NBA All-Stars to raise funds for Black schools
The NBA has announced over $3 million in donations to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and communities of color impacted by COVID-19 as part of the 2021 NBA All-Star Game and secondary competitions.
Here’s how the money is broken down:
Lakers star LeBron James represents the West and Nets star Kevin Durant, who will not play due to a hamstring injury, still serves as captain of the East. Both James and Durant will pick their teams from a pool of All-Stars voted in by fans, media, players and coaches.
Durant and James will also both choose to represent either the Thurgood Marshall
College Fund (TMCF), which represents 47 HBCUs, or the
United Negro College Fund (UNCF), which consists of 37 member colleges.
Both TMCF and UNCF will receive a $500,000 contribution solely for their involvement in NBA All-Star 2021.
The NBA will then award an additional $150,000 to the organization represented by the team that is winning after three quarters, and another $300,000 to the organization represented by the team that reached the Final Target Score in the fourth quarter, which no longer has a 12-minute clock.
(Note: The league implemented a Final Target Score in All-Star 2020 in honor of the late Kobe Bryant. The score is set by taking the leading team’s score after three quarters and adding 24. Bryant wore No. 24 in the second half of his career after switching from No. 8.)
As part of the All-Star Game, State Farm will donate $1,900 for every assist recorded in the game. Kia will also donate a car to the All-Star Game MVP’s team beneficiary, either UNCF or TMCF.
Here’s what the league is doing in its secondary All-Star competitions:
Portland’s Anfernee Simons, Indiana’s Cassius Stanley and New York’s Obi Toppin will compete in the Slam Dunk Contest, and each will be paired with an HBCU. Those HBCUs will receive a $50,000 donation, and the winner’s HBCU selection will receive an additional $100,000.
The NBA has asked each of the six Skills Challenge participants to represent HBCU schools and students from a particular state. The league will make a $35,000 donation to schools and students in each state through the UNCF’s Emergency Student Aid program, which provides financial assistance for a variety of situations, including housing and food. The league will also give the Skills Challenge winner $40,000 to support HBCU schools and students from the state they select.
For the 3-Point Contest, each Moneyball three made will represent a $3,500 donation, and shots from the “MTN DEW Zone” will be worth $5,000. The funds will go to Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity, and they will be used to support communities that have not had funding or resources to effectively combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NBA gave players a platform to address social issues in the Orlando bubble last season and continues to put its money where its mouth is, now supporting Black schools and communities in NBA All-Star 2021, located in Atlanta.