NEW YORK — The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Sprint (NYSE: S) announced the official lineup of the 2012 Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, which is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 24, during NBA All-Star Jam Session at the Orange County Convention Center. For the eighth straight year, ESPN will televise the game beginning at 7 p.m. ET.

This year’s players include celebrities from film, TV and music and will feature Grammy ® Award-winner Ne-Yo (R&B/pop); 2012 Grammy® nominee J. Cole (Rapper), Common (Just Wright); JB Smoove (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”); Vinny Guadagnino (“Jersey Shore”); Kevin Hart (Laugh At My Pain); Javier Colon (“The Voice”); Drew and Jonathan Scott (“Property Brothers”); Jesse Williams (“Grey’s Anatomy”); NBA Legends Mitch Richmond (six-time NBA All-Star), Penny Hardaway (four-time NBA All-Star), and Nick Anderson (NBA legend); 2011 WNBA MVP Tamika Catchings (WNBA, Indiana Fever); and Doug Gottlieb (ESPN, “The Doug Gottlieb Show”). 2012 NBA All-Stars, Orlando Magic Center Dwight Howard and Oklahoma City Thunder Forward Kevin Durant will serve as the East and West team coaches, respectively.

In an All-Star Celebrity Game first, Guadagnino, who plays basketball regularly, rallied his more than 2.7 million Twitter followers who started a social media campaign to convince the NBA and Sprint to add him to the roster.

In addition to serving as the title partner of the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, Sprint will also be the title partner of the NBA All-Star Pregame Concert, held prior to the NBA All-Star Game, an associate partner of NBA All-Star Jam Session, and the presenting partner of the NBA All-Star E-Recycling event, an electronic waste collection and recycling event.

KD and the Thunder fell short against the Houston Rockets in Houston on Wednesday night, 95-96. KD scored a game-high 33 points (on 12-for-26 shooting) to go with eight boards.

The Thunder had a chance to win the game after getting several nice looks in the final 30 seconds of the game. Despite those looks, the Thunder were not able to capitalize.

The Thunder will take on the Golden State Warriors in OKC on Friday night.

What do you know about the sour patch blends??? Fuel to get me through road trips! lol

What’s your favorite candy?

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KD and the Thunder won the second of their “home and home” against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night, 111-85. KD finished the game with 21 points (on 8-14 shooting), 6 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots. After the game, KD summed up what the performance meant to the Thunder:

“The last few games, we had some lapses and we didn’t play as well as we wanted to. We may have gotten some wins, but we kind of squeaked those out. But tonight was Thunder basketball; defense first, hustling, rebounding, helping each other out on the defensive end and playing together. I think we got some fast-break points as well. So we got back to our brand of basketball, and it feels good to be back.”

The Thunder will head to Houston to take on the Rockets on Wednesday night.

Oklahoma City, Tuesday, Feb. 14 – Oklahoma City Thunder players Kevin Durant, Lazar Hayward and Nick Collison will head out in the community Thursday afternoon.

Durant and Hayward are scheduled to visit Santa Fe South Elementary School and greet 75 students on board the Rolling Thunder Book Bus, presented by American Fidelity Assurance Company. The pair will help pick out a complimentary book for each student.

Later that afternoon, forward Nick Collison is scheduled to help provide a local family with a grocery shopping spree, courtesy of the Thunder and Homeland. The family has three children who will join in shopping with Collison. This event will be the third of four Homeland shopping sprees the Thunder will host this year.

Kevin Durant received a text message from Thunder head athletic trainer Joe Sharpe over the weekend. It had explicit instructions for how Durant should handle a rare two days off.

“‘Stay in bed for 10 hours,’” Durant said the text read.

For once, Durant listened.

“That’s what I tried to do to get my body back and programmed to being in Oklahoma City,” Durant said.

The Thunder returned early Saturday morning from a season-long, five-game road trip. It spanned eight days, starting in San Antonio before culminating in Salt Lake City. Another grueling stretch is on tap, as the Thunder will now play seven games over the next 10 days, which explains at Sharpe’s suggestion.

But six of the next seven will be played inside Chesapeake Energy Arena, and the Thunder has the unusual luxury of kicking off this stretch Tuesday night against Utah on the heels of a three-day break between games. Because of the lockout-shortened and compacted season, it’s the only time this season, excluding the All-Star break and the season opener, that the Thunder will have three days between games.

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New York and Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 2012 – The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Special Olympics today announced the first-ever NBA Cares Special Olympics Unity Sports Basketball Game, which will take place as part of the 2012 NBA All-Star weekend festivities in Orlando. With support from The Coca-Cola Company, the game will tip off on Center Court at NBA All-Star Jam Session on Sunday, Feb. 26, and will feature 12 Special Olympics athletes from across the country, along with NBA Legends Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler and Dikembe Mutombo, current WNBA players, and celebrities. NBA stars Kevin Durant, Kevin Love and Kemba Walker will also participate in the game.

