Breaking boundaries with basketball

Kids all around the world hurl themselves towards hoop dreams. Through Basketball without Borders, the NBA aspires to make some of those dreams a reality.
Since its inception in 2001, Basketball without Borders has run camps in eight countries and territories on four separate continents and has featured more than 120 NBA players, coaches and team personnel. Campers are selected by the International Basketball Association for their dedication to the game and for their ability. This year's Asian camp, to be held in Shanghai from June 9 through 12 at the Shanghai Sports Institute, boasts 49 campers, aged 17 to 19, from across the continent. NBA coaches from the Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets host basketball workshops, while health professionals and counselors create strategies for campers whose lives provide more complicated scenarios than the game.
On each morning of the three-day camp, students are given lectures about personal responsibility. One of the main focuses is HIV-AIDS awareness.
"Last year in Beijing, we invited children with parents who died from AIDs to demonstrate to the campers how HIV-AIDS had impacted their lives," says Cheong Sauching, senior director of NBA international communications in Asia. "We want to show how it affects children. We need to educate people that you can share a meal with kids with HIV-AIDS. Yao Ming and Magic Johnson can share a meal too."

Through teaching kids the art of basketball, they learn how to break down other boundaries -- racial, religious, linguistic and national. Of the 49 campers, only eight are Chinese with the remaining coming from other Asian nations. The campers must learn how to communicate effectively through the game itself. Testifying to the tangibility of that idea is Yao Ming, who will be one of the featured players in attendance.

Joining Yao are Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Childress, Toronto Raptors center Matt Bonner, Houston Rockets teammate Richie Frahm, and Portland Trail Blazers center (and the first South Korean to play in the NBA), Ha Seung-Jin. Organizers say that Yao and Ha were largely responsible for recruiting the other players.

"This will be a special homecoming for me. I hope to make a difference and impact the young Asian basketball talents with on-court and off-court skills and values," says Yao Ming in a press release. "I also look forward to the chance of giving back to the community and city in which I grew up."

In addition to the basketball camps, which hold morning informational workshops on life issues and devote the afternoons and evenings to the game, the NBA has also been working with a migrant school in Shanghai. They plan to renovate a single-story building with a reading, computer and play room. Of course, outside they will construct a basketball court.

"We want our NBA players to understand that they are not only role models for these kids, but also human beings who have a role to play in the world," says Cheong. "And we want the kids to see the world and learn skills, but also realize that life is more than basketball. There is the living part. There are other skills and issues. We live in a world with a lot of conflict and a lot of laughter. People are different and come from different cultures, but sports is (sic) a healthy way for people to communicate with each other across cultures, across language barriers. We do not live in a world isolated from others."