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.

Slowly, as students from Oklahoma City’s Centennial Mid-High School shot hoops and stretched, one head turned at a time toward the door of their gymnasium.

Slowly, they all realized that Thunder players Kevin Durant, James Harden and Royal Ivey had just walked into their school.

The three players joined students as they took part in Tuesday’s Thunder Fit Clinic, presented by Homeland, to help instill in them good fitness habits, knowledge of nutrition and a passion for basketball.

“It’d have been a dream for me to have an NBA player teach me the game,” Durant said as he led the students in dribbling and shooting drills. “Playing the game right is how it starts. Whatever you learn after that is a plus.”

All three players emphasized the need for young basketball players to work on the basic skills of the game.

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Normally everyone forgets about tragedies a few weeks or months after they happen. Not so with this group.

Despite it being two full years since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake leveled the capital city of Port-au-Prince, more than 40 high profile personalities will use their Twitter and Facebook accounts this Thursday, the 12th, to rekindle interest in helping Haiti.

The lineup, which includes Maroon 5, Sting, Alicia Keys, Lady Antebellum, Hugh Jackman, Sheryl Crow, Tim McGraw, Martha Stewart, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Don Cheadle, Deepak Chopra and NBA stars Kevin Durant, Paul Pierce, Blake Griffin, and Chris Paul, has a combined total of 125 million social media followers.

“Before the earthquake, Haiti was already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere,” explains Hunter Payne, producer of the campaign and President of Aid Still Required. “The last thing it needed was a disaster.”

The earthquake exacerbated ever-worsening conditions on the island. The number of orphaned and abandoned children has doubled since the quake, the incidence of rape has increased markedly, and Haiti’s floundering education system took a severe hit when schools toppled.

“On our trip there this past summer it was difficult to see much progress,” says Andrea Herz Payne, Chairman and co-founder of Aid Still Required. “At the same time we saw how eager the Haitian people are to improve their situation. There was no way we could come home and forget about them.”

Haiti was once a lush, thriving paradise. A few hundred years ago it provided France with about a third of its domestic product. But after gaining independence from France in 1804, the populace turned to subsistence farming, deforesting the countryside in the process. Today 98% of Haiti is barren, and the resultant flight to the cities has left urban areas impossibly overcrowded.

When the earthquake hit Port-Au-Prince, it destroyed hospitals, air, sea and land transport facilities, and communication systems, and left over a million survivors homeless and hundreds of thousands starving and without proper sanitation or clean drinking water. Today, the people of Haiti continue to live in a state of emergency.

“The usual pattern is for the public to contribute generously in the moment of a disaster and then forget about it,” says Hunter. “But disasters don’t heal themselves – they take time, energy and resources over a protracted arc. We hope this campaign will go a long way to engendering this kind of thinking not only about this tragedy but all others as well.”

Proceeds from the campaign are funding reforestation projects, infrastructure and teachers for orphanages, and trauma relief programs for PTSD and rape victims.

Donations – http://aidstillrequired.org/donate

Campaign Sponsor – Snoball – ‘Empowering change through social giving.’ https://snoball.com/

Contact info@AidStillRequired.org for more information.

On Friday, Jan. 7, Thunder players Kevin Durant and Morris Peterson will host a Thunder Fit clinic for nearly 60 students at Del Crest Middle School in southeast Oklahoma City. The visit is part of the 2011 NBA FIT Live Healthy Week and Durant is a member of the NBA Fit team.

The clinic will lead students through a series of exercises, strength training, nutrition lessons and basketball drills. The players will conclude the event with a question and answer session with the students.

On Tuesday the NBA family tipped off its annual NBA FIT Live Healthy Week, a week that encourages teams to join community members and partners to highlight the importance of healthy living and encourage fans to pledge NBA FIT. NBA players will also wear special oncourt attire, including adidas NBA FIT shooting shirts and blue headbands and wristbands.

This clinic is not open to the public, however media is invited.

What’s good everyone? Before I got out here to New York I was able to spend some quality time back home in the D.C. area. The biggest highlight was making it out to my old hangout, the Seat Pleasant Activities Center.

When I think back to that place, I just think back to my whole childhood. I used to spend all day, every day there. That gym was my home. That place was more than just me going to play basketball. The first time I got in the league, I wanted my first check to go to Seat Pleasant. The activities center just recognized me for a donation I made and I’ve got to thank Nike and some of my sponsors for doing a great job of helping me with that because I’m very blessed to have an opportunity to give back to a place that gave me so much.

