Over the past year during these unprecedented times, sports stars across the world have been giving back to people that are less fortunate in their communities. One star that really went above and beyond is Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving. 

Irving has been seen giving mass amounts of money to different charities and other organizations that have been struggling throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Trying to give back to the community, Irving paid for nine college students’ tuition at Lincoln University, located in Pennsylvania. Over the course of the last couple of months, WNBA players have come out and brought attention to the fact that they get paid much less than men do. Players have been saying that some of the top WNBA stars are getting paid less than one of the benchwarmers on an NBA team. Once Irving caught wind of what was really happening in the WNBA, he wanted to give back to them in this time of need. So, Irving pledged $1.5 million to help with WNBA salaries and stand up for the players. 

That is not all that Irving has done for the community; he has donated $323,000 to Feeding America and partnered with City Harvest to give 250,000 meals to his fellow New Yorkers. He has also partnered with Nike to donate 17 pallets of food and over 3,000 masks to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, located in North and South Dakota. Irvings late mother was a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, so he thought he could help them out during these challenging times.

In May, George Floyd fell victim to police brutality, sparking a rage across the nation where people were demanding change to the racial injustice of the police community. Most of the sports world took their frustration to social media and protests against racial injustice. At the front of the line was Irving, supporting everyone in his community. Even several months later, Irving still had a heavy heart of what the Floyd family went through, so to help them out, he bought the Floyd family a house to show his support.

Over the past year, all of us have been going through situations that we never thought we would in our lives; but we can learn something from Kyrie Irving, that we can always give back to those who are less fortunate than us.