Click here to learn more about Zach Randolph's 2004 trip to Africa with Basketball without Borders .
Trail Blazers
Zach Randolph and
Ha Seung-Jin have been chosen ambassadors for the 2005 Basketball without Borders Program. Basketball without Borders, the league’s premiere international basketball and community relations outreach program, has expanded to four continents and will be staged in China for the first time.
The first Basketball without Borders Asia will take place July 14-17 at the Beijing Olympic Training Facility in Beijing, China and will feature Ha Seung-Jin of the Portland Trail Blazers. He will be joined by a group of NBA players including San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker, and Houston Rockets center Yao Ming.
For the second consecutive year, Portland Trail Blazer Zach Randolph will join Dikembe Mutombo of the Houston Rockets and 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.
The program is a basketball instructional camp for young people that also promotes friendship, healthy living and education, and 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.
Each Basketball without Borders camp features a group of current and former NBA players and coaching personnel -- acting as camp coaches – who 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.
In 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.
Click here to learn more about Zach Randolph's 2004 trip to Africa with Basketball without Borders .