I actually made the donation to them a little while back but they were waiting until they got something done to make an announcement. I never had a timetable for them to get something done but they wanted the best for the kids and that’s what I’m all about.

They actually named the gaming center and lounge area “Durant’s Den,” which was very nice of them. They put my name on the top of the glass, which was pretty cool. The actual room was there when I was a kid but it wasn’t that big of a space and there weren’t many games there. I remember there was a TV in there and a ping pong table. It was just a nice place to enjoy each other’s company when you couldn’t go in the gym. 90 percent of my time I was in the gym and the other 10 percent I was in the game room.

I also made a trip to Capitol Hill and the House of Representatives for the Congressional Fitness Caucus in late July. Gatorade and NBA FIT hooked me up with the event. It was pretty cool but I wasn’t dressed for the part! I ended up wearing some Dunks, a white t-shirt and some basketball shorts.

But I met a lot of nice people and there were some very important people there, too. I’m really not into politics but to go there really put everything into perspective for me. It was pretty cool to see. I know that fitness and nutrition is very important, especially for the younger kids. I just wanted to get that point across.

Whenever I’m in D.C. during the summer I make sure to get some runs in down at the Goodman League. It’s been a busy summer for me, so I haven’t been able to get down there as much as usual. But it was still fun too hoop a bit with my Goodman League fam. Check out this video from my time down there this summer:

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll try to get up some more blogs up for y’all over the next few days.

Fans: Be sure to check out Kevin on Twitter and Facebook.

As a young man, Kevin Durant spent most of his days at the Seat Pleasant Activity Center. To help keep the activity center going for the next generation of Seat Pleasant kids, KD donated $25K to renovate the Activity Center’s game room/lounge area. In honor of KD’s donation, the Seat Pleasant community center has named the new room “Durant’s Den”. KD made the donation last summer and was on hand this past weekend for the opening of “Durant’s Den”.

Read more about KD’s Donation to the Seat Pleasant Activity Center HERE.

Check out photos from the “Durant’s Den” dedication HERE.

What’s going on everybody? I’m just out here in New York City for this USA Basketball training camp, working hard every day and trying to get ready for the World Championship in Turkey.

I’m sure some of you heard by now that I had a guest spot on the new Wale mix tape. Wale is like my family. We’re both from D.C. and we’ve known each other for a while now. He reached out to me a few months ago asking if I wanted to be on his mix tape and I really didn’t know what to say. H told me not to worry about it.

Really, I just wanted people to see another side of me. It was pretty cool and I’m grateful for him letting me be on it. It felt good to get this opportunity. If anybody wants to hear me, go get that mix tape. We laid it down just before I went to Vegas for the first USA training camp. People have been asking me if I was nervous, but to tell you the truth I really wasn’t at all. I felt comfortable being around the mic, plus I’ve got my own studio that I like to mess around in back in Oklahoma City. So I just went with the flow. It wasn’t like I was rapping. The words just kind of came to me. Besides, I’m not the kind of guy who’s gonna boast about myself.

While we’re on the topic of music, I also got involved with P’Tones Records out in L.A. with Wale and Kenny Burns. I’m partnering with them to build a music studio for high school students in the D.C. area. I just want to see kids, especially ones in the D.C. area, gain more knowledge on how to make music and be producers or singers or rappers. I wanted to help people out so that we have more people get into the music industry out of D.C. You can help us raise money for the program by voting for P’Tones Records to win a Refresh Grant HERE.

Aside from that, I’ve just been doing my thing. Because I’ve got something going with EA Sports, one of my guys there hooked me up with the new Madden football game a few weeks back, so I’ve been hooked on that.

A big thanks to EA again for that because I love Madden. EA Sports puts out some good games and each year Madden keeps getting better and better. I’ve been playing my father and my brothers for a week or two now. I also had a little fun talking trash on Twitter with my friend Bow Wow about Madden. He thinks he can beat me, but no way that’s happening! I’ve got a pretty good handle on it so I’m looking forward to playing some of my teammates when we get together again. This year’s Madden is definitely tougher than last year’s game. And you know I always going to play with my ‘Skins.

So are any of you aspiring musicians or producers? And has anyone else got the new Madden? What do you all think? Let me know in my comments section.

Fans: Be sure to check out Kevin on Twitter and Facebook.

KD has joined forces with Los Angeles based P’Tones records, rapper Wale and television host Kenny Burns to help build a music studio for high school students in the Washington D.C. area. P’Tones plans to develop a total of 12 studios across the country that will provide high school students with hands-on recording skills and insight into the music industry. To help fund the initiative, they are applying for a $250,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Grant. You can help them receive the Pepsi Refresh Grant by voting HERE.

