Basketball Without Borders

Basketball Without Borders is a basketball instructional camp organised by the NBA in conjunction with FIBA, it presents itself as a “basketball development and community outreach program that unites young basketball players to promote the sport and encourage positive social change in the areas of education, health, and wellness”.

Basketball Without Borders logo

Organised annually since 2001, 41 BWB camps have been held across 23 cities in 20 countries with in excess of 2,300 participants from more than 120 countries and territories, 33 of whom were later drafted into the NBA. Around 150 different current and former NBA/WNBA players have joined nearly 140 NBA team personnel as staff.[1]

History

Billed as a “summer camp for 12-14-year-olds designed to promote friendship and understanding through sport” the initial editions focused on peace and international relations, bringing together youths from former Yugoslavia in 2001 shortly after the Yugoslav Wars and from Greece and Turkey in 2002 amidst tense Greek–Turkish relations, with leading participation from the UN in both cases.[2][3]

From the 2003 editions onwards, basketball became the focus of the camps, the age of the participants grew (17 on average) and participants are now mostly selected for their potential although the selection process by FIBA and national federations is an inclusive system that sees consensual selections from weaker basketball countries.

That year also saw the first edition of the camp in Africa, seen as uncharted basketball territory at the time, the camps would later expand to the Americas in 2004 and Asia in 2005, including youth from all around the globe (those from Oceania have attended editions in the two last mentioned regions).

A global camp was first organised in 2015 in New York City as part of the All-Star Game Weekend, it gave an opportunity for the selected players, identified as the best in their regions, to have a taste of the game at its highest level, it was announced as an recurrent annual event.[4]

The camps have gradually become a hotspot for scouts, with an impressive number of former campers who have made it into the NBA (see Attendees) and/or College basketball it is seen as a means of spotting unheralded talent with high upside,[5] players such as Luc Mbah a Moute[6] or Bruno Caboclo[7] are noted examples.

Though basketball skill is now at the forefront of the camp, the social goal is also still pre-eminent, few campers are expected to make it as pros and a declared goal of the camp is to develop its attendees life-skills, with an emphasis on leadership and personal relations, to make them leaders of change in their home countries. Ideally the personal goal for them is to enter a high school or college in the U.S. to get an education they can use in the future,[8] in a given year it was estimated more than sixty former participants were playing and studying in American colleges.[9]

There is a camp for girls as well, with coaches from FIBA and the WNBA, however it receives far less exposure than the boys tournaments.

Basketball Without Borders, and program director Masai Ujiri, are profiled in Hubert Davis's 2016 documentary film Giants of Africa.[10]

Format

It brings together young players (called campers) usually aged 18 and under to a single location for a few days (3 or 4 on average), they are identified by the FIBA, NBA and participating federations with input from international FIBA/ NBA players from the region, for example for BWB Africa some have been chosen through Sprite Slam camps in the past.[11]

The youths are divided into teams (sometimes after a draft) named after real NBA teams and managed by coaches, those are either NBA or FIBA players and coaches, both current and former. They attend daily clinics of basketball fundamentals (passing, shooting, dribbling...) with these coaches and participate in individual and/or team shooting games for prizes before playing in tournament style games against the other teams.[9][12]

Also offered are seminars for the campers to improve their life-skills (character, leadership, and health concerns...) normally run by local non-government organizations (NGO's).

The camp ends with an All-Star game featuring the camps best players, a game and a camp MVP are then elected (starting from the 2007 edition).[12]

In parallel the organisers also implement social responsibility programmes, with daily community outreach activities in the local area, for example through organising seminars for local youths or Special Olympics. These are supplemented by product donations to local organisations such as schools and usually an NBA Cares initiative such as building or refurbishing playing and educational infrastructures.[13]

The NBA and its corporate sponsors pay for transport, lodging and meals for the campers and the entourage of personnel (including a full training staff for injuries), some of many examples include the La Ghirada center in Treviso that was used in early camps was leased for free by Benetton Group,[2] the campers in BWB Africa flown in by South African Airways [14] whilst Nike has outfitted the campers in multiple camps.[13]

