As a player, Bob Lanier excelled in an era of outstanding centers such as Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Willis Reed, Dave Cowens, and Bill Walton. Lanier amassed 19,248 points in 14 years and finished his career with averages of 20.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. He became involved in the NBA's community efforts in the late 1980s when he participated in the launching of the NBA's Stay In School program, a nationwide campaign in which the NBA and its players urge middle school students to complete their high school education. Lanier now serves as the NBA's Special Assistant to the Commissioner and touches the lives of thousands of kids a year. Sixers.com had the opportunity to sit down to talk with Lanier and discuss how he became involved in the NBA's community relations program and the importance of reading.

Q. How did you become involved in the NBA's community relations programs?
Lanier: "About the late 80’s, I believe it was, I got a call from Commissioner Stern and he wanted to do a venue for kids about education. That’s when we put together the idea of going around to teens and talking about positive mental attitude, about earning respect in school and at home, about making intelligent choices in your life, about goal setting, and giving more of an effort in education. That transpired into one of the biggest things we did as a league. We got entertainers involved and our players involved in the process, and it became bigger than life. Then it went into ‘Team Up’ and then a couple years ago we started doing this Read to Achieve (program). It’s been really magnificent. Young people really want to have mentors, so we call on our whole NBA family; not only the players with the NBA, WNBA, and NBDL, but also parents, referees, coaches, spouses of players, and those that are close to the NBA to go and take time to read to youngsters. It’s, to me, one of the most beautiful settings that you could ever find. To see these beautiful, bushy-eyed kids and our players sitting around a gym floor with the kids draped on every word and making the words come to life for these youngsters. It’s just terrific.”

Q. What is the Read to Achieve program and what is its importance?
Lanier: 2. “The Read to Achieve’ program is really about trying to develop, for youngsters at an early age, a love for reading because reading is the foundation of being able to succeed in life.”

Q. Why has the NBA chosen reading and literacy as their main community initiative?
Lanier: “We just think it’s that important. If you’re not able to read, I don’t think that you can be really successful in life. You have to be able to read and communicate just to get along in life itself.”

Q. Approximately how many kids do you think the Read to Achieve program has reached out to?
Lanier: “Through our PSA’s we’ve touched well over 50 million people. We have given out, this past year, over 350,000 books to kids from our sponsor, Scholastic. We’ve opened 30-35 Reading and Learning Centers where IBM has donated the software and hardware for the computer learning center, so the kids can have a safe place to go and do their homework, surf the net and have joy in the wonders of being on the Internet. It’s been a tremendous, tremendous success.”

Q. What was your favorite book as a child and why?
Lanier: “I think about now, the books that I like are the books that I read to my little daughter, like Clifford the Big Red Dog and the book about the little lady and the fly, those Dr. Seuss kind of books that are just tremendous reading books that you can interact with your youngsters, more so then think about when I was a kid.”

Q. What is your favorite book now and why?
Lanier: 5. “A book that I’m reading now is John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. I’m into leadership and things like that, so that’s a very intriguing book because it talks about the laws of vision and that’s about goal-setting or the ‘laws of bad apples,’ which is about how your attitude can affect your altitude, in life in terms of your success. Those are things that really help me to connect and I share with youngsters, who are usually middle schoolers through high schoolers.”

“The Read to Achieve’ program is really about trying to develop, for youngsters at an early age, a love for reading because reading is the foundation of being able to succeed in life.”

Q. If you could be a character from any book who would it be and why?
Lanier: “I like that Little Engine that Could character. It shows that size doesn’t matter, where you come from doesn’t matter; the reality is what’s in your heart. If you can believe you can achieve success at something, and you get enough support, you will achieve it.”

Q. What book has had the biggest impact on your life?
Lanier: “The Bible, I would probably have to say, to be sincere. It started off from me sitting in my mother’s lap reading scriptures in the Bible. As I got older and became and adult, basketball allowed me to visit Jerusalem and Israel and it brought to life a lot of the words she talked about. So it would have to be the Bible.”