Basketball Fan Affected With Brain Tumor to Shoot Hoops With Future NBA Stars

NEW YORK, June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Thirteen-year-old Justin Friedlander, basketball enthusiast and founder of "Justin's Quest," will join top NBA draft prospects at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, June 23 at 3:00pm for a special NBA FIT clinic.

In March of 2009, Justin was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Despite this difficult news, Justin decided that he needed to take action to help others. Later that year, he established "Justin's Quest," an initiative to raise awareness for brain tumors and raise money to help find a cure.

Justin's vision is to shoot a basket for every person diagnosed with a primary brain tumor each year in the US – approximately 63,000 baskets – and all proceeds from Justin's Quest will benefit the National Brain Tumor Society (NBTS).

The NBA FIT clinic, which will host 100 New York City area boys and girls, will take participants through six drill stations, one of which will be the Justin's Quest "Free Throw Shooting Challenge." Every basket at this featured station will be counted towards Justin's goal, including those made by the future NBA stars.

"Part of my goal is to shoot a basket with as many celebrities as I can in order to bring as much attention as possible to this cause. I am a really big fan of the NBA so this is a dream come true for me," stated Friedlander. "I want to thank everyone at the NBA for giving me the opportunity to be on the floor of Madison Square Garden with John Wall and all the other top picks."

One of those top picks may be a future player on Justin's hometown team, the Washington Wizards, who happen to have the first pick in the draft. "I'm not sure who the Wizards are going to pick, but I'm excited that it might be one of these guys," Justin continued.

"We are extremely excited that the NBA has chosen to support Justin's Quest," stated Chris Grundner, Director of Awareness for NBTS. "They've been so gracious to include him in this special NBA FIT clinic led by the top 2010 NBA Draft picks and we are working on some additional opportunities with them," Grundner added.  

Justin's next NBA experience will be to take part in the NBA Nation event in Philadelphia on Saturday, June 26th.

For more information visit www.justinsquest.com; www.nba.com/nbafit and www.braintumor.org.  

SOURCE National Brain Tumor Society