More than 30 middle school-aged kids sat on wooden benches inside a gym in Gagetown, a tiny New Brunswick village about 60 kilometres away from the capital city of Fredericton.

They gathered to present their work analyzing basketball statistics and learning about the world of data science in the process.

What they didn't know is that NBA star Pascal Siakam would be joining them in the gym, sporting an "Education is Freedom" t-shirt and ready to listen to what they'd learned about how to use open data.

The students were part of the Indiana Pacers forward's Data Dunkers program, a partnership between his PS43 Foundation and Dell Technologies that sees Grade 5 to 12 students learn about data analysis through basketball.

His appearance — a real-life pro basketball player, and part of one o

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