Former UNC guard Reggie Bullock uses NBA platform to uplift hometown of Kinston

Dallas Mavericks guard Reggie Bullock received a video call from NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Sunday to learn he’d won the league’s Social Justice Champion award named after the former Lakers great.

It only took a glance at Bullock’s arm tattoo with the street signs of East Bright Street and S. East Street in his hometown of Kinston to figure out where the $100,000 donation that came with winning the award was going.

“It’s probably one of my most powerful awards I ever won in life,” Bullock said. “Just to know that the work that I’m doing for my sisters within the community, and trying to make things better — I’m just doing what’s right being able to use my platform. I’m just glad that I won the award and can continue to do things for my city and all over the world.”

Bullock, who played at North Carolina from 2010-13, expanded his activism through tragedy in 2019, when his sister, Keiosha, was shot and killed in Baltimore.

It wasn’t the first sibling he lost. Bullock has been diligent in shining a spotlight on the LBGTQ community after his sister, Mia Henderson, was murdered in 2014. Henderson was a transgender woman.

That same year, Chris Suggs founded Kinston Teens, a youth-led organization aimed at empowering youth in one of the most economically distressed neighborhoods in the state.

The donation from Bullock to Kinston Teens doubles the previous biggest single amount the organization has ever received. Bullock applauded what the 21-year-old Suggs has done in the community.

“Two pioneers being able to try to bring the city to better rankings is always good,” said Bullock, who played in high school with Suggs’ older brother, Curtis Hines. “So that’s why I donated that money to them.”

Kinston Teens bought and renovated a house into a community center not far from the intersection where Bullock grew up. Suggs said the organization earned a $50,000 grant from Facebook in 2018. But this donation from Bullock was so big and will help them further their mission and impact, he wasn’t sure exactly where they would start.

“You know, $25,000 would have been huge for us, but $100,000 completely just blows our minds,” Suggs said. “We’re very excited doing some of the projects that I think really align very closely between what we’re working on and what Reggie is also working on in terms of the community development in the property he has in Kinston.”

While Bullock was glad to hear from Abdul-Jabbar, a much more familiar name brought him joy shortly after. Bullock said he heard from former UNC coach Roy Williams, whose call he missed, but he got texts to congratulate him.

“Coach Williams is like a father figure in my life,” Bullock said. “He came and got a young kid from a small town, Kinston, North Carolina, and brought me to his program. So he’s like a father figure in my life.”

Williams had another message of encouragement to Bullock, too, who went 0-for-10 in the Mavericks Game 3 loss to Golden State in the Western Conference finals.

“He also told me not think about the misses,” Bullock said. “Keep shooting the basketball.”

That, of course, is his job. But Bullock hopes that other players in the NBA will be inspired by the impact he’s had off the court.

“I just hope a lot of players within the league just see the example that I’m using to use my platform to try to make lives better for people all over the world,” Bullock said. “That’s my main purpose. That’s my family’s main purpose, and I’ll just continuing to keep doing my job and hopefully a lot more be able to join and stand up for what they stand up for.”