RUSSELLVILLE – Pedro Bradshaw got his start in Russellville, and now he’s ready to give back to his hometown.

The former basketball standout with the Panthers who recently finished his collegiate career and is focusing now on playing professionally took a step toward that Saturday by hosting the first PB32 Elite Camp.

“It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to give back to Russellville and my community and show the kids they can be in my shoes if they continue to do what they’re doing, continue to work hard and just focus on what they’ve got going on,” Bradshaw said. “It was important for me to just give them something to look forward to just so they can have fun, have a good time and just enjoy the game of basketball.”

The youth basketball camp at Russellville High School had roughly 100 kids signed up, with around 50 in the fourth through eighth grade group in the morning and another 50 for the high school group in the afternoon, Bradshaw said. Each participant was given a shirt, jersey and water bottle, and lunch was provided by Arby’s, where Bradshaw worked throughout high school.

The camp – led by a number of current players and coaches from the area – was free to attend. Bradshaw attended similar camps growing up, and wanted the kids coming up now to have that same experience.

“It was huge because I wanted people to just feel like they could be comfortable and come in and not have to worry about ‘It’s this amount or this amount, so we can’t go,’ “ Bradshaw said. “Growing up, I wasn’t in a good financial situation to do these things and people had to help me out and they did it just because they wanted to help me out, so I wanted to do the same thing. I quickly learned there’s a lot of costs that go into this type of thing, but honestly I don’t mind because the kids are so excited to get their jerseys and their T-shirts – that’s enough for me.”

Bradshaw, a 6-foot-7 guard, recently finished his junior season at Bellarmine, where he played two years before declaring for the NBA draft following the 2020-21 season. This winter, he was named First Team ASUN All-Conference and First Team All-District 3 by the NABC after leading the Knights with 16 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. He shot 50% from the field, 36% from 3-point range and 83.5% from the free-throw line.

Before arriving at Bellarmine, he spent the 2018-19 season at Eastern Kentucky after beginning his collegiate career at Belmont.

That came after a standout career at Russellville, where he was a Kentucky Mr. Basketball finalist and named First Team All-State by the Courier Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader, after leading the Panthers to the Region 4 championship game as a senior. He finished his career as the school’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder with 1,938 points and 1,169 rebounds.

Now, he’s preparing for a professional career.

Bradshaw says he’s stayed in Louisville where he’s been working out and going through the pre-draft process. He says he’s received interest from a few NBA teams and numerous teams overseas.

“Hopefully that number continues to grow, but just hearing from them, hearing they’re interested and they love my game and love certain aspects about my game, that’s been huge,” Bradshaw said. “At the end of the day, that’s just interest, so I’ve just got to control what I can control and continue to work.”

But on Saturday in Russellville, it was about giving back to his community and hoping he could help the next generation of players get to where he is now.

“I love Russellville so much, man, and I’ve always wanted to give back to this community because it’s done so much for me and helped me become the young man I am today,” Bradshaw said. “Being able to do something like this for these kids, maybe one day they can do something because they’ve seen me do this. I just want to set the blueprint, that way they can pay it forward and help kids when it’s their time and so on and so forth.”{&end}