When most professional sports players retire, they hang up their jerseys and live quiet lives.

Former NBA all-star Vlade Divac however, is not that typical pro sport player. Instead, he has started a charity project called Courts for Kids and teamed up with Bayside Church of Granite Bay.

The charity’s mission is to promote health and fitness education through the game of basketball by installing new courts, refurbishing old ones, and providing equipment in economically disadvantaged areas around the world.

Both kids and entire community will benefit by providing opportunities for youth to develop healthy bodies and minds, leadership and teamwork skills and respect for others.

“I believe basketball provides today’s children with the necessary skills to choose the right path in life and become successful at whatever they decide to do,” Vlade Divac said in an e-mail interview.

Bayside Church is the major sponsor of the project.

Pastor Ray Johnson, Director of Advancement Scott Shall and many others were able to raise over $60,000 in order to start the project.

Other major contributors of Court’s for Kids include Sacramento based companies like Solar Power and Golden California.

The construction of first court began in July this past summer in Qingpu, a migrant school in Shanghai.

Once the court is finished, the charity plans to return in October for the grand opening and announce where more courts are to be built around the world.

“Having been privileged to play basketball at the highest level,” Divac said, “I believe it is my duty to reach out to as many children as possible across the globe and teach them the importance of respect for self and others, teamwork, having a healthy mind and body, and the love for your family and friends.”

Divac’s love for children is one of the main inspirations for starting this project.

His love for children is genuine and he wants to do his part in helping kids globally.

“I hope that through Court’s for Kids, I can have at least a small positive influence in the lives of these children by providing them with the opportunity to play basketball and have fun,” Divac said.

Court’s for Kids is only one of the many charities Divac is involved in.

Along with six of his Yugoslavian national basketball teammates, Divac started a charity called Group Seven Children’s Foundation in 1995.

At its founding, their mission was to develop youth’s basketball skills though camps, clinics and games.

This changed when the war started in Yugoslavia. The Foundation decided to address serious issues like economic isolation and poverty.

Divac still held basketball camps, as well as providing camps for under privileged children.

“It’s not the children’s fault for the mistakes that adults make in this world,” said Divac.

Since starting the Group Seven Foundation, Divac has helped raise over 2.9 million dollars for humanitarian aid and programs in his native country, Serbi, as well as the United States.

Court’s for Kids hopes to be just as beneficiary to the world as all of Divac’s other projects.

Divac, Pastor Johnson, Shall, and other charity participants hope to make the charity as global as possible for as long as possible and go to every continent wherever kids need playgrounds.

Anyone can help out with the charity by donating money Divac’s Children’s Foundation.