Zach Randolph has had his fair share of off-the-court issues over the years, but this is also a guy who gives back. He won the NBA’s Community Assist award for November for example: “As a part of the NBA’s Season of Giving, Randolph distributed 900 Thanksgiving food baskets at Booker T. Washington High School and Hamilton High School in Memphis.”
And at the Grizzlies game Wednesday, he gave the shirt off his back to a young boy who wanted it. It was a quiet, selfless gesture not meant for the cameras but just caught by them.
We tend to paint NBA players — and athletes and celebrities in general — with a two-dimensional brush. “He’s a thug” or “she’s such a nice person” when in reality they are all fully formed individuals with good sides and flaws, and we just get a glimpse of that now and again then form oversized opinions of them based on those snapshots.