Skip to main content

NBA: All-Star service events to reach 1 million youth

NEW YORK (AP) The NBA said Friday its season-long community service efforts around New York will have reached a million children in the city's five boroughs by the end of next week's All-Star festivities.

The league announced it would host basketball and fitness clinics in 100 schools - 20 per borough - on Feb. 13. It said there will be an All-Star player, a WNBA player or former NBA player at each site.

The NBA originally set a goal of reaching 500,000 children at a press conference in September for the opening of a playground basketball court in Staten Island that featured Commissioner Adam Silver, Mayor Bill de Blasio and National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts. But the league said it raised the number following a strong response from the New York City Department of Education, which will partner with the NBA and State Farm to donate $500,000 to refurbish 10 indoor basketball courts - two per borough.

All-Star events run throughout next week. The NBA said it will have hosted 754 events this season geared toward kids and families by the time the game takes place on Feb. 15 at Madison Square Garden.