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People and Pop Culture

Closing Shot: Caring Attitude

Since its launch 15 years ago, NBA Cares has carried out the league’s goal to improve communities throughout the world and give children more places to live, learn and play.

NBA Commissioner David Stern has some fun with the WNBA’s Nikki McCray during an NBA Cares Habitat for Humanity Hoops for Homes program in New Orleans in 2006. The league joined Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to rebuild housing in cities devastated the year before by Hurricane Katrina.getty images

When NBA Cares launched 15 years ago, former NBA Commissioner David Stern outlined an ambitious program designed to highlight cause-related efforts and show the power of sports to work for good. 

“The players’ efforts, in my view, haven’t been fully appreciated. Because of that celebrity factor, we sometimes get defined by a weak moment or a bad day, rather than everything we do for those less fortunate,” Stern said on Oct. 18, 2005, launching the effort at SBJ’s inaugural sports and social responsibility forum. “We want people to understand that corporate social responsibility is embedded in the NBA’s DNA.” 

At the time, the NBA was dealing with a player image issue, highlighted bythe Pistons-Pacers brawl the year before. Stern’s message certainly took hold as NBA Cares lived up to its initial billing. 

NBA Cares today counts more than 1,650 legacy projects in 40 countries, including the construction and renovation of reading and learning centers, playgrounds, basketball courts, homes and other places where kids can “live, learn or play,” which is the mantra of the program. NBA Cares also partners with educational and health-related programs.

“It makes me miss David,” Kathy Behrens, president of social responsibility and player programs for the NBA, said of the charitable anniversary. “It was his vision that we needed something like NBA Cares. I remember when we were working on it, we spent a lot of time talking about and thinking through the right ways to put our attention.”

NBA Cares’ initial pledge was to raise $100 million in the first five years and fund at least 100 live, learn or play programs. But the initiative’s success caused Stern, in typical fashion, to chide executives for not setting higher benchmarks, said Behrens, who has led NBA Cares since its inception.

NBA Cares today has evolved into an integral part of the NBA’s global growth. Whether it’s the league’s Basketball Without Borders program, its Global Games, All-Star Games, Finals, or anywhere else the NBA lands, NBA Cares programs are included.

“We thought it could be something that would last, and always be a part of our DNA, and we mean it [even] more now,” Behrens said. “People have come to realize that it was more than sloganeering.”

Since 2005, the league, teams and its players have helped to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for NBA Cares.

“What I love most is when younger players come into the league now, they come in knowing about NBA Cares and wanting to be a part of it,” Behrens said. “We will continue to evolve it and develop programs and partners that meet the current needs of our communities and where we can grow the game.”

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