Former National Basketball Association player Bruce Bowen has held a clinic in Sydney to mentor some of Australia's aspiring young players.
Three-time NBA champion Bruce Bowen has worked with some of Australia's aspiring young players in a clinic to inspire positive change among Sydney's disadvantaged youth.
Forty children from culturally diverse communities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ones, got a chance to learn directly from the former San Antonio Spurs star.
"If I can make it in the NBA, then they can make it as well. It's not about you having the best of both worlds. It's about your desire and that passion, and that's something that comes through and through within the people here in Australia."
A 14-year-old youth named Isaac Gundi was among those on the court.
He says his ultimate dream is to be an NBA player.
"It was an amazing experience being with someone who played in the NBA."
Many players in the program were Sudanese refugees who had fled their war-torn homeland with their families.
Acuoth Acol is a coach at the western Sydney basketball club the Savannah Pride, comprised largely of South Sudanese-Australian players.
"A lot of the young kids are very talented in the sport of basketball, and some of them never had the opportunity to play basketball in their country of origin. In Sudan, for example, lack of resources -- there's no proper basketball courts."
There is rising interest in the sport from the South Sudanese community, especially after Sudanese-born Australian Thon Maker was drafted 10th in the NBA draft last week.
He is walking the path many kids now hope to follow.
Aku Makki, a 15-year-old, left Sudan with his family when he was 6 years old.
He says Thon Maker's success is a source of inspiration for him.
"To be from the same place as me just tells me that I could be like him and follow in his footsteps and maybe become better, and, maybe, one day, I could be drafted in the NBA."
The session was not only a lesson in basketball, but also in life.
Mr Bowen stresses talent alone will not get a person to the top.
"I think everything is possible as long as you have the right attitude. There's a lot of circumstances that went on in my life that I share with the kids. There are struggles. I mean, we can't say that our struggle is greater than someone else's. What you can do is try to turn that negative into a positive."
The NBA holds junior clinics around the world, but this was the first of its kind in New South Wales.
The hope is to make it an annual event.
