Overview:
Slajchert will give the keynote speech at what would have been Luc Bodden’s upcoming graduation ceremony at Oak Park High School
J.D. Slajchert’s world revolved around a big orange ball during his young life:
Third basketball player to ever score 1,000 points at Oak Park High School … Most Valuable Player at Phillips Exeter Academy, a prep school in New Hampshire … One of the most popular reserves to ever play for UC Santa Barbara.
But then his biggest fan — 10-year-old Luc Bodden — died of complications from sickle-cell anemia just before the start of the 6-foot-6 redhead’s junior season in Santa Barbara.
It changed the orbit of Slajchert’s life in ways that are still evolving for the former Gaucho.
“When I met Luc and went through my friendship with him, it really wasn’t until he passed away that it all fully set in,” he told Noozhawk.
“I came to terms with the fact that, ‘Hey, there’s a much bigger world out there than just the sport you’re playing.’”
Slajchert has since become a motivational speaker and has authored two books as well as a screenplay about Luc’s life.
He’s also become a driving force behind the LucStrong Foundation founded by Luc’s parents, Stacy and Matthew.
His new orbit will bring him full circle next month at the graduation ceremony for his high school alma mater.
“I’ve written this book about him (MoonFlower) and have gone on all these speaking events about him,” he said of Luc. “Every year I return to my old high school, and also the middle school and elementary school in that district, and talk about Luc on the anniversary of his death (on Sept. 14, 2016).
“That’s been going on for the last five, six years, and now it’s all sort of culminating on May 23 at what would’ve been Luc’s high school graduation.”
Slajchert will deliver a keynote speech and then present an honorary diploma to the Bodden family. Luc also had an older brother, Shane, and a sister, Tarren.
“To honor Luc and send off his class, which is a bunch of kids that I’ve really gotten to know so well, is just a super-special thing,” he said.
“And through this, I’m trying to raise $24,000 for the LucStrong Foundation.”
Inspiring UCSB’s Laker
Los Angeles Lakers guard Gabe Vincent, another one of Little Luc’s buddies at UCSB, plans to attend the May 23 graduation even if a police escort has to rush him from a playoff game.
Luc believed in him when he was a longshot to ever make an NBA roster.
“I met Luc through J.D. during my freshman year,” said Vincent, whose Lakers trail the NBA champion Denver Nuggets 3-1 in their best-of-seven series in the Western Conference playoffs. “He’d come to some of our games, and I wound up getting really close to his family … to his parents and sister.
“We’ve stayed close ever since … I consider them family.”
Luc took a turn for the worse during the summer after Vincent’s sophomore season of 2015-2016.
He made a deathbed prediction when the Gaucho guard visited him at the hospital for the final time.
“He told me I was going to make it … that I was going to make it to the NBA,” Vincent said. “It was one of the last things he told me.”
The dais at Oak Park High’s graduation will give Slajchert and Vincent another platform to fund-raise for LucStrong, a foundation that assists families with children afflicted by sickle-cell disease.
Its website — LucStrong.org — points out that the disorder occurs in about one out of every 365 African-American births and about one out of every 16,300 Latino-American births.
“The only known cure for SCD is a bone marrow transplant, in which the cost is extensive,” the site says. “Many families who enter the bone marrow transplant process find themselves in great emotional and financial strain and as a result are unable to meet some of their basic living expenses.
“The LucStrong Foundation offers grants, parking vouchers and gift cards to assist eligible families in meeting the financial challenges they are faced with.”
Biggest Little Fan
Luc began following the athletic teams of Oak Park High when he started attending nearby Red Oak Elementary School in the Ventura County community, near Thousand Oaks.
Slajchert soon became one of his favorite Eagles.
His sister, Tarren, one of Slajchert’s schoolmates, eventually took it a step further.
“Luc and his family would bring him to my games, and he’d love it, and then they’d go home,” Slajchert said. “But it was actually Tarren who took it upon herself to come up to me and introduce herself.
“She said, ‘Hey, my little brother is your biggest fan and really wants to meet you … And he doesn’t know I’m doing this, but I want to set up a surprise.’”
Slajchert, then a 17-year-old senior, and Luc, a 6-year-old first-grader, became best friends at first sight.
Luc would come to Oak Park’s games in full Eagles gear. He’d fist-bump all the players before each game and then hug them afterward, win or lose.
“He was the beating heart of the Oak Park community,” Slajchert recalled.
