The NBA and WNBA group will tip-off the camp with a basketball clinic for athletes from Special Olympics South Africa on Aug 30. The athletes will work on basketball fundamentals in a series of drills and exercises during the hour-long clinic.
The NBA and its teams have partnered with Special Olympics to host basketball skills clinics in countries worldwide, including, Brazil, China, England, France, Italy,Mexico, Senegal, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey.
Adding to a partnership that began in 2007, the NBA/WNBA contingent will help build two homes with Habitat for Humanity South Africa in Orange Farm Township on Aug 31.
Upon completion of the houses, which are supported by the Pagliuca family, 13 homes will have been built in the country as part of NBA Cares efforts at Basketball without Borders Africa.
The highlight of the week is the dedication of the NBA Cares Legacy Project, a newly refurbished sports complex in Alex Township, on Sept 1.
Alex is one of the largest urban neighborhoods in South Africa and this renovated area will provide four new basketball/netball courts creating a safe space for kids and families to play. The dedication ceremony will also feature a basketball and fitness clinic led by the NBA/WNBA players and coaches.
In addition to the community outreach events, NBA players will join BWB community partners UNICEF and Hoops4Hope to lead the campers in daily life-skills seminars focusing on leadership and HIV/AIDS education.
The NBA will also make donations to partnering community-based organizations, which will include school supplies, sports equipment, clothing, and other necessities.
BWB Africa is hosted by St. John’s College and the King Edward VII School in Johannesburg and features a boys camp with top players 18 and under from across Africa, as well as a girls camp for 25 top players from across South Africa.
Thabo Sefolosha, whose father is South African, will join his Oklahoma City Thunder teammates Serge Ibaka (Congo), Nick Collison and Cole Aldrich as camp coaches along with Chicago Bulls Luol Deng (South Sudan), Milwaukee Bucks Luc Mbah A Moute (Cameroon), Brooklyn Nets CJ Watson, and NBA Global Ambassador Dikembe Mutombo (DRC).
Sefolosha, Ibaka, Collison, Deng, Mbah a Moute and Mutombo have all previously participated in BWB camps, Mbah a Moute as both a camper (2003) and an NBA player coach.
NBA coaches and personnel attending the camp include Ron Adams (Chicago Bulls); Jim Boylan (Milwaukee Bucks); Luca Desta (Dallas Mavericks); Patrick Hunt (FIBA Coach);BJ Johnson (Houston Rockets); Popeye Jones (Brooklyn Nets); Milton Newton (Washington Wizards) and Patrick Mutombo (Denver Nuggets). Keith Jones from the Houston Rockets and Brian Zettler from the Utah Jazz join as camp trainers, whilst Phoenix Suns General Manager Lance Blanks and Denver Nuggets General Manager Masai Ujiri from Nigeria, the first African general manager of a US sports franchise, return as camp directors.
·* Meanwhile, the National Minister of Sport Fikile “Mbaks”Mbalula will host a welcome reception, for NBA guests this Friday evening in Sandton.
