On Tuesday afternoon in West Jordan, normal, everyday shoppers at Walmart pushed their carts past the school supply aisles and were shocked when they spotted Utah Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks towering over a crowd of kids less than half his size.
The shoppers whispered in hushed tones, smiled giddily and snuck photos of the nearly 7-foot tall NBA player as he browsed mechanical pencil lead, glue sticks and fuzzy pencil cases.
Hendricks didn’t seem to notice the passerby shoppers. He was completely immersed in his duty for the day — a back-to-school shopping spree for a group of kids from local Boys & Girls Clubs.
“Yeah and I love hanging out with the kids. It makes me smile, seeing them smile.”
— Utah Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks
He offered opinions on colors of notebooks and folders, styles of shoes and backpacks and laughed when the kids disagreed and preferred to go against his suggestions. He wasn’t concerned with a performance, he wasn’t thinking about his injury rehab and basketball was the furthest thing from his mind. If anything, Hendricks was allowed, for a moment, to be a kid again.
“Yeah and I love hanging out with the kids. It makes me smile, seeing them smile,” Hendricks said. “Something that is like really important to me, is giving back. So any opportunity I have to hold anything like this is something I take up.”
That’s a side of Hendricks that has been well known to those that are close to him. His mother, Danielle Hendricks, told the Deseret News that her son has always had a soft spot in his heart for those that are less fortunate or anyone who needed a helping hand.
“He’s been giving back since he was little,” she said. “We used to go to the homeless shelter and help and he continues to do that now. So this kind of stuff doesn’t surprise me at all.”
It’s not Hendricks’ first foray into local charity and it definitely won’t be his last. And it’s these smaller, more intimate settings that he really enjoys. He likes that he can have moments to talk to each kid, to make the experience more personal for them. He likes being a part of an experience and a memory.
Hendricks knows that there are not many children who get to take a shopping cart through the aisles of the store and pick out whatever they want, with no spending limit and no concern for any price tags, and he sees what he was able to do on Tuesday as a privilege. At times, it seemed like he was having the most fun out of anyone in the store.
“It means the world to me,” he said. “I love doing these things.”
That makes Danielle more proud than anything Hendricks will do on a basketball court. His heart, his faith and his willingness to help is what makes him special.
“I’m extremely proud of Taylor Hendricks, my son,” she said, beaming. “It’s amazing and it’s unbelievable to see (the man he’s become), because that’s still my baby in my mind. At times he’s still a kid.”
Most of the time, Hendricks has larger responsibilities and more grown-up things to think about. But, for a few moments on Tuesday, he let his inner child out. He pushed off with one foot on a shopping cart and the other in the air, he took selfies, he teased and joked and laughed with the kids. And then, when it was necessary, he reached up and got them everything they wanted from the higher shelves.
