DENVER, Oct. 22 – Denver Nuggets’ Chris Andersen, Juwan Howard, Predrag Savovic and Nikoloz Tskitishvili along with Nuggets dancers, visited with 50 second-graders from Denver's Baker Elementary at Colorado’s Ocean Journey Tuesday afternoon as part of the Read Team program, affiliated with the NBA’s Read to Achieve campaign. The players spoke with the children about the importance of reading, passed out new books, answered questions, distributed Nuggets merchandise, and signed autographs. Howard also read “The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister to the kids, with a little help from some young volunteers, in front of one of the aquarium's exhibit tanks.

"It's always a great experience to get to work with the kids and teach them that reading is fun," said Howard, who told the kids his favorite book growing up was Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham. "It is important that we get kids reading and learning at a young age."

"It was really fun," said Tskitishvili, a 19-year-old rookie from the Republic of Georgia. "I just love working with kids."

The event was part of “Read to Achieve Week” (October 21-25) with teams holding read The Read Team, the Nuggets version of Read to Achieve, is sponsored by American Family Insurance and AT&T and is an incentive-based program that strives to reduce illiteracy by encouraging second and third grade students in the seven-county metro area to read 20 minutes a day for 20 days during the months of January and February. All students completing this goal receive an incentive from the Denver Nuggets. Classrooms that exceed the prescribed 400 minutes per month have the opportunity to win a player appearance and game tickets.

The NBA’s Read to Achieve campaign is a year-round national program designed to help young people develop a life-long love for reading and encourage adults to read and talk with children regularly. Reaching an estimated 50 million children a year, Read to Achieve is the most extensive educational outreach initiative in the history of professional sports. The effort includes the annual donation of more than 300,000 books and the creation of Reading and Learning Centers in schools and community based organizations throughout the country.

Teams and players will be more active throughout the 2002-03 season in an effort to expand public awareness. Teams will host two Reading Time-Outs per month. Through in-school visits and Reading & Learning Center events, children will have greater access to books and technology.

The program receives league-wide support from the entire NBA family. In addition to being supported by all 29 NBA teams, 16 WNBA teams, and 8 NBDL teams, Read to Achieve is supported by the NBA’s officials, parents and wives of players organizations, and the NBA Players Association and Retired Player Association. Read to Achieve also expands the NBA’s existing partnerships with Scholastic Inc., and Reading Is Fundamental. For more information on the Read Team or the NBA’s Read to Achieve program, please contact Lesley Linscott at 303.405.1104 or llinscott@pepsicenter.com.