Toppin gives back to the city that changed his life with youth basketball camp

More than 100 kids, from grades one through eight, practiced with the former Dayton Flyers star Toppin and his brother Jacob, who plays for the Kentucky Wildcats, at Bales Center in Beavercreek. The two-day camp ends Wednesday.

“It feels amazing to be back,” Toppin said. “I actually had the opportunity to go to the gym (at UD) this morning and get a feel for the court again. Just being around this atmosphere is amazing. I’m glad to be back, especially running a camp. I wanted to do it earlier. I always wanted to come back and run camps here, and I’m going to run a lot more here and more in New York. Dayton changed my life. When I came here, I had a great experience. Everyone was so welcoming and helped me through the years. I feel I have to give back to the community.”

Toppin, the consensus national player of the year in 2020 for a team that finished 29-2, was the No. 8 pick in the 2020 draft and averaged 4.1 points in 62 games in his rookie season with the New York Knicks.

As a fan of his former program now, Toppin was excited to return to campus and talk to his former coaches and teammates. He also met some of the new Flyers, including DaRon Holmes, the highest-ranked freshman in Dayton’s 2021 recruiting class.

Dayton finished 14-10 in the first season without Toppin and now will need Holmes and at least some of the six other newcomers to contribute in the 2021-22 season.

“They have an amazing coaching staff,” Toppin said. “That coaching staff is going to develop those players. In the future — it might be this year, it might be next year, it might be the year after —these guys are going to learn and get better every single day and become the future of Dayton.”

Toppin’s camp used all of the courts at the Bales Center. Each court had a group of kids working with different instructors. Toppin and his brother Jacob rotated from court to court, interacting with different kids.

At one point, all the kids gathered to watch Obi and Jacob play a game of 2-on-2. Toppin picked one girl and one boy, Cormac Maloney, out of the crowd. They cheered when Obi helped Cormac dunk.

Toppin was known for being a fan-friendly star during his two seasons on the court with the Flyers and showed that side of his personality at the camp. For him, it was all about making sure the kids had fun.

“You want to have fun,” Toppin said. “You want to learn. You want to get better every single day. I feel all these kids want to do that.”

Earlier this month in Las Vegas, Nev., Toppin played for the USA Select Team against the men’s national team as it prepared for the Tokyo Olympics. He’ll also play for the Knicks in the NBA Summer League, which will take place Aug. 8-17 at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

On his first year in the NBA, which ended with him getting more playing time in the playoffs on the best Knicks team in years, Toppin said, “We’ve got great coaches, great players. We set the foundation. I feel we have a lot more to accomplish, and next year is going to be really fun. Team USA was amazing. I learned a lot going out there and met a lot of new people, coaches and players.”