The night, presented by Gatorade, tipped off with a clinic where 150 kids and their parents learned more about the game from some of the best minds in the business.

Charlotte Bobcats and Charlotte Sting President Ed Tapscott, Sting General Manager Trudi Lacey, Bobcats Assistant Coach Gary Kloppenburg, Bobcats Director of Scouting Kenny Williamson and former University of North Carolina player Al Wood were all on hand to provide a lesson in the fundamentals of the game.

Using participants from the audience as volunteers, the instructors demonstrated drills for defense, ball handling, shooting as well as some offensive moves.

Then, in the spirit of the Youth Basketball Network, everyone had a chance to participate as Tapscott called all of the kids on the floor. Under his instructions, they all worked on their defensive stance and rapid foot fire moves on the Bobcats’ playing court.

But it wasn’t just the kids who got involved. Tapscott also invited the parents to come down and participate in several drills.

“It was a special time to come out on the court,” Tapscott said. “It was fun to participate with our Youth Basketball Network. It was fun to get out here and talk about the sport and talk about what we do and engage both the parents and the youngsters.

“This is a terrific thing for us. One, it really touches young people and two, it helps us enforce some of the values of our league and the values we are trying to teach.”

Those values include good sportsmanship, education and hard work.

“For the kids, this teaches them some basic fundamental principles about basketball and also about life,” said Lacey. “It teaches them that in order to be successful they have to work hard and work on their skills and academically, they have to do well if they want to go on and play in high school, college and maybe even professionally.”

The clinic also gave Lacey a chance to share with the kids a little bit about the game that has given her so much.

“I think the best thing was the opportunity to share about the game that I love,” she said. “Basketball has been wonderful to me. It’s a lot of fun to get out with the kids and interact with them.”

The Youth Basketball Network Night also included an officials’ clinic led by NBA Director of Referee Development, Joe Borgia.

The clinic gave officials from around the region a chance to learn skills that will help elevate their performance as they officiate local games. The group also had the chance to hear from some of the top officials in the world as Scott Foster, Bennie Adams and Tommy Nunez, the three officials for that night’s Charlotte Bobcats game, joined them for a question and answer session.

Following the clinics, all the participants headed into the seats, where they watched the Charlotte Bobcats defeat the Chicago Bulls.

During halftime, several kids were given the opportunity to demonstrate what they had learned as they participated in a basketball obstacle course in front of thousands of fans.