Jaylen Clark split the young basketball players into two groups and pitted them against each other in a series of one-on-one drills.
One group attacked the basket while the other played defense.
The losing team had to run suicides down the court, under 30 seconds.
Each player battled for points and a chance to impress the Riverside native, now a shooting guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
When it was time to pay the price for losing, one of the kids didn't make the run under the set time. Instead of letting it slide, Clark had the team run again, until every player finished their suicide run under 30 seconds.
The redo wasn't meant to embarrass the young athlete. It wasn't meant to make a fool out of anyone.
It was meant to demonstrate the work ethic needed to be successful in basketball.
In today's world of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), families often spend thousands of dollars chasing lessons like this.
At the JRock Community Camp, an annual basketball clinic, that kind of wisdom only cost $25.
Just the right lesson for the NBA player to pass along to the community that shaped who he is.
"I love giving back," Clark said. "I think when you run into blessings or money or whatever you want to call it, that just amplifies who you are as a person."
Learning from a professional made choosing the camp over the summer's biggest AAU tournaments an easy choice.
"A lot of [the kids] missed out on going to their tournament event in Vegas, which is a big [AAU] tournament, to come here," Brian Hooks said.
Hooks, who helped Clark run the camp, is a trainer at Norte Vista High School. He brought some of his players to gain the experience that will help them during the high school season.
"The kids relate to him because of his demeanor," Hooks said. "He has a really good demeanor for this type of thing."
The camp has grown alongside Clark's career. He started the training session while playing basketball at UCLA. During its first year, he relied on money raised through a GoFundMe campaign. In its fifth year, the shooting guard invests in his community himself, with the support of community partners and sponsors invested in Riverside's next generation.
Each attendee left with a backpack full of supplies, a new pair of shoes and a plate of food. More importantly, they left believing they could make it to the NBA.
"We want every kid to leave camp believing in their potential," Clark said. "This is about more than basketball—it's about showing up, putting in the work, and building a mindset that carries into everything they do."
A lesson far better heard from someone who played ball in the same parks they did and made it to the pinnacle of the game, said Robert Marrow, the father of one of the attendees.
"First of all, [this camp] is pretty much free," he said. "You don't have the financial drain on most parents that already pay a lot of money for whatever. …There's some pretty good talent here on the higher level."
Rather than paying a lot of money for travel ball, Marrow relies on camps like these to elevate his son's basketball skills.
Marrow, who's the assistant coach of the women's team at Mt. San Jacinto College, understands his son won't want to hear it from him. If Marrow says anything, his son will just brush him off.
But when he hears it from someone like Clark after missing a shot from the three-point line during the drill, it carries weight.
"I'm happy Jaylen Clark puts it on, and is giving back to the community," he said.
Too often, youth sports rely on how much a family can afford. Clark's camp demonstrates that affordability doesn't mean the lessons get diluted. Sometimes, all it takes is a local kid who made it to the NBA, a basketball court, and a few sprints to show the next generation what they are capable of.
