NBA All-Star 2015 games will begin on Valentine's Day in New York City, and NBA announced today that the league will engage more than one million New York City youth with basketball programs across the five boroughs as part of its NBA Cares All-Star efforts.
Amidst many first-time undertakings at NBA All-Star 2015, the league will host basketball and fitness clinics in 100 schools - 20 per borough - during the NBA All-Star FIT Celebration on NBA FIT Friday, Feb. 13. These efforts will be supported by Kaiser Permanente and will feature a member of the NBA family, from NBA All-Stars to WNBA players to NBA legends, at each site. Additionally, the NBA and State Farm will donate $500,000 to refurbish 10 indoor basketball courts - two per borough - in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.
Also on Friday, Feb. 13, NBA All-Stars will join the world's first food rescue organization City Harvest, celebrity chef Mario Batali, NBA partners, and hundreds of volunteers from the NBA family to sort and pack 160,000 pounds of food to benefit more than 10,000 New Yorkers in need. The daylong project will take place at Metropolitan Pavilion with the support of SAP and State Farm as part of the NBA Cares All-Star Day of Service.
The seasonlong NBA Cares All-Star community efforts launched in September with a Staten Island court dedication attended by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) Executive Director Michele Roberts. While the original aim was to reach 500,000 kids throughout New York City, the league was able to increase the goal to one million children following a tremendous response from the Department of Education and community-based organizations. In partnership with the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks, NBA Cares will have hosted 754 events to encourage kids and families to lead healthy, active lifestyles across the five boroughs by the time the 64th annual NBA All-Star Game tips off on Sunday, Feb. 15.
Over the next 10 days, more than 3,000 NBA family members and partners, in addition to 100 military members, will demonstrate a collective commitment to service by volunteering throughout New York communities.
In partnership with Sprint, the NBA will host mobile device recycling events at a Manhattan Sprint Store on Monday, Feb. 9 with NBA legend Ron Harper and at a Brooklyn Sprint Store on Wednesday, Feb. 11 with Brooklyn Nets center Mason Plumlee. Fans can responsibly recycle their phones for a chance to win tickets to the Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game and earn credit back as part of the Sprint Buyback program where Sprint will match any major U.S. carrier phone trade-in pricing.
To demonstrate the importance of education in guiding students along the pathway to success, the NBA will host NBA Cares All-Star Coding Sessions presented by SAP at NBA House presented by BBVA Compass at LIU Brooklyn Paramount Theatre. On Wednesday, Feb. 11, Girls Who Code will invite local students to present innovative projects they have designed to a panel of WNBA players and legends and executives from the NBA and SAP, while Code.org facilitators will join SAP employee volunteers to lead "Hour of Code" tutorials for local youth on Thursday, Feb. 12.
Additional highlights include the NBA/National Wheelchair Basketball Association All-Star Wheelchair Classic taking place in Brooklyn on Thursday, Feb. 12 and the NBA Cares Special Olympics Unified Sports Basketball Game, in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company, at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Feb. 14.
