NBA Cares, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital® Team Up for Kids Battling Cancer and Other Deadly Diseases

MEMPHIS, Tenn., March 7, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Regardless the final scores of all NBA games played during Hoops for St. Jude Week™ March 7-13, the winners will be the kids at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital^®. Every matchup will help the hospital raise awareness and increase support to fight childhood cancer and other deadly diseases.

The NBA Family will shine a light on the work and successes of St. Jude through online, social media and in-game promotions such as hosting and highlighting local patients in-arena.  NBA coaches will also wear St. Jude lapel pins during games. 

St. Jude ambassadors – players and coaches who contribute to and regularly visit and encourage others to support the patients, their families and others at St. Jude – will also use their social media channels, personal appearances and interviews to help raise awareness of St. Jude and its mission to save the lives of children battling cancer and other deadly diseases. New ambassadors for this year's Hoops for St. Jude campaign are players Greg Monroe (Detroit Pistons), Mike Conley (Memphis Grizzlies), Mario Chalmers (Miami Heat), and coaches Monty Williams (New Orleans Pelicans), Rick Carlisle (Dallas Mavericks) and Mike Brown (Cleveland Cavaliers).

"The investments our Hoops for St. Jude ambassadors are making by visiting our patients and maximizing opportunities to share the mission of St. Jude have been instrumental in helping us to advance our work of saving the lives of children," said Richard Shadyac Jr., CEO of ALSAC/St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. "We are fortunate to have the support of the NBA and various coaches and players, including Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Kevin Love, and David Lee, who wholeheartedly embrace our mission."

NBA support stretches beyond Hoops for St. Jude Week. Just this season, the hospital has hosted on-site visits by players, coaches and staff from the Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors, Phoenix Suns, Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder, Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers and others.

The players' support – both financial and celebrity – helps in other ways, too. It costs $1.9 million a day to operate the hospital, and 75 percent of funds come from public donations, so every dollar donated through Hoops for St. Jude and other campaigns goes to help ensure that no family receives a bill from St. Jude. 

Visits are very personal for players, too. In a recent visit, Pau Gasol met with patient Jorge and his father, who is from the same area in Spain as Pau.

"I signed a basketball for him, and played some games, and it was great. But to learn about him and his family, and to be able to talk about it in our native language, well, that was really special," said Gasol. In an earlier visit, he had the chance to play a game of one on one with patient Isaac.

Another patient, Laci, captivated the Houston Rockets with her Rainbow Loom skills during a recent visit. By the time the team left, each player had received a handmade Rainbow Loom bracelet – all in fewer than 10 minutes.

Fans can get involved with Hoops for St. Jude Week and help support the lifesaving work by following @StJude on Twitter, using the Hoops for St. Jude hashtag (#hoops4stjude), and visiting stjude.org/hoops to lend support or become a Partner in Hope.

For more information, visit stjude.org/hoops.

Ambassadors for the 2014 Hoops for St. Jude week are:

• Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers
• David Lee, Golden State Warriors
• Marc Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies
• Kevin Love, Minnesota Timberwolves
• Greg Monroe, Detroit Pistons
• Mike Conley, Memphis Grizzlies
• Mario Chalmers, Miami Heat
• Coach Monty Williams, New Orleans Pelicans
• Coach Rick Carlisle, Dallas Mavericks
• Coach Mike Brown, Cleveland Cavaliers

About St. Jude Children's Research Hospital^®
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other deadly diseases. St. Jude has the world's best survival rates for the most aggressive childhood cancers, and treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since we opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent in the next decade. St. Jude freely shares the breakthroughs we make, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Join the St. Jude mission by visiting stjude.org or following St. Jude on facebook.com/stjude and twitter.com/stjude.

About NBA Cares
NBA Cares is the league's global social responsibility program that builds on the NBA's mission of addressing important social issues in the United States and around the world.  Through this program, the NBA, its teams and players have donated more than $230 million to charity, completed more than 2.8 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 860 places where kids and families can live, learn, or play, in 25 countries and territories on five continents.  NBA Cares works with internationally recognized youth-serving programs that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes, including: KaBOOM!, Special Olympics, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, UNICEF, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Share Our Strength and GLAAD.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140307/DC79201

SOURCE St. Jude Children's Research Hospital