An NBA player who got his start in St. Petersburg is giving back to the community.

  • NBA veteran Marreese Speights gives $25,000 to St. Pete parks and rec
  • Speights grew up in St. Pete, playing high school basketball at Gibbs and Admiral Farragut
  • Funds to be split among five St. Pete parks

Marreese Speights recently donated $25,000 to the city's parks and rec department.

Speights, a 6-foot-10 NBA veteran whose high school number is retired at Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, said it is important to give back and that the donation likely will not be his last.

Speights, who won an NBA title two seasons ago with the Golden State Warriors and now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers, recently dropped in at the Childs Park rec center to the delight of the kids.

"An NBA basketball player from St. Pete was at the recreation center," gushed an excited Darrell Lee. "(It's) really exciting because I never knew anyone who came from here can be in the NBA."

Speights, who also played at the University of Florida, said he was one of the kids who grew up playing at Childs Park and wanted to do something for the city and the children who use the parks.  

"I just said, 'I’m going to do something for the city because when I’ve been gone throughout the year,'" said Speights, 29. "I’ve seen a lot of bad things happening with killings, and all that so I feel like I can help the rec centers out with after school programs, or summer programs, even more youth development kind of stuff."

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said he appreciated Speights' generosity.

"The more funding we have, the more programs we can do," Kriseman said. "So it gives more kids opportunities and scholarships that they may not have been able to afford to come to the programs."

The funds will be evenly divided to several rec centers, including Childs Park, Campbell Park, Lake Vista, Thomas Jackson and the Frank Pierce Center.