Grizzlies Launch Mayo Billboards For Rookie Of The Year Campaign

Grizzlies Promoting Mayo On Three Billboards In Phoenix Area During All-Star Game

The Grizzlies Thursday unveiled three billboards in Phoenix around the NBA All-Star Game promoting rookie G O.J. Mayo as part of the team's Rookie of the Year campaign for Mayo, according to Ronald Tillery of the Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL. The billboards feature a "giant picture of Mayo" and the tag line, "Welcome to the Show." The billboards are located between the Phoenix Sky Harbor Int'l Airport and US Airways Center, and the campaign is in conjunction with the launch of voteoj.com. Mayo will participate in both the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and the inaugural game of H-O-R-S-E this weekend, and Grizzlies President of Business Operations Greg Campbell said, "We decided that there would be no better place than Phoenix, with the national spotlight on All-Star Weekend to debut O.J.'s Rookie of the Year campaign." Tillery notes the award is "selected by a panel of media members who cover the NBA on a daily basis," which is why the Grizzles "decided to focus their campaign on All-Star Weekend, when media regularly assigned to following the league will convene in one place" (Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL, 2/13).

CALLING YOU BACK: In Ft. Lauderdale, Sarah Talalay reported T-Mobile Friday will break a new TV spot featuring Heat G Dwyane Wade and TNT's Charles Barkley, as well as Magic C Dwight Howard. T-Mobile in January suspended the series of Wade-Barkley ads following Barkley's drunk driving arrest on December 31. The launch of this new ad coincides with Friday's T-Mobile Rookie Challenge, as Wade and Howard are "on the coaching staffs of the rookies and sophomores, respectively" (SUN-SENTINEL.com, 2/12).

FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Knicks F Al Harrington Friday on CSN Chicago’s “Monsters in the Morning” discussed his involvement with Samaritan’s Feet, an organization dedicated to giving shoes to kids that have never worn them before. Harrington said Kmart, which is the exclusive retailer of his Protégé shoe and apparel line, was “willing to donate one million pairs of shoes” to the cause. Harrington compared his shoe to suspended Knicks G Stephon Marbury’s Starbury shoes and said the “quality and the technical savvy of the shoe is totally different” (CSN Chicago, 2/13).

FITNESS CHALLENGE: NBA Fit, the league's health and wellness initiative, and the Body By Milk campaign Thursday jointly launched a new national campaign, Get Fit By Finals, featuring Hornets G Chris Paul and WNBA Mercury G Diana Taurasi (NBA).