SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento-based rapper Bueno says basketball saved his life.
Now, he's passing on the game to the next generation through the "Shoot Hoops, Not Guns" basketball camp for kids.
"Growing up in the South Sacramento, Meadowview neighborhood, there was a lot of gun violence, and basketball basically saved my life," said Bueno, who also goes by his given name, Russell Osby.
Osby went to Kennedy High School, where he was a stand-out athlete in football and basketball, received a scholarship to Cal State in Los Angeles, and earned a business degree.
But he never forgot his roots or the violence.
In the last few weeks, deadly shootings claimed the lives of two men in North Sacramento and that of an 18-year-old Grant Union High School senior who was set to graduate the next day.
The camp teaches kids the basics of basketball, from dribbling to defense, rebounding to passing and shooting.
It also gives them a much-needed introduction to teamwork and each other.
"That’s one of the things that saved me as well. I played on multiple teams with kids, so it’s kind of hard to be aggressively negative with somebody that you may have lost a game with, cried with, won, cheered for. So as we get older, those things really matter - the small things," said Osby.
The Jr. All-American summer basketball camp is coming up on Saturday, June 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Salvation Army on Alhambra Blvd, for $35 a child.
WATCH ALSO:
