The Department of Culture and Tourism \u2013 Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) culminated the expanded second season of the Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League in a finals event on 12 March at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus featuring special appearances by 11-time NBA All-Star Allen Iverson and two-time WNBA champion Lisa Leslie.
\nIverson and Leslie were on hand to interact with the young players and presented awards during the closing ceremony, which saw the second annual Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League champions crowned, Cranleigh School for the girls team, the boys league A went to American Community School (ACS) and the boys league B went to the Australian School of Abu Dhabi.
\nThe Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League expanded from 30 teams in its inaugural season in March 2022 to 60 teams for this season. The programme is part of a groundbreaking multiyear partnership between the NBA and DCT Abu Dhabi that saw Abu Dhabi host the first-ever preseason NBA games in the Arabian Gulf in October 2022.
\nA 14-year NBA veteran, Iverson was named the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2001, named to the All-NBA First and Second Teams three times each and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. Leslie is an eight-time WNBA All-Star across 11 seasons in the league, a three-time WNBA\u00a0MVP, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
\nThe Jr. NBA is the league\u2019s global youth basketball programme for boys and girls, teaching the fundamental skills and core values of the game \u2013 teamwork, respect, determination and community \u2013 at the grassroots level in an effort to help grow and improve the youth basketball experience for players, coaches and parents.\u00a0 The Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League aims to promote the values of the game and encourage youth to lead an active and healthy lifestyle through participation in sport.
\nThe partnership also sees DCT Abu Dhabi, under \u201cExperience Abu Dhabi\u201d, the tourism promotion initiative of the UAE\u2019s capital, serve as the Official Tourism Destination Partner of the NBA in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and China.
\nFor more information on the Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League, which is operated by Gulf Sports Media FZ LLC (trading as Sport360), visit\u00a0OWQLO\u00a0and follow the NBA and Jr. NBA on Facebook (Facebook.com\/jrnba), Instagram (@jrnba\u00a0and\u00a0@nbaarabic), Twitter (@jrnba\u00a0and\u00a0@nbaarabic) and Snapchat\u00a0(@nbaarabic).\u00a0Fans can also download the\u00a0NBA App\u00a0for news, updates, scores, stats and videos and purchase the latest NBA merchandise at the NBA Store located at Yas Mall on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Culture and Tourism \u2013 Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) culminated the expanded second season of the Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League in a finals event on 12 March at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus featuring special appearances by 11-time NBA All-Star Allen Iverson and two-time WNBA champion Lisa Leslie.
\nIverson and Leslie were on hand to interact with the young players and presented awards during the closing ceremony, which saw the second annual Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League champions crowned, Cranleigh School for the girls team, the boys league A went to American Community School (ACS) and the boys league B went to the Australian School of Abu Dhabi.
\nThe Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League expanded from 30 teams in its inaugural season in March 2022 to 60 teams for this season. The programme is part of a groundbreaking multiyear partnership between the NBA and DCT Abu Dhabi that saw Abu Dhabi host the first-ever preseason NBA games in the Arabian Gulf in October 2022.
\nA 14-year NBA veteran, Iverson was named the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2001, named to the All-NBA First and Second Teams three times each and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. Leslie is an eight-time WNBA All-Star across 11 seasons in the league, a three-time WNBA\u00a0MVP, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
\nThe Jr. NBA is the league\u2019s global youth basketball programme for boys and girls, teaching the fundamental skills and core values of the game \u2013 teamwork, respect, determination and community \u2013 at the grassroots level in an effort to help grow and improve the youth basketball experience for players, coaches and parents.\u00a0 The Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League aims to promote the values of the game and encourage youth to lead an active and healthy lifestyle through participation in sport.
\nThe partnership also sees DCT Abu Dhabi, under \u201cExperience Abu Dhabi\u201d, the tourism promotion initiative of the UAE\u2019s capital, serve as the Official Tourism Destination Partner of the NBA in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and China.
\nFor more information on the Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League, which is operated by Gulf Sports Media FZ LLC (trading as Sport360), visit\u00a0OWQLO\u00a0and follow the NBA and Jr. NBA on Facebook (Facebook.com\/jrnba), Instagram (@jrnba\u00a0and\u00a0@nbaarabic), Twitter (@jrnba\u00a0and\u00a0@nbaarabic) and Snapchat\u00a0(@nbaarabic).\u00a0Fans can also download the\u00a0NBA App\u00a0for news, updates, scores, stats and videos and purchase the latest NBA merchandise at the NBA Store located at Yas Mall on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278248,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278247\/revisions\/278248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}