Former Utah Jazz great and current basketball analyst for the team, Thurl Bailey, will pay a visit to Star Valley September 28th to be the keynote speaker at the Positive Living Community Conference.

Bailey says he travels around a lot to do singing or speaking events during the NBA offseason. Good news for locals too is he will be doing a youth basketball clinic after the conference as well.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to get out,” Bailey said. “Nice to see that I have a lot of fans here and not just in basketball, but in some of the other things I’m doing.”

Star Valley Health is hosting it at Star Valley High School. Bailey says in any type of community you have to have mentors or people in your life to help mold you into becoming a positive person. He says electronics can play an important part in our lives, but can be a distraction as well.

“But there’s nothing like community,” Bailey said. “Now the community I grew up in, in Washington D.C. it truly did take a village.”

He says his parents couldn’t be around all the time, but the folks in the area were helping him to grow as a person. He says it requires help from everyone to be able to hopefully get to a point where you are successful enough to give back to your community where ever that is.

“It’s been nice to build a platform,” Bailey said. “Once you know you have that, it is a powerful thing.”

He admitted that some people use it for wrong reasons. However, no matter the platform he has whether that is music, basketball, or spoken word he hopes it leaves a positive mark on a community he gets to speak to.

Elizabeth Smart was the keynote speaker at last year’s event. Bailey says he has a lot of respect for her and what her messages have been. He says at the conference he hopes to deliver his message not just in word, but with singing as well.

“Music was my first love, long before basketball entered my life,” Bailey said. “So I like to use it as a positive. If you really are a music fan then you go so far as to read the lyrics of songs and lyrics are very powerful, doesn’t matter how you’re feeling.”

He says he is coming to Star Valley to show people who he is. He may have had success in the NBA in a national spotlight, but he says we all have a responsibility to the people we love.

“Share our gifts,” Bailey said. “To raise our kids the right way, to be thankful for things that we have, and to be on the look out for people who are using their platforms for other things.”

He says he just wants to come and share his talents with the community. He joked the ladies really appreciate his musical talents because he has the deep voice.

“It’ll be fun to just be here,” Bailey said. “I’m putting together a tribute to crooners.”

He says different types of music has its place, but he wants to pay homage to singers like Frank Sinatra. He also mentioned he was raised with R & B music so he will also celebrate the style of Lionel Richie.

He says he is excited to come back to Star Valley and it’s not just because of the cool weather.

“It’s the whole package,” Bailey said. “It’s the scenery, it’s the people, you know it is the community.”

The event begins at 8:30 AM. The the basketball clinic will be following the conference at 1 PM.