Yao, Butler Work With NBA To Bring Basketball, Relief To China's Sichuan Province

Former NBA Houston Rockets player Yao Ming and L.A. Clippers F Caron Butler will lead campus activities and clinics this weekend as the NBA focuses "on earthquake-stricken areas in Sichuan province in the lead up to" the China Games this fall, according to Sun Xiaochen of the CHINA DAILY. Butler will "instruct students at a mini camp" at Mount Qingcheng High School in Dujiangyan, a city destroyed in the Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, 2008. Yao, "who has shifted his focus to charity after retiring last year," will join Butler on Saturday in Leshan to attend the final of the Yao Foundation Hope Primary basketball season. Yao and NBA China "plan to work with sports authorities to develop a high school coaches training program; a basketball training center in Shanghai for both amateur and professional players of a wide range of ages, and an annual basketball camp that will focus on developing elite young players" (CHINA DAILY, 8/23).