Four Oklahoma City Thunder players among 7 participating in ‘Basketball without Borders’ – NBA News
7 NBA players are having the experience of their lives and coming face to face with the harsh realities of the world as they participate in the Basketball without Borders programme this year.
Nick Collison is one of those seven players, and made a stop in Nairobi, Kenya en route to Johannesburg in South Africa. While in Nairobi, Collison headed out to a refugee camp with UNICEF where he saw people walking 30 miles to
get polio vaccines and then going all the way back.
“To see things like that, it makes it real because you always hear about what's going on in different places of the world. To see it firsthand, for me, made it real. It's just an incredible trip." Said Collison talking on the phone
from Johannesburg where he is taking part in the 10th Basketball without Borders clinic.
Collison is one of four Oklahoma City Thunder players who are taking part in the programme this year. The players also include Serge Ibaka, Thabo Sefolosha and Cole Aldrich. The rest of the group comprises of Luol Deng of the Chicago
Bulls, Luc Mbah a Moute of the Milwaukee Bucks and C.J. Watson of the Brooklyn Nets. These players are will be participating in a basketball camp for 60 boys and girls, while also educating them on HIV and AIDS.
“We're out here to not only change other people's lives but also to change ours, to give us a different perspective on how other people live. Serge grew up in a totally different lifestyle than any of us did, and we're learning
a little bit of that through this trip,” said Aldrich.
Ibaka hails from Congo and is the son of two Congolese basketball players. He is trying to do his part in spreading the game further in his country after making it big in the NBA. Ibaka led the league in blocks last season and
finished 2nd in the Defensive Player of the Year rankings. He made a stop in his home town of Brazzaville on his way to Johannesburg, and stayed there for a week, organizing a basketball clinic there as well.
Sefolosha, Ibaka and Collison have all taken part in the programme before, while Aldrich is a first timer and said that it was a learning experience to witness all the things he has witnessed in connection to the programme.
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