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.
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I do like what the NBA tries to do with their NBA Cares program. It is there way of giving back the community. I don't know exactly what they do, I want to say they are involved in a reading program and also a rebuilding program.
ReplyDeleteBut how about that slam dunk contest?! That has to be one of the greatest shows in a long time. I mean, How could Dwight Howard dunk on a 12 foot rim, he could have gone a lil higher too! Them you have Robinson, in his all green (kryponyte) uniform, jumping over Howard.
The NBA cares program is a great public relations event for the league. Not only do they read, build houses and visit sick kids in the hospital they take time out of their busy schedules to give back to the community. I don't even do that, OK I guess if I got paid millions of dollars I would. Anyways it make the league look really good. Maybe they should do this for baseball so it will talk the public's of their steroid ridden league. I also thought the dunk contest was pretty awesome, but I liked last years better, Nate Robinson's dunk was sick. It definitely wasn't the best Richardson and Carter anybody?
ReplyDeleteI am not a huge basketball fan, but everytime I happen to watch a game, I actually have noticed the NBA Cares commercials. In fact, I always wish they would cover it more. The athletes look like they are really enjoying themselves and actually doing their part when giving back to the community. I think the National Basketball Association does a tremendous job of doing their parts in communities in need around the country. I especially love to see the players that the fans "love to hate" out there doing their part. It shows to the fans that although they might not be what you like on the court, they can still be great people off the court. This is something that I think the whole NBA Cares program is about, proving that NBA athletes are people too who want to give back to society. The fact that the All-Star game was in Phoenix, Arizona was really fun for me to watch and the video in the blog above is actually filmed in my home town so it was fun to watch. Overall, the NBA does a great job when it comes to the effort to give back to our communities.
ReplyDeleteThe NBA Cares program does a great job of promoting the league. With so much negative press surrounding the players of the league, programs like this that features players donating their own time and money to give back to the community can really help put a positive light on the league. They don't just do this for the public relations, though, they do this because the players and the league has a social responsibility to the community.
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