BY RANDY KIM | Brent Barry has had a very productive offseason. First, he signed as a free agent with the San Antonio Spurs, a title contender desperately in need of some backcourt help and outside shooting (Barry’s specialities). Then he volunteered as a counselor at the Seeds of Peace clinic, a basketball-themed camp that helps teenagers from different Middle East conflict areas learn to work together and see past their cultural differences. Barry talked to NBA.com about his involvement with the camp and his move from Seattle to Texas. Here’s what he had to say:
This is your third visit to Seeds of Peace. How strongly do you feel about what you guys are accomplishing there?
Barry: “Well, I don’t know that we, the players, are accomplishing that much. It’s more a case of whatever comes out of the camp comes out of the hands of some very capable young people; boys and girls and young men and women who come out here for one reason, and that’s to help make change. There’s added motivation for them to change because of the immediacy of what they’re dealing with.”
What has surprised you most about working with Seeds of Peace?
Barry: “Again, probably just the confidence that these kids have in what they’re trying to get done. You can not diminish any of the light that they’re trying to put upon a situation that’s going on for them every day. The task that they have in hand is a very large one, one that’s seemingly impossible, but they understand that if anything is to change, it has to come from within. They understand it’s with how kids are taught. With ambition.”
The tensions in that region obviously run very high. Is it hard for the Israeli and Palestinian teens to warm up to each other at the start?
Barry: “Absolutely. (The NBA players) get there late into their three-week session, but we’ve heard stories about just how high the tensions can run at first. The first couple of nights at the camp are supposedly very, very intense. Israeli kids and Palestinian kids are forced to sleep in the same bungalows and cabins, right across the room from one another. Each of these rooms has security people in there, sleeping in the buildings with them.
“The problem is that these kids have been taught, or think, from a very young age that these other kids are against them or trying to get them. They don’t get much sleep the first few nights. Then, during the first few co-existence meetings, there’s a professional counselor that sits with the groups, because the first few meetings are very intense. Everything they experience can run counter to a lifetime of what they’ve been raised with. They just don’t believe that they’re just kids on the other side and that, in a way, they’re looking in the mirror when they talk to them.
“The amazing thing is also how well educated these kids are about everything that’s going on. Their perspectives are other-worldly, because they’re subjected to so much more violence and conflict. Their education is really accelerated due to exceptional circumstances.”
You’re quoted as saying the camp makes you “believe that there is hope.” Can you expand upon this?
Barry: “Like I said, just sitting in these meetings and having meals with the kids; the way that they all seem to understand … I guess it’s like the problem with divorced parents in the U.S., and the only way to break that cycle is to get married and keep your own nuclear family intact. These kids feel that way; that they have to break the cycle of violence and separation. They feel that they need to change the political and ethical views from the inside. They understand this and they embrace it.”
So do you think they harbor resentment towards the generations that led them down this path?
Barry: “I don’t know if you can say that there’s resentment, but they feel that there’s a great deal of naivety in past generations. It’s great because after the camp they go down to D.C. and draw up a peace-keeping document, so they have a means of officially expressing what they’ve learned. Then when they go back home, there are Seeds of Peace centers and facilities where they can try to keep in touch with the people they made bonds with in the camp. Obviously, they can’t make these connections too public for fear of their lives, basically. But it’s very cool to see them maintain these continuing dialogues after the camp is over with. You see so many kids return to the camp as counselors and such, just because the experience is so positive.”