Stepping off the hardwood and into the music booth, former MSU basketball player Maurice Ager has gone from leading the Spartans to a Final Four, to being a Grammy nominated recording artist and producer.
Playing in four seasons with four different teams in the NBA, while also earning a spot on the All-Big Ten second team his junior and senior years, the game of basketball is still lodged into the heart of the 31-year-old, despite not having played professionally since the end of the 2010-11 season.
Residing in the Greater Los Angeles area, Ager wanted a way to have basketball continue to be a major part of his life, as well as giving back to a new generation of future stars, which resulted in the creation of the Moe Ager Hoop School, founded over a year ago.
“I wanted to figure out a way to give back to the youth with some of the skills and talent that I’ve been able to accomplish in my life,” Ager said. “So I created this enrichment program geared toward three and up to increase their basketball skills and life skills.”
The former Dallas Mavericks first round draft pick credits his former mentors for giving him the inspiration for his project. That includes MSU head coach Tom Izzo, who appeared in his seventh Final Four on Saturday since arriving in East Lansing back in 1995.
“I had some great teachers and coaches when I was younger that have helped me take myself to the next level,” Ager said. “And I wanted to do the same for the up and comers.”
The hoops school first took off when Ager completed a one-day basketball workshop at the Long Beach Boys and Girls Club. According to his GoFundMe home page, there were 200 attendees who were eager to learn the necessary skills from someone who’s made a career as a professional.
The GoFundMe was created in order to provide 20 scholarships to interested kids to participate in a three-day basketball camp at the same location in Long Beach during the summer of 2015. In 20 days, Ager has raised 340 dollars.
“Some kids can’t afford it so we’re going to try to get it funded for them to come and learn from one of the best,” Ager said. “Long Beach is a low income area so we never want to deter anyone from getting an experience.”
While there will only be one designated location for Ager’s hoops school this year, he aspires to expand his project to select areas of the country and the world soon, that includes the city of Detroit.
“We want to take to different parts of the world,” Ager said. “We want to have a hoops school in Africa, a hoops school in Detroit, a hoops school in Dallas and potentially some other cities that may be receptive to the idea.”
As a junior with the Spartans back in 2005, Ager took the program to their first Final Four since the 2000 National Championship, playing tough in one of the most memorable tournament games in Spartan history, knocking off the Kentucky Wildcats in the Elite Eight in double overtime to advance to St. Louis. Ager finished his collegiate career with 1,554 total points scored.
