All-Star Game brings social justice efforts to Salt Lake City
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All-Star Weekend typically brings charity and social justice initiatives to the game's host city, and Salt Lake is no exception.
Here are some of the service projects happening this week:
The big game: The league is donating about $1 million to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah and Raise the Future, a group that connects youth in foster care with adults who serve as mentors after they turn 18.
- Each group is represented by an All-Star team, and kids from the programs are joining the players in practice, the pregame draft and the game itself.
Celebrity All-Star bucks
Celebrities will shoot from a "4-point line" during the game; for each basket, $4,000 will go to a cancer research internship sponsored by Howard University and Jazz nonprofit partner 5 For The Fight.
A new STEM center
The NBA and State Farm have created a "Learn and Play" center with tech and books at Lincoln Elementary in South Salt Lake, and renovated the school's gym.
- The center will be unveiled today.
Day of service
More than 500 current and former NBA players and other volunteers will prepare food donations Friday with the Utah Food Bank, Bishop's Storehouse and Volunteers of America.
LGBTQ+ inclusion
Former NBA and WNBA players Jason Collins and Jamila Wideman met with youth at Encircle and the Utah Pride Center on Wednesday.
- Collins was the first openly gay NBA player, and Wideman is now an NBA executive and lawyer specializing in criminal justice reform.
Spinning wheels
The NBA and the Jazz are hosting basketball clinics Sunday for kids who use wheelchairs and kids with autism.
HBCUs come to Utah
Grambling State and Southern University face off Saturday at the Huntsman Center for the NBA's annual HBCU Classic, a nationally televised matchup of historically Black colleges and universities.
- The NBA is donating $500,000 to Black education initiatives, including the University of Utah's HBCU Impact internships and Black Cultural Center.