The exhibition game will combine athletes with and without intellectual disabilities as teammates to showcase the power of Special Olympics’ Unified Sports® program, which helps unite communities and foster an environment of acceptance and inclusion. In addition, as part of the NBA Cares All-Star Community Caravan, NBA/WNBA legends and players will host a clinic for local Special Olympics athletes at Jam Session immediately following the game.

“The NBA is excited to expand our longtime partnership with Special Olympics by hosting the Unity Sports basketball game as part of our NBA All-Star festivities,” said NBA Senior Vice President of Community Relations Todd Jacobson. “The NBA Cares Special Olympics Unity Sports Basketball Game is about having fun, promoting fitness and bringing people together.”

“We are proud to have this unique opportunity to show the world the incredible talents of our Special Olympics athletes, playing alongside basketball legends from the NBA and WNBA,” said Peter Wheeler, Special Olympics’ Chief Officer of Strategic Properties. “This is another great moment in our long-standing partnership with the NBA and we hope that this Unity Sports basketball game shows NBA fans the power of sports to unite us all.”

NBA Cares Special Olympics Unity Sports Basketball Game roster:

East
Marc Campbell, ON
Keyuana Davis, FL
Kerri Gilroy, MA
Rickie Kelly, WI
Andre Larry, FL
Tony Payne, TN

West
Jesse Burnett, CO
Jackie Buxton, OR
Steve Lynn, OK
Anthony Nunn, MN
Sean Vigil, UT
Jennifer Wardlow, NC

These 12 Special Olympics athletes and their families will be treated to an unforgettable NBA All-Star experience including dinner with an NBA legend, in-arena recognition at NBA All-Star Saturday Night presented by State Farm, and tickets to the NBA All-Star Game.

The NBA’s global partnership with Special Olympics began more than 30 years ago when the league helped to introduce basketball as a new sport to the organization. The NBA has since provided sponsorship to Special Olympics basketball tournaments, created public service announcements featuring NBA players, and participated in major Special Olympics events. In addition, the NBA’s Basketball without Borders program has featured international clinics for Special Olympics athletes in China, Puerto Rico, Russia, France, Greece, Italy, Brazil, Spain, and Mexico.

About NBA Cares
NBA Cares is the league’s social responsibility program that builds on the NBA’s long tradition of addressing important social issues in the United States and around the world. Through this umbrella program, the NBA, its teams and players have donated than $175 million to charity, completed more than 1.8 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 675 places where kids and families can live, learn, or play, in 22 countries and territories on five continents. In addition, this year the league launched the NBA Cares Community Caravan, a year-round community and fan engagement program, through which the NBA family will reach more than 10,000 schools and community centers and touch the lives of more than 15 million fans. NBA Cares works with internationally recognized youth-serving programs that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes, including: KaBOOM!, Special Olympics, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, UNICEF, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

About Special Olympics
Special Olympics is an international organization that changes lives through the power of sport by encouraging and empowering people with intellectual disabilities, promoting acceptance for all, and fostering communities of understanding and respect worldwide. Founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the Special Olympics movement has grown from a few hundred athletes to more than 3.7 million athletes in over 170 countries in all regions of the world, providing year-round sports training, athletic competition and other related programs. Special Olympics now take place every day, changing the lives of people with intellectual disabilities all over the world, from community playgrounds and ball fields in every small neighborhood’s backyard to World Games. Special Olympics provides people with intellectual disabilities continuing opportunities to realize their potential, develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, and experience joy and friendship. Visit Special Olympics at www.specialolympics.org. Engage with us on: Twitter @specialolympics; fb.com/specialolympics; youtube.com/specialolympicshq, and specialolympicsblog.wordpress.com.

KD and the Thunder beat the Utah Jazz in Utah, 101 to 87 on Friday night.

KD finished the night with 19 points (on 6 of 10 shooting), 5 rebounds and 2 assists. The Thunder have a few nights off before they play the Jazz at home in OKC on Tuesday.

KD and the Thunder fell to the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento on Thursday Night, 101-106.

KD finished with 27 points (on 9 of 19 shooting), 8 rebounds and 3 assists. It wasn’t enough to hold off big efforts from the Kings young stars DeMarcus Cousins and Tyreke Evans.

The Thunder now head to Utah to take on the Jazz on Friday night.

Praying that my USA Basketball teammate Chauncey Billups has a speedy recovery from his achilles injury! I love that guy like a brother, and I know he will be back!!!

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