All NBA players have community service written into their contract. Some go the extra mile and continue giving after their playing career has ended.

Then there is Chris Dudley, who metaphorically leaps continents to ensure that youths with diabetes are taken care of.

The 27th annual Chris Dudley Basketball Camp takes place July 31 through Aug. 5 at Camp Cedar Ridge in Vernonia. A group of 75 boys and girls aged 10 to 17 with type 1 diabetes will participate in the week-long camp.

Why should the 6-11 former Trail Blazer center care?

One reason is because he is as solid a human being ever to wear an NBA uniform.

But also, Dudley is one of two men — former Gonzaga star Adam Morrison is the other — to play in the NBA with diabetes. Morrison, the third pick in the 2006 draft, played parts of four seasons in the league. Dudley, a rugged, rebounding, shot-blocking big man who never could shoot free throws (sorry Chris), spent 16 years in the trenches from 1987-2002.

Dudley, 57, wasn’t just a professional athlete. He is an Ivy Leaguer, a graduate of Yale. In 1994, he created the Chris Dudley Foundation, intended to improve the lives of diabetic children. In 1996, he donated $300,000 through the “I Have a Dream Foundation” to help cover college tuition for a class of fourth-graders at Portland’s Vernon Elementary School. That same year, Dudley won the NBA’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, given for outstanding service and dedication to the community. As a member of the Professional Basketball Writers Association, I’m proud to say I was the one who nominated “Duds” for the honor.

Since 2008, Dudley has been a wealth management partner with Filigree Advisors. As a Republican in 2010, he lost a very close election to Democrat John Kitzhaber for governor of Oregon.

In 1996, Dudley and his wife — also named Chris — began their basketball camp.

“We had given a donation to Gales Creek Camp, a camp for diabetics,” the male Dudley says. “Through our association with them, Chris, my sister (Natasha Busick) and I got the idea to do a youth diabetes camp for basketball.”

Through the early part of his playing career, Dudley often received letters and other correspondence from kids with diabetes and their parents. With questions like, “How do you play basketball with type 1?” And, “What do you do on game day?” And, “What kind of insulin do you use?”

“I began to realize there was a strong need for a camp like ours,” Dudley say. “As we started, the diabetes component was huge, the basketball component was huge. But we soon realized another component was the development of a sense of community — a chance for kids with diabetes to know other kids are dealing with the same issues as they are. It can be difficult to have something different like diabetes. It is linked to a higher rate of depression.”

Dudley had experienced it himself. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 16. He was already a very large teenager with a strong interest in basketball.

“The first question I asked the doctor, ‘Am I going to live?’ ” Dudley says. “I didn’t mean I might die immediately, but at that time, the life span was definitely shortened. The second question was, ‘Can I still play basketball?’ The answer to both was yes. But it was much more difficult in 1981. The technology was nowhere near where it is today.”

Type 1 diabetes, formerly called “juvenile diabetes,” is where the body produces no or very little insulin. Type 2, formerly “adult onset,” is where the body doesn’t absorb the insulin as well as necessary. In the latter case, the person can initially treat it with exercise and diet. If that doesn’t work, he/she must go to using insulin.

Dudley has taken insulin for 41 years. He originally started with three shots a day, then moved up to eight more-centralized shots daily.

“You were giving yourself injections frequently, for meals and making adjustments throughout the day,” he says. “On game days, I would test my blood sugar 14 to 16 times.”

The big changes in diabetes care since then have been the insulin pump and the continuous glucose meter (CGM), a device implanted in the body.

“The process has gotten much better, and the quality is better nowadays,” Dudley says. “You wear the CGM and replace it every 10 days. It reads the level; I have an app on my phone that tells me what my blood sugar is. It’s so helpful not only to see exactly where your blood sugar is but also the direction it’s going through the day.”

The basketball camp was staged with much success annually from 1997 to 2019, 75 campers a year. Then came the pandemic. The last two camps were done via Zoom because of Covid.