For more information, view the press release below:

Los Angeles, CA, Aug 1, 2010 — P’Tones Records announced today that on June 1st, the nonprofit organization will apply to the Pepsi Refresh Grant Competition for a $250,000 grant to fund its planned 12-city nationwide expansion initiative. This will enable P’Tones to develop 12 new recording studios that provide high school students with hands-on recording skills and insight into the music industry. In order to win the grant, voters must visit the official Pepsi Refresh Link (http://www.refresheverything.com/ptones) beginning on June 1 and vote for the organization.

“We are very excited about the Pepsi Refresh Project,” said Oren Rosenbaum, Founder and CEO of P’Tones Records. “It emphasizes the message of giving back to your community, which is what our organization is all about.”

P’Tones is an after-school program for urban high school youth that provides access to semi-professional music studios and an education on how to run a fully functional record label. Its six-course curriculum covers Marketing, New Media, Art, A&R, Publicity and Music Production. The program is run by college interns and celebrity spokespeople, and provides insight into not only music creation, but also the business of the industry and beyond. P’Tones Records is strategically aligned with Warner Music Group, allowing its various music releases to reach the hands of some of the most sought after executives in the industry.

P’Tones Records is strategically aligned with Warner Music Group, allowing its various music releases to reach the hands of some of the most sought after executives in the industry. P’Tones spokespeople include: Lil’ Wayne, Nas, Talib Kweli, Wale, Kevin Durant, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Cool & Dre, Drumma Boy, and more. To date, the organization has partnered with NYU, Miami University, Tulane University, NCCU, and FAMU to provide internships, financial aid, and scholarship opportunities to students applying to partner universities.

P’Tones Records was founded in 2006 by then-17 year old Oren Rosenbaum. As a high school student, he wanted to provide a place where teens could go after school to become enthusiastic about learning and exploring their own musical, professional, and/or artistic talents. P’Tones partners with local community centers and universities to administer programs, funding their development through charitable donations. Once opened, each location is self-sustaining, and students who excel in the curriculum are eligible for college scholarships and/or internships at a major record label.

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For more information, contact:

Andrew Silberstein
P’Tones Records/Music Man Media
(646) 417-8322 x701
andrew@ptonesrecords.com

Bijan Gharavi
P’Tones Records
(310) 279-7090
bijan@ptonesrecords.com

What’s good everyone? I hope you all are having a great day today!

We’ve had a couple of tough, close losses this week. But with the playoffs around the corner, we have to just keep playing as hard as we can. We have another big game against Phoenix tonight, so make sure to tune in or come out to the game and support us. My boy Jared Dudley is on the Suns, and he’s become one of the tougher defenders in the NBA, so it definitely should be a battle out there.

Thursday was a busy day for me. After a light practice in the morning, I slipped into a nice black suit, put on a black tie and made my way to downtown Oklahoma City at night for an award I received from the March of Dimes at their Sports Headliner banquet.

The banquet was held at the Skirvin Hotel, which some opposing teams have said is haunted, but either way it’s a real classy spot. And this was a real nice awards banquet.

First of all, I was kind of shocked when I heard that I was being named the Sports Headliner of the Year. I’ve only been here for a year and a half and they’re already starting to recognize me. But man, it felt good.

There’s so many great teams and players and coaches to come through here and to be named one of them is just an honor for me. It’s one of those awards that I can say I got because the state of Oklahoma has embraced me since day one. Yeah, I went to the University of Texas but Oklahomans quickly embraced me and I was just humbled to be there.

My mom and my grandmother came and my brothers too, so it was great to have them around for support. My mom even got to present me with the award, and that’s something that’s never happened before. I know it meant a lot to her as well.

Well, I just want to thank everybody who’s supported me and my teammates ever since we got to Oklahoma City. Just make sure you root for us the rest of the season!

Fans: Be sure to check out Kevin on Twitter and Facebook.

There has been a ton of talk this season about how great KD has been performing on the court. He’s currently the league leader in scoring and has has already helped the Thunder clinch a playoff spot. With all of his on the court success, it’s easy to miss some of the things he’s done off the court.

From his Giving Tree event this past Christmas, to making a donation to Haiti, KD has also established himself as an all-star off of the court. Here’s a video that will play before KD is recognized at this Thursday’s 34th Annual March of Dimes Sports Headliner Banquet: