NBA and BT Sport s the supporters club partner to develop and inspire young Londoners

DC15-008 January 12, 2015

NBA and BT Sport's the supporters club partner to develop and inspire young Londoners Partnership builds on existing broadcast relationship

between the NBA and BT Sport

BT Sport's The Supporters Club has teamed up with the National Basketball Association (NBA) in a partnership to support Greenhouse, a London-based sports charity that uses sport to engage hard-to-reach young people.

The programme, Greenhouse Sports Basketball, which has been running in London for eight years with funding from Greenhouse's principal sponsor Prudential, aims to use basketball to encourage the development of life skills that will be invaluable to young people from some of London's most deprived areas. The partnership builds on the existing multi-year relationship between BT Sport and the NBA for exclusive UK television coverage of the NBA on BT Sport.

BT Sport's The Supporters Club has provided a substantial grant that will see the Greenhouse program rolled out into an additional five London secondary schools in Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham, Camden and Brent, with the NBA providing basketball coaching materials and a number of basketball training clinics to these participants.

The partnership was unveiled today at Bow School, East London, by NBA legend John Amaechi, former WNBA star Allison Feaster plus Arsenal Ladies and England footballer Rachel Yankey, who appeared on behalf of The Supporters Club, at a special basketball session run by Greenhouse Sports for 40 youngsters. At the session the participants participated in an NBA Clinic with multiple stations and exercises run by NBA coaching experts.

Jene Elzie, NBA vice president Marketing and Communications EMEA, said: We are proud that we can partner with BT Sport's The Supporters Club on such a significant project. Greenhouse is an impactful charity that helps struggling young people through the motivation of sport. The NBA focusses on core values like community and youth development which makes partnering up with this charity a perfect fit for us.

The Supporters Club aims to build a better world through sport by changing the lives of disadvantaged young people. Funds are raised thanks to BT Sport customers choosing to add an additional £1, £3 or £5 to their monthly BT Sport bill as a donation. The Supporters Club has raised over £3 million from BT Sport customers and BT. So far The Supporters Club has partnered with Comic Relief to fund 24 sport-inspired community projects 14 in the UK and 10 overseas, with over 92,000 people now giving monthly donations.

The announcement builds on The Supporters Club's funding of projects in London. Last year, Tottenham Hotspur Foundation secured a substantial grant over a three-year period from a new partnership between BT Sport's The Supporters Club and the Premier League.

Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said: Today's announcement deepens the successful rights relationship between the NBA and BT Sport. It also builds on The Supporters Club's growing presence in the sport for development sector, and, adds the NBA to the Premier League and Premiership Rugby as key BT Sport partners with whom The Supporters Club works. The Supporters Club has proved to be a powerful force for good, with BT Sport customers raising millions of pounds to help young people in the UK and overseas through sport.

Michael de Giorgio, CEO and founder of Greenhouse Sports, said: We are delighted that we can build on the success of Prudential's support to use basketball to reach more young people in London through this exciting partnership with The Supporters Club. This comes at a particularly exciting time for the charity as this week; we officially announce our name change to Greenhouse Sports .

Notes to editors

About the NBA

The NBA is a global sports and media business built around three professional sports leagues: the National Basketball Association, the Women's National Basketball Association, and the NBA Development League. The league has established a major international presence with offices in 13 markets worldwide, games and programming in 215 countries and territories in 47 languages, and NBA merchandise for sale in more than 125,000 stores in 100 countries on 6 continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2014-15 season featured a record 101 international players from 37 countries and territories. NBA Digital's assets include NBA TV, which is available in 60 million U.S. homes, and NBA.com, which recorded 26.9 billion page views during the 2013-14 season, with more than half of all visitors originating from outside of North America. The NBA is the No. 1 professional sports league on social media, with more than 730 million likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms. Through NBA Cares, the league and its teams and players have donated more than $242 million to charity, completed more than 3 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 915 places where kids and families can live, learn, or play.

About The Supporters Club

The Supporters Club aims to build a better world by bringing people together through sport. Donations from BT and our customers are invested into projects selected in partnership with Comic Relief. When customers sign up to BT Sport, they are able to make a recurring £1, £3 or £5 monthly subscription to The Supporters Club to help support these and other similar projects.

About Greenhouse

Since 2002, Greenhouse Sports has been providing high quality, inspirational sports coaching and mentoring to young people in London's most disadvantaged communities.

We aim to develop social, thinking, emotional and physical skills for young people. By working full time in schools and in the community Greenhouse Sports Coaches develop strong relationships

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