Laura Herrera wants to be a professional basketball player when she grows up. Wednesday night the nine-year-old also learned a little bit about what it takes to make that dream come true. Second-year Silver Stars head coach Dan Hughes, NBA legend George Gervin and the Spurs Coyote joined Herrera and more than 400 youth, their coaches and parents for a Pizza Hut/Spurs Drug Free League Clinic presented by Valero.

After the Coyote warmed up the crowd, Coach Hughes offered lessons in basketball as well as life.

“I learned that listening is very important,” said Herrera.

Both Coach Hughes and Gervin stressed the importance of listening well to coaches and parents. Hughes showed the crowd a few basketball drills, ending with a directive to practice every day before handing the crowd over to Gervin.

Gervin selected a young player from the audience as his teammate for a 2-Ball competition with other league players and coaches. Gervin and his pint-size teammate then buried the competition, picking up four tickets to an upcoming Spurs game with the win.

The clinic ended with a variety of prizes, including Silver Stars, Rampage and Spurs tickets, as well as Pizza Hut pizzas awarded to random attendees.

Nearly 20,000 youth, ages 5-16, throughout San Antonio and South Texas participate in the Pizza Hut/Spurs Drug-Free Youth Basketball League presented by Valero. The non-school league is funded through the Spurs Foundation, which is supported by several organizations throughout South Texas. All participants are members of the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA program. The Pizza Hut/Spurs Drug-Free Youth Basketball League strives to offer young people the opportunity to play basketball and improve their athletic skills, as well as learn the importance of teamwork, cooperation, sportsmanship and discipline in a drug-free and safe environment.