Camps
Year Edition City, Country Dates Attendees Camp MVP
2001 BWB Europe 1[15] Treviso 30 June to 2 July 50
2002 BWB Europe 2[16] Istanbul 4 to 7 July 48
2003 BWB Europe 3[17]
BWB Africa 1[18]		 Treviso
Johannesburg		 28 June to 1 July
2 to 6 September		 46
106
2004 BWB Americas 1[19]
BWB Europe 4[20]
BWB Africa 2[21]		 Rio de Janeiro
Treviso
Johannesburg		 28 June to 2 July
24 to 27 July
8 to 11 September		 49
42
99
2005 BWB Americas 2[22]
BWB Asia 1[23]
BWB Europe 5[24]
BWB Africa 3[25]		 Buenos Aires
Beijing
Treviso
Johannesburg		 30 June to 4 July
11 to 17 July
28 to 31 July
7 to 12 September		 57
50
49
106
2006 BWB Asia 2[26]
BWB Europe 6[27]
BWB Americas 3[28]
BWB Africa 4[29]		 Shanghai
Vilnius
San Juan
Johannesburg		 8 to 11 June
30 June to 3 July
16 to 19 July
6 to 10 September		 46
51
48
114
2007 BWB Asia 3[30]
BWB Americas 4[31]
BWB Europe 7[32]
BWB Africa 5[33]		 Shanghai
Sao Paulo
Paris
Johannesburg		 5 to 8 July
31 July to 3 August
6 to 10 August
5 to 9 September		 49
51
48
97		 Not Awarded
Jayson Granger
Nika Metreveli
Not Awarded
2008 BWB Europe 8[34]
BWB Asia 4[35]
BWB Africa 6[36]		 Istanbul
New Delhi
Johannesburg		 4 to 7 June
1 to 6 July
3 to 8 September		 46
45
98		 Nikola Mirotić
Vishesh Bhriguvanshi
Not Awarded
2009 BWB Asia 5[37]
BWB Americas 5[38]
BWB Africa 7[39]		 Beijing
Mexico City
Johannesburg		 30 July to 2 August
6 to 9 August
2 to 6 September		 47
49
63		 Not Awarded
Santiago Nicolas Scala
Cyril Bilong Sonna
2010 BWB Asia 6[40]
BWB Africa 8[41]
BWB Europe 9[42]		 Singapore
Dakar
Barcelona		 28 June to 1 July
5 to 8 August
16 to 19 September		 44
55
50		 Tom Daly
Michel Ange Enanga
Mateusz Ponitka
2011 BWB Americas 6[43]
BWB Europe 10[42]
BWB Africa 9[44]		 Rio de Janeiro
Ljubljana
Johannesburg		 29 July to 1 August
8 to 11 August
1 to 4 September		 40
50
60		 Gabriel Deck
Boris Dallo
Benoit Mbala Mendzana
2012 BWB Asia 7[45]
BWB Africa 10[46]
BWB Europe 11[47]		 Tokyo
Johannesburg
Moscow		 13 to 16 June
30 August to 2 September
13 to 16 September		 56
58
42		 Yuki Togashi
Romeh Elsadani Sameh Ali
Nedim Buza
2013 BWB Americas 7[48]
BWB Europe 12[49]
BWB Africa 11[50]		 Buenos Aires
Lisbon
Johannesburg		 25 to 28 July
15 to 18 August
29 August to 1 September		 50
50
60		 Bruno Caboclo
Federico Mussini
Gerson Domingos
2014 BWB Europe 13[51]
BWB Asia 8[52]
BWB Africa 11[53]		 Rome
Taipei
Johannesburg		 2 to 5 June
13 to 16 June
5 to 8 August		 50
47
50		 Luc Loubaki
Mohammad Yousof Vand Ryogo Sumino
Luca Lunneman
2015 BWB Global 1[54]
BWB Europe 14[55]		 New York City
Las Palmas		 13 to 15 February
3 to 6 June		 50
50		 Dragan Bender
Ömer Yurtseven
2016 BWB Global 2[56]
BWB Europe 15[57]		 Toronto
Lohja		 12 to 14 February
7 to 10 September		 53
40		 Harry Froling
Arnas Velička
2017 BWB Global 3[58]
BWB Africa 15[59]
BWB Americas 9[60]
BWB Europe 16[61]		 New Orleans
Johannesburg
Nassau
Netanya		 14 to 16 February
5 to 8 August
2 to 5 July
13 to 16 August		 R.J. Barrett
Axel Wegscheider
Francisco Farabello
Omar Dieng
2018 BWB Global 4
BWB Asia 10
BWB Africa 16
BWB Europe 17[62]		 El Segundo, California
New Delhi
Johannesburg
Belgrade		 16 to 18 February
30 May 30 to 2 June
1 to 4 August
15 to 18 August		 ?
66
?
63		 Charles Bassey
Rence Padrigao
?
Deni Avdija[63]
2019 BWB Global 5[64] Charlotte, North Carolina 15 to 17 February 63 Deni Avdija

Notable Attendees
Have played in the NBA Have been drafted by NBA teams Have been regularly involved as staff

References
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