Basketball without Borders Expands to Four Continents; Featuring Yao Ming, Manu Ginobili, Dirk Nowitzki, Andrei Kirilenko and Dikembe Mutombo.

NEW YORK -- Basketball without Borders, the league's premiere international basketball and community relations outreach program, will expand to four continents and will be staged in China for the first time, it was announced today by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). The program, a basketball instructional camp for young people that also promotes friendship, healthy living and education, features current and former NBA players and team personnel as camp coaches. To date, more than 440 youngsters from 72 different countries and territories have taken part in the NBA and FIBA program and Reading & Learning Centers have been created in South Africa and Brazil as part of its community outreach efforts.

"Basketball without Borders is a global program that brings people together to discuss important social issues such as HIV/AIDS prevention while emphasizing the importance of education and healthy living," said NBA Commissioner David Stern. "The NBA is proud to work together with FIBA and its basketball federations to help young people from diverse national and economic backgrounds come together and learn through the sport of basketball."

The camps will mark a return home for top NBA international players, reinforcing their commitment to their communities. Emanuel Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs will return to Buenos Aires, Argentina with NBA players for the second annual Basketball without Borders Americas June 30-July 4. The local training facility for national sports teams, Cenard (Centro Nacional de Alto Rendimiento Deportivo), will host the camp. BWB Marketing Partners include Aerolineas Argentinas, McDonald's, Nike and Spalding. Led by native son Yao Ming, star center for the Houston Rockets, the first Basketball without Borders Asia will take place July 14-17 at the Beijing Olympic Training Facility in Beijing, China and will feature McDonald's, Nokia, Reebok and Spalding as BWB Marketing Partners. He will be joined by a group of NBA players including San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker.

In its fifth year, Basketball without Borders Europe will feature a contingent of NBA players from Europe, including Russia's Andrei Kirilenko of the Utah Jazz and Germany's Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks at La Ghirada Sports Facility in Treviso, Italy July 28-31 with McDonald's, Nike and Spalding as BWB Marketing Partners. For the third consecutive year, Congo native Dikembe Mutombo of the Houston Rockets will lead a group of NBA players to Johannesburg, South Africa for Basketball without Borders Africa September 7-12. The camp will take place at the American International School of Johannesburg. BWB Marketing Partners will be Molten, Reebok, South African Airways, Spalding and Sprite.

"Together with our partners from the NBA, we are pleased to be able to extend the camp to four continents," said FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann. "The first edition on Asian soil, where basketball is the most popular sport, will further benefit from this program. It has been exciting to witness the evolution of the young campers with many of them from previous camps moving on to higher competitive levels and representing their countries on national teams. Through the community relations initiatives linked to each camp, the sport of basketball reaches out and addresses significant social issues. We thank the basketball federations of Argentina, China, Italy and South Africa as well as the FIBA Zones of Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe for their continuous and important support."

Each Basketball without Borders camp will feature a group of current and former NBA players and coaching personnel -- acting as camp coaches -- and will unite the top young basketball players (ages 19 & under) from across each region to take part in basketball instruction and competition. One of the goals of Basketball without Borders is to help explore, develop and nurture the top basketball talent on each continent. Some campers, who have participated in the program, have gone on to play competitive basketball internationally and at schools in the United States.

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 seminars that promote education, leadership, character, healthy living and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. At the Europe and Americas camps, the HIV/AIDS educational seminar will be led by UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.

In Argentina, China and South Africa, the camps will be highlighted by extensive community outreach activities focusing on HIV/AIDS awareness, education and grassroots basketball development. Efforts will culminate with an NBA Community Legacy Project, the NBA's premiere community initiative, which ranges from a refurbished recreation facility and/or the creation of a state-of-the-art Reading and Learning Center. The NBA and FIBA also will donate products, such as basketballs, rims and sporting goods to local basketball federations.

"NBA players have a great passion for the game and for giving back to the community," said NBA Legend and Community Ambassador Bob Lanier. "Basketball without Borders combines the best of the NBA - community outreach and basketball development - and brings it all over the world to touch lives and make a lasting difference."

During the last two trips to South Africa, the camps included a dedication of the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation boys and girls youth hostels, a new basketball court and the opening of a Reading and Learning Center at Ithuteng Trust, a Youth Empowerment Program founded in 1990 by Jackey "Mama Jackey" Maarohanye, in Pimville, South Africa. Most of the students come from extremely poverty-stricken families and the majority are orphans due to political violence, crime and AIDS.

As a part of the NBA's Read to Achieve program, the NBA and its teams have created Reading and Learning Centers that provide access to reading materials and technology for young people. To date, the NBA and its teams have created 100 Reading and Learning Centers and more than 200 Reading Corners to enhance local reading programs around the globe.

In conjunction with the 2005 launch of Basketball without Borders, visitors to NBA.com will have the opportunity to bid for authentic jerseys, Nike and Reebok basketball shoes and basketballs signed by some of the headliners for each camp and new items will be posted throughout the auction until April 26. The proceeds will go to the NBA Basketball without Borders Fund, which supports community outreach efforts that address important social issues around the world with a special emphasis on education, youth sports, and HIV/AIDS awareness and education. The NBA.com Network also will feature full coverage of every camp including player interviews, video clips, photo galleries and interactive downloads, with specialized content on NBA.com/china, NBA.com/espanol and the NBA's other international web sites.

The inaugural Basketball without Borders took place in Europe in July 2001. Vlade Divac of the Los Angeles Lakers 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, FYRO Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia and Montenegro at La Ghirada in Treviso, Italy. Since then, Basketball without Borders has expanded its reach to four continents. The first Basketball without Borders Asia will take place in Beijing, China. La Ghirada in Treviso, Italy will host Basketball without Borders Europe for the fourth time and Basketball without Borders Africa will be the NBA's sixth trip to Africa. In its second year, Basketball without Borders Americas will head to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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. The NBA is one of the largest suppliers of sports television and Internet programming in the world. Through NBA Entertainment, the league's award-winning production and programming division, the league produces NBA TV, a 24-hour television network, weekly television shows, and exclusive content for each of the NBA's team web sites, and the league's official sites, NBA.com, WNBA.com and NBDL.com. The league has also continued its partnerships with the leading Internet content and technology providers to bring the game experience even closer to its fans worldwide. For more information on the NBA, visit NBA.com.