Photo Credit: Dana/Dutch Cowgill

Chance to Win Tickets to Rockets-Celtics Game

May 29, 2009

MCALLEN, TEXAS - Academy Sports + Outdoors, the NBA D-League Rio Grande Valley Vipers and Fox 2 News announced today that they will be hosting three basketball clinics for boys and girls ages 9-through-14 throughout the summer at Academy locations in Edinburg, McAllen and Brownsville.

The clinics will be free. Clinic participants will also receive breakfast, a t-shirt and a photo with Vipers players.

Participants at each camp will have a chance to win two tickets to the Houston Rockets-Boston Celtics game on October 7 at Dodge Arena, courtesy of Academy Sports + Outdoors. There are no longer any individual tickets available for this game.

The first clinic, run by Vipers head coach Clay Moser and featuring Vipers players, is scheduled for Saturday, June 27 at Academy in Edinburg.

The second clinic, run by Vipers players Trent Strickland, Quin Humphrey and Stanley Asumnu, is scheduled for Saturday, July 11 at Academy’s Ware Rd. location in McAllen.

The third clinic, run by Vipers assistant coach and 13-year NBA-veteran player Robert Pack and featuring Vipers players, is scheduled for Saturday, July 25 at Academy in Brownsville.

Each camp will start at 8:00 a.m. with registration and breakfast. At 9:00, the kids will break up into three age-based groups to work on offense, defense and conditioning for 30 minutes each. At 10:30 there will be a one-hour autograph/picture session with Fang and Vipers players or coaches.

The Rio Grande Valley Vipers are a professional basketball team in the NBA Development League (NBA D-League). The NBA Development League, founded in 2001, is the NBA’s official minor league and featured 16 teams with direct affiliations to NBA teams during the 2008-09 season. This fall, two new NBA D-League teams will begin play in Portland, Maine and Springfield, Mass.-- the birthplace of basketball. Eighty-four former NBA Development League players were on 2008-09 NBA end-of-season rosters, amounting to almost 20 percent of NBA players, and the league continues to develop coaches, referees, and front office staff for the NBA and its teams. In fostering the league’s connection to the community, its teams, players and staff promote health and wellness, support local needs and interests, and assist in educational development through NBA D-League Cares programs. The NBA D-League also advances the game of basketball as the research and development arm of the NBA. Throughout the season fans can watch all NBA D-League games on NBA Futurecast, the free live Web-streaming initiative found at nba.com/futurecast. The Vipers NBA affiliates are the Houston Rockets, and the New Orleans Hornets.