Los Angeles Clippers Head Coach Tyronn Lue’s home team in Mexico hit the home court last Friday, Oct. 13, for Coach Lue’s seventh annual Community Day of Service.

Hundreds of community members and youth took to the streets and parks last Friday wearing blue Home Court T-shirts. Although rain stopped a lot of projects from happening, Mexico Chamber of Commerce Director Dana Keller said 38 community groups participated in projects and every K through 8th grade class in Mexico had a project. High school students completed projects earlier in the week because of the homecoming parade. Lue joined his team of people with Partners for Rural Impact (PRI), Driving Force, and members of the media via a Zoom call.

“It’s been raining like crazy today but we got a lot of projects,” Keller told Lue on the call. “We appreciate you so much and are so excited to send pictures to you.”

Although Coach Lue has been participating and sponsoring the community service day for some years now this year’s has become more special after he announced this summer that he along with Clippers’ owner Steve Ballmer and others were donating about $5 million to a five-year project in Mexico. PRI, the group tasked with the project, will leverage an additional $5 million in grant funding for the project.

“I want to thank everyone for doing it,” Lue said on the Zoom call. “I think it’s always great to give back and hopefully, I can lead by example. I’m just trying to give back to Mexico and our young kids and youth and understand that it’s important to give back and do whatever you can to help our community. We want to continue this day to help our elderly, other kids, whatever, whoever you can help. We want to make sure to do that.”

Lue said Mexico has seen some tough times since he was a kid and he wants to bring excitement back to his hometown. Lue believes Community Day of Service is a way to galvanize community members to do good for each other.

“Today is just a step in the right direction and it’s just a great opportunity to get the community together, get us helping each other and helping one another and putting smiles on each other’s faces,” Lue said. “I’m trying to do my best to give back to the youth and the youth has to do a great job of giving back to the community. It all goes hand in hand. C to C is something we talk about all the time, cradle to career, and commitment to community.”

Lue praised the work of PRI and Driving Force CEO Jenny Goldstock-Wright for the job they have done since the plans started rolling in 2022. 

“I’ve been back multiple times and just seeing the efforts they’re putting in and just trying to make sure that we can help grow Mexico and give our young kids access to mental health, barber school, whatever it is,” Lue said. “We want to make sure we’re giving our kids the most opportunities to be successful and that’s what we’re all about.”

Goldstock-Wright gave an update on the progress of the project. It was initially announced the program would have a local director and other staff. She said they are in the final stages of hiring a director and other full-time positions that will be announced in the coming months.

Up to this point, much of what the public has learned has been focused on youth-based projects but Goldstock-Wright said there will also be other projects that benefit the community saying, “Coach’s commitment to the community is making sure all Mexiconians have improved access and opportunity whether that’s transportation, beautification of the community, etc.”

Keller joked with Coach Lue, who was wearing Clippers’ gear, their Home Court shirts were a lot better looking than what he was wearing. Lue laughed and promised to make his players wear the shirts next year and send pictures back.

“We’re so excited to see what it looks like five years from now,” Keller said.