Luc had just ended a year of isolation after his bone-marrow transplant at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles when Slajchert returned from his prep school year in New Hampshire and enrolled at UCSB in the fall of 2014.
“When I committed to Santa Barbara, Luc was like my first call,” Slajchert said. “I was thinking ahead, ‘Oh, he could come to my games again.’
“When I went home from Exeter during Thanksgiving break, I saw him in the hospital and brought him all this Gaucho stuff … The stars were all sort of aligned because when I was moving back from New Hampshire he was just moving out of the hospital.
“We reconnected in a big way my freshman year … and for the remainder of his life.”
More Than a Game
Luc’s prospects had improved during the years after his blood-marrow transplant of Aug. 6, 2013.
His family had even planned a party around a game of kickball — one of Luc’s favorite activities — to celebrate the third-year anniversary of the transplant.
But he took ill that very day. He was rushed to the hospital instead of the party and died barely a month later, on Sept. 14, 2016.
“While in the ER, Luc’s biggest concern was that everyone was coming together for the kickball party and it wasn’t going to happen,” said his mother, Stacy Wilson-Bodden.
“He was extremely upset that we had to cancel and even asked the doctor if he could go to the party and promised that I would bring him back after it was over.”
The family made him another promise: They would reschedule the kickball game for another time.
They kept that promise in 2018 — and for every year since — as a memorial fundraiser on the anniversary of his bone-marrow transplant.
“It was pretty heavy,” Slajchert recalled. “We’d been planning the kickball party for months and were literally all getting together when we got the call about him returning to the hospital.
“It was a pretty devastating thing for Luc.”
The medical community likes to describe a bone-marrow transplant as a patient’s “second birthday,” he noted.
“It’s your rebirth, and you celebrate that,” Slajchert said. “Having a kickball tournament was how Luc wanted to celebrate that with all his buddies.”
The LucStrong Foundation also holds several pickleball tournaments throughout the year. The most recent one, held on April 6, drew 300 participants and raised $20,000 to help 14 families dealing with SCD.
The next pickleball tournament fund-raiser is set for July 6-7 at Arroyo Vista Community Park in Moorpark.
The Write Stuff
Slajchert dealt with his little friend’s death by writing a book about his short life.
He sacrificed his own social life, immersing himself in MoonFlower during his final two years at UCSB. He worked on it even during road trips to such places as Texas A&M and Pittsburgh.
His relationship with Vincent and several other Gaucho classmates grew despite his solitary focus.
“Those guys stayed by me, really hard,” Slajchert said. “They just understood.”
Vincent, whose play helped the Miami Heat reach the 2023 NBA Finals, moved in with Slajchert in Los Angeles last summer after signing a free-agent contract with the Lakers.
They had started alongside each other for UCSB’s season opener against Omaha on Nov. 12, 2016 — just eight weeks after Luc’s death.
“I was freaking out at the time,” Slajchert admitted. “But Luc’s death had just sort of pushed me into this place where there’s no excuse anymore.
“If I need to get to practice two hours early every day, and that’s what will help me get on this floor, than that’s what I’ll do.”
“I think that’s what Bob saw,” he added, referring to former UCSB coach Bob Williams, “and that’s why he decided, ‘OK, I’m going to let this kid start.’”
Slajchert started only one other game as a Gaucho, although he did have some productive games off the bench. They included a 10-point, eight-rebound performance against Seattle.
He also scored 12 points against UC Irvine and scrapped for 11 rebounds in another Big West Conference contest against UC Riverside.
His emergence as a fan favorite grew from the maniacal way he played defense and cheered for his teammates from the bench.
The Thunderdome gave him a standing ovation when he made the final basket of his Senior Night game in a victory over Cal Poly on March 3, 2018.
“Biggest shot of my career,” he recalled with a laugh.
Slajchert admits, however, that his biggest challenge came when he took up the banner for Luc Bodden.
“For some people, it might’ve been easier to just not think about it,” he said. “For me, it’s actually helped to talk about it with others and try to do good with it.
“It’s given me a real vehicle to spread some good, and I’m very, very grateful for that … and also to the school, to allow me this opportunity at their graduation.”
The nerves he felt the night of the Omaha game have been resurfacing of late, he admitted.
Talking about something so personal in front of so many at a high school graduation will be daunting, he said.
“It’s going to be a big moment, and I’m trying to distract myself from getting too overwhelmed by it,” Slajchert said.
“But man, these are all of Luc’s best friends who are graduating … I want to send them off right.”
And return a cheer for the little fan who had rooted so hard for him.
