ORLANDO, Fla. _ At 7 o'clock on a recent evening, Elfrid Payton piled slices of pizza onto paper plates and, careful not to drop them, gingerly carried them into a room at the Dover Shores Community Center. There, he handed the plates to a group of 11 fifth-graders who sat on the floor.
Payton spoke with the kids while they ate dinner. The children talked to him informally, like he was their peer or older brother. When the subject shifted to an Orlando Magic victory that Payton had given them tickets to earlier this month, one child, Kaylee Phillips, said, "Nice job at the basketball game!"
"Thank you," Payton said, a bit bashful.
The meeting between the kids and Payton did not happen by accident. It concluded a 10-week program Payton's charitable foundation created to introduce children to the arts. The pizza dinner occurred during an intermission of a performance in which the youngsters recited poems they had written and showed off dance routines they had worked on.
Payton, the Magic's 23-year-old starting point guard, has been honored twice over the last few days for his community service work. Over the weekend, the team named him the winner of its annual Rich & Helen DeVos Community Enrichment Award. A couple of days ago, league officials announced Payton won the February NBA Cares Community Assist Award.
To be sure, Payton has not done the work all by himself. His mother, Danielle Payton, is a driving force. So is Latria Graham Leak, a former Magic staff member who has helped Magic players such as Tobias Harris ramp up their off-the-court charitable work. But Elfrid Payton helped create the program based on a summer-camp experience he had as a child in the New Orleans area, and he also appears to have an uncommon knack for relating to kids.
"He's in the NBA and it has changed the way he can live, but it hasn't changed him," his mom said.
"We weren't a family that had a whole lot financially, but we always made sure that whatever we had, if we could share it or help somebody else, then we did."
Payton emceed the recital as children read haikus and poems they had written. One girl brought her pet guinea pig on stage and read a spoken-word piece about it. After she had finished, Payton took hold of the microphone and said, "Thank you, Emma, for sharing your pet!"
When the children did their dance routines, Payton stood off to the side and recorded video of the kids' performances on his cell phone, with a big smile on his face.
"To see them do that at the level they did was super," Payton said afterward.
"What was even more rewarding to me was when I was talking to them and (hearing) how excited they were to be a part of something like this and how fun it was. They were telling me that they would recommend it to other children. That was the biggest thing for me. So I was just super proud of them and super proud of what we were able to put together and how everybody was able to work together."
Over the 10 weeks, the kids also painted, learned about playing the trumpet and even went on a field trip with Payton to learn about local African-American history at the Hannibal Heritage Square Center in Winter Park, where they had to take notes.
"It's been really fun but challenging," Phillips said. "Not everything is easy."
Payton perhaps is best known for his hairstyle, which is so long in front that it flops up and down as he runs upcourt, and for his recent spate of triple-doubles.
But to the kids, he's just their pal Elfrid.
"He definitely works hard," Phillips said. "He's always loyal to his team. He's pretty cool."
