuff. And what we want to do is we want to hopefully get scholarships for these kids, you know what I mean? I want to get them to fly drones because it— because when you come out, you got to catch up to the times, you And if you don't catch up to the times, you're gonna transgress, you're gonna go right back into it. You know, recidivism is sad because there's no confidence, there's nothing built for these guys when they come out. You know what I mean? We gotta get them tools, we gotta get them ways for them to get better. Because if you don't, things are gonna happen. They're gonna go right back to what they did. You know what I mean? So I'm headed to the airport right now. I gotta get to Minnesota. I appreciate you. This is Hector Perdomo with the Naismith International Basketball Foundation. Looking forward to this year, to helping everybody as much as we can in the sport of the game. And we'll be— we will be changing the game. We will be changing things that gonna impact the world. The world. Thank you for your time. Please visit naysmithfoundation.org, and if you can make a donation, anything, whatever you got, I'm not, I'm not gonna be ungrateful. I'm gonna be extremely grateful that you could help us. Thank you for your time. Be blessed, and always strong in body, clean in mind, and lofty in your ideals will help you make better decisions. So the road head, it's better, better laid out for you. Take care, God bless, and, uh, be safe. Happy New Year.
