Finding words after a death can be difficult for the person grieving and for those hoping to offer comfort. A shared activity may provide another way to be present. Walking together or taking a moment to honor someone can leave room for remembrance without requiring an explanation of everything a person feels.
For Steven J. Cooper, that possibility has shaped a personal approach to loss. The aerospace manufacturing professional and founder of the 7773 Foundation explains using basketball, endurance challenges, and encounters with strangers to remember loved ones. Through the foundation, he connects charitable fundraising with his basketball journeys, bringing service into activities that carry personal meaning.
Cooper traces the beginning of that approach to walking after his grandmother’s death. His mother’s death later prompted a four-month journey dribbling a basketball across America. His experience informs a broader perspective on grief support. For him, movement offered something to do with sorrow and an opportunity to direct attention toward others.
“It’s hard to get the focus off yourself when the hurt and the pain are all within you,” Cooper says. He explains helping someone else as a way to give that pain an outward purpose. The emphasis in his account is on offering companionship and moments of joy while continuing to carry his own memories. He expresses the importance of turning your grief 180 degrees into positive energy and sunshine. “With no words, just actions, such as passing the basketball, you can support and love those around you,” Cooper remarks.
That perspective fits within a wider range of recognized support options. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration includes physical movement, rituals, community support, and artistic expression among approaches to coping with bereavement. Its guidance also includes counseling and professional mental health support. These options provide context for Cooper’s experiences without establishing his activities as a treatment for grief.
For Cooper, the most direct expression of his approach is the tribute shot. He invites people to put a basketball through a hoop in memory of someone they have lost, or in honor of another person’s loved one. The activity gives participants a clear, shared purpose. Remembering someone becomes part of an ordinary action, with no elaborate speech required.
One setting he considers especially meaningful is Hawaii’s Koko Crater Trail, also known as the Koko Head Trail. Cooper explains hiking the volcanic crater carrying a basketball backboard on his shoulders, then inviting people at the top to take tribute shots. He says he plans to return to Hawaii for another crater hike and to dribble a marathon during his upcoming visit.
At the summit, Cooper says children and adults sometimes become interested in showing off basketball tricks. He brings their attention back to the person being remembered. His focus is on completing a shot with that person in mind, giving an otherwise playful encounter a specific intention.
The value Cooper places on these encounters is consistent with the NIH Clinical Center’s bereavement guidance, which describes making space for people to talk or remain quiet. It also suggests helping people commemorate someone who has died. That guidance leaves room for individual preferences, an important consideration when a shared activity involves something as personal as loss.
Cooper’s journeys also inform his book, Love Always, which brings together reflections on his life and travels in tribute to people who have died. He has also been featured in the book The Champion’s Mindset. His recurring idea is service. He sees remembering loved ones and offering something to other people as closely connected parts of his own response to grief.
For families and community groups, his experience offers a starting point for considering how remembrance might fit into everyday gatherings. An invitation to walk, participate in a familiar activity, or dedicate a small action to someone may create an opening for connection. The NIH guidance’s emphasis on respecting each person’s process remains relevant. Participation can be offered without expecting a particular emotional response.
Cooper’s own ambitions involve long journeys and demanding physical challenges, but the intention he describes is personal and immediate. Passing a ball to someone else is one way he tries to turn remembrance into an act of care.
“Through a simple act like passing someone a basketball, I hope to offer a moment of joy and connection,” Cooper says. “For me, honoring the people we have lost also means showing care for the people around us.”
