NBA Cares

This last weekend was one of the biggest events in the NBA (National Basketball Association). It was All-Star weekend, and this year it was located in Phoenix, Arizona. During All-Star weekend, they have many different events that take place on and off the court. The events that take place on the court include a celebrity game, rookie vs. sophomore challenge, game of horse, skills challenge, three-point contest, slam-dunk contest, and the West vs. the East All-Star game. Many people fill the stadium not just to see their favorite NBA player but to see the best NBA players currently in the game that take part during All-Star weekend.

Many people might think all NBA players do is just play basketball and get paid a lot of money, but the majority of the players do things off the court like help in their local communities. During All-Star weekend, they have a NBA Cares day to kick off All-Star weekend. All of the players that are selected to play in the All-Star game participate in the NBA Cares day. This year for NBA Cares, they had 1,000 people who helped the NBA and WNBA players, coaches, and legends build a playground, refurnish a house, and renovate a local school. Here is a video of the players helping in the community.

This doesn’t happen just during the All-Star weekend, but during the whole year. Many players do things in their communities too so it’s just not the players who made the All-Star game helping out. During the season players will visit kids in hospitals, schools, read to kids, and serve dinners and help build playgrounds at schools or in neighborhoods.

If you watch NBA games, they use the media to air NBA Cares commercials to show what NBA players are doing to help in the community. To make all of this work, the NBA players have to be prepared and come up with a plan for what they are going to do to help the community. I’m sure many of the players set goals on how many projects they want to take part in over a year and how many people they want to help.

Many little kids look up to NBA players because most kids want to be like them someday. By helping out in the community, the NBA is setting a good example for everyone and this can only get more people involved in community events.