“It was great we were able to do it, anyway,” Dudley says, “but we’re thrilled to get to be back in person this year.”

Including repeat campers, 1,875 youths — the ratio is generally 75 percent/25 percent boys to girls — have received five days of one-on-one instruction since the Dudley Basketball Camp opened as a day/night camp, with youths staying in camp sites on the grounds.

“We’re the only overnight basketball camp for kids with type 1 diabetes,” Dudley says.

The majority of campers come live in the Northwest, but there have been many come from Canada, and there have been visitors from The Netherlands, Turkey and United Emirates through the years.

The foundation offers a sliding scale for tuition, payment plans and “camperships.” This year, about 80 percent of the campers receive at least some financial help.

“Nobody should not go to camp because they can’t afford tuition,” Dudley says.

The camp is funded through private donors and companies who contribute supplies.

“We’re always looking to raise funds,” Dudley says, “because it’s a costly endeavor.”

The facility has five full basketball courts. This year, 42 staff members will be on hand — 11 coaches, 10 day counselors, five night counselors, two doctors, three day nurses, two night nurses, a dietician, four dietary aides, a medical director, a camp director and two activities directors. Dudley occasionally brings in special guests to talk to the group, including ex-Blazer forward Brian Grant, former Blazer trainer Bobby Medina and ex-NBA head coach Herb Brown.

Some of the employees are former attendees of the camp. Some are volunteers. Some are paid, but the compensation is not high.

“They don’t do it for the money,” Dudley says.

Members of Dudley’s family have worked the camp most years. Oldest son Charles, 23, is a graduate of Chapman University in Orange, Calif. Emma, 22, just graduated from Oregon State, and Sam, 20, will be a sophomore at OSU in the fall.

Dudley is not just a namesake for the camp.

“Chris is the biggest ‘kid’ out there,” says Joey Wakem, executive director of the Chris Dudley Foundation. “Camp is the highlight of his year. In many other camps run by current or retired players, the headliner is usually there a few times throughout the week for a limited time. Chris is there all week.

“He stays overnight, has meals with the campers, hangs out with them at free times and really gets to know them. I am always amazed when I talk to him about a camper sometime throughout the years; he knows exactly who I’m speaking about. This is not just a ‘camp’ to him; this is family.”

Dudley likes the connections people make at the camp.

“I don’t love social media for a lot of the things that happen with it, but it is a means by which people who have worked or attended the camp can stay in touch with each other,” he says. “It really becomes a family. One of the camp’s main doctors is a former camper. Emma just got back from a wedding of one of our campers. I went skiing with two former campers this winter. It becomes a small world quickly.”

In 2012, the Dudley family moved to San Diego, his hometown, but kept a vacation home in Black Butte. Recently, they sold the Black Butte place and bought a house in Sisters.

“It’s more of our permanent home now,” Dudley says. “We love central Oregon. Always did. I’m a skier now. Love the outdoors, the weather up there.”

He loves the state of Oregon, too, and wonders what could have happened if he had won the governor election in 2010.

“I believe I could have helped move the state forward,” he says. “We need to get to more of a neutral, bi-partisan position. Complete control by either party is not healthy.

“I’m so disappointed in the point where we are today, and especially in Portland. You look at issues with education, hunger, homelessness, drug use and addiction, graffiti and crime. It’s not a good situation. It’s bad when a friend of mine from Detroit tells me, ‘You guys are much worse off than Detroit.’ ”

Dudley’s goals for this year’s camp week?

“To improve everybody’s basketball skills, make sure they have a good time and that they’re getting everything they can out of it,” he says. “On the diabetes end, to make sure everybody is comfortable while doing athletics and to help them understand how to control that. And that they all realize they’re part of a family and they are supported out there and not alone.”

As an NBA player, Dudley has been a role model and inspiration for hundreds of youths with diabetes in the United States.

“I hope that is the case,” Dudley says modestly. “I’ve had so many great experiences, but camp is a huge highlight. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to use the platform I have to help these kids. It’s been a lot of fun.”

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