Garrity Participating in Basketball Without Borders Asia

SHANGHAI, CHINA – June 6, 2006 – Orlando Magic forward Pat Garrity will be in China to participate in NBA Cares community outreach for Basketball without Borders Asia in Shanghai, China. The outreach features extensive events and activities, focusing on HIV/AIDS awareness, education and grassroots basketball development that will leave a lasting legacy in the community, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) announced today. Community outreach includes the creation of an NBA Cares Learn & Play Center, the refurbishment of a basketball court, a Special Olympics Basketball Clinic, an HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness event and daily life-skills seminars for camp participants.

“Basketball without Borders is one of the cornerstones of the NBA’s global outreach efforts," said Mark Fischer, Vice President and Managing Director of NBA China. "Basketball provides a platform for us to reach out to different segments of the community, touching their lives with important social messages. The NBA is grateful for the support of all our BWB partners, whose contributions provide young campers from all over Asia the opportunity to learn new skills on and off the court; and programs to give voice to the needs, hopes, and dreams of young people throughout the community."

Taking place on four continents, Basketball without Borders is a basketball instructional camp for young people that also promotes friendship, healthy living and education with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention with current and former NBA players and team personnel as camp coaches. Since the inaugural camp in 2001, Basketball without Borders has featured more than 120 NBA players, coaches and team personnel from 29 different teams as camp coaches for the more than 700 young athletes from nearly 100 different countries and territories. The NBA family and the campers have traveled more than 85 million miles and logged more than 1 million hours of community service participating in Basketball without Borders.

As the action and excitement of the NBA Finals tip off on June 8, Basketball without Borders Asia will bring together the top young basketball players (ages 19 & under) from across the continent for community outreach and basketball instruction at the Shanghai Sports Institute in Shanghai, China until June 11. The camp will feature American Airlines, Haier, McDonald’s, Nokia, NuSports, Reebok, Spalding and the Shanghai Media Group as marketing partners. Coca-cola will be the official beverage contributor for Basketball without Borders Asia.

Camp coaches include Garrity, Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Childress (USA), Toronto Raptors center Matt Bonner (USA), Houston Rockets guard Richie Frahm (USA), Portland Trail Blazers center Ha Seung-Jin (South Korea) and Philadelphia 76ers center Samuel Dalembert, who will be participating in his sixth camp this year. NBA veterans Sam Perkins and Jerome Williams, Mike Wilhelm of the Chicago Bulls, Hank Egen of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Tom Abdenour of the Golden State Warriors also will participate. Houston Rockets assistant coach Dean Cooper will oversee as camp director. On the advice of his doctors, Houston Rockets rockets center Yao Ming will not be participating as he continues to rehabilitate from foot surgery performed earlier this year.

To promote friendship and diversity, the campers will be divided into teams without regard to race and nationality. They will share living quarters with their new teammates and participate in daily motivational life-skills seminars that promote education, leadership, character development, healthy living and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. The HIV/AIDS interactive educational seminars will be led by NBA Cares community partners, such as United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the world’s leading non-governmental organization dedicated to children.

Community outreach activities will tip off on Friday, June 9, with a Special Olympics Basketball Clinic sponsored by McDonald’s. The event will feature 100 Special Olympics Athletes (age 8-14) at a basketball clinic at the Shanghai University of Sport coached by NBA players and coaches. Participants will be divided into groups and receive various skills training such a shooting, passing and dribbling.

The highlight of Basketball without Borders Asia will be the dedication ceremony of the NBA Cares Legacy Project at the Fu Sheng School, a school for children of migrant workers, on Saturday, June 10. The project, sponsored by Haier and Nokia, includes the refurbishment of a new NBA Cares Learn & Play Center facility, consisting of a multimedia room complete with 20 computers, a library stocked with more than 2,000 books, and the creation of two new classrooms. This will mark the second Learn & Play Center to open in China. China’s first NBA Cares Learn & Play Center at the Hui Lei Migrant School opened at last year’s Basketball without Borders Asia camp in Beijing, China.

Nokia will sponsor the refurbishment of the school’s basketball court that will provide a safe place for the students to play. Haier will fund the refurbishment of the Learn & Play Center, which also includes product donation of Haier televisions and DVD players to the school. Reebok will also make a donation of basketball apparel. The Learn & Play Center demonstrates a joint effort to promote the importance of education with the camp’s partners and the Shanghai Charity Foundation. Highlights of the camp’s activities and community outreach will be broadcast daily by the Shanghai Media Group. The NBA and FIBA will also donate products, such as basketballs, rims and sporting goods to local basketball federations and communities.

On Sunday, June 11, NBA in partnership with UNICEF China, the Chinese Ministry of Education and Spalding, will announce the launch and distribution of NBA Cares/ UNICEF “Skills for Life in a Box” throughout China as part of the “Unite For Children, Unite Against AIDS” global campaign by UNICEF. The “Skills for Life in a Box” will contain interactive HIV/AIDS educational materials for teachers to use as teaching tools with their students, imparting the life skills they need to make and form intelligent decisions in life. In addition, each kit will contain basketball equipment to encourage a healthy, active lifestyle. Following the press conference, teachers from the Chinese Ministry of Education, UNICEF Global Campaign Youth Ambassadors and the NBA players, will lead children from the Fuyang AIDS Orphan Salvation (AOS) in a basketball clinic and HIV/AIDS educational exercises that live out the NBA Cares/UNICEF “Skills for Life in a Box.”

The inaugural Basketball without Borders took place in Europe in July 2001. NBA legend Vlade Divac and Toni Kukoc of the Milwaukee Bucks, together with five other NBA players from the former Yugoslavia, re-united to work with 50 children from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia and Montenegro at La Ghirada in Treviso, Italy. Since then, Basketball without Borders has expanded its reach to eight countries and territories on four separate continents. In addition to China, Basketball without Borders Europe will take place for the first time in Vilnius, Lithuania June 30-July 3, Puerto Rico will host its first Basketball without Borders Americas, July 17-20 and Basketball without Borders Africa will return to Johannesburg, South Africa September 6-10.

The NBA’s relationship with Chinese basketball dates back to 1979 when the Washington Bullets (now Wizards) traveled to China to play two exhibition games against the Chinese National Team. NBA games were first televised in China in 1987. Since then, the NBA has continued its efforts to grow the game of basketball through a variety of grassroots events, player tours, coaching clinics and the NBA China Games 2004. Since its founding in 1946, the NBA has become a global phenomenon that transcends national boundaries. With 30 teams in the United States and Canada, NBA games and related programming are broadcast to 214 countries in 43 languages. For more information on the NBA, visit NBA.com.