On Thursday, August 12, NIKE, Inc. will bring together the world of sport and entertainment in an unprecedented way as one of basketball’s most prestigious teams shares the stage with one of the world’s greatest entertainers. Music mogul and multi-platinum selling recording artist JAY-Z will take the stage at New York’s Radio City Music Hall for an electrifying musical performance following a one-of-a-kind, on-court showcase featuring finalists for the 2010 USA Basketball World Championship Team as part of the inaugural World Basketball Festival – brought together by Converse, the Jordan Brand and Nike Basketball. “We’re excited to bring together the international prestige of JAY-Z and the USA Team on stage at famed Radio City Music Hall to open the first World Basketball Festival. This will be a historic night,†said Trevor Edwards, Nike VP Global Brand and Category Management. “We’re also honored to collaborate with JAY-Z on limited edition Air Force 1s that celebrate the countries participating in this inaugural event.â€
Check after the jump for the rest of the announcement and a couple more AF1 pics.
Nike has distributed tickets for the Radio City Music Hall events to a number of New York area community groups and charitable organizations, as well as youth clubs and youth basketball leagues. Distribution to the general public has been driven through on-going promotions with radio station Hot 97 and through retailers Modell’s, Footlocker, Niketown and House of Hoops. Additional ticket information can be found at http://www.facebook.com/wbf.
The entire Radio City Music Hall basketball and musical performance will stream live on http://www.facebook.com/wbf beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT until its conclusion. Following the event at Radio City Music Hall, highlights will be available online at NBA.com and USABasketball.com.
In addition to his performance at Radio City Music Hall, JAY-Z has joined forces with Nike to create an iconic collection of Air Force Ones – the All Black Everything collection inspired by the World Basketball Festival. Nike has donated the shoes to the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation who in turn have linked up with eBay on a charity auction where the five unique pairs will raise funds for its mission to provide financial assistance to promising individuals upon acceptance into any accredited institution of higher learning.
One hundred percent of the funds raised will support the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. The charity auction begins on August the 12, and bidders can visit www.ebay.com/jayznikewbf to enter a bid. Only two pairs of each of the five designs will be created, one for the winning bidder and one for the man behind the design, JAY-Z. The charity auction begins on August 12, at 9:00 a.m. EDT and ends on August 22, at 9:00 a.m. EDT.
After the tip-off event at Radio City Music Hall on August 12, the action moves uptown to New York City’s legendary basketball courts at Rucker Park in Harlem, Friday and Saturday, August 13 and 14.
The World Basketball Festival concludes Sunday, August 15 with an exciting exhibition double-header featuring the United States taking on France (1 p.m. EDT) and China meeting Puerto Rico (3:30 p.m. EDT) at famed Madison Square Garden. Tickets for the exhibition doubleheader, which start at $15, are available on the Web via www.Ticketmaster.com and www.thegarden.com, by phone at 1-800-4-NBA-TIX, and at the box office at Madison Square Garden.
The exhibition games are being utilized as part of the teams’ preparation for the 2010 FIBA World Basketball Championship in Turkey, August 28 to September 12.
