<font color=plum>This past Friday night (IIRC), several professional basketball players on various teams pledged to donate $1,000 for every point they scored that night to different organizations helping provide relief efforts to the tsunami survivors.

From what I could tell, it started off as a challenge/agreement between Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady (who were playing against each other that night, but are good friends off the court), and several other players decided to make the same pledge. Most of these guys are seen as self-centered glory hounds that are only interested in getting more money for themselves rather than sharing any of their wealth, but Friday night was a notable exception.

One of the younger players in the league (can't remember who) decided that - instead of pledging $1,000 for every point scored that night, he would pledge $1,000 for the most points he had ever scored in a game - 55!

There was also one sad exception to the rule. Pierce of the <font color=palegreen>Boston Celtics</font> pledged $1,000 for every assist he got that night instead of every point. The only problem is that he is one of his teams top scoreres. He had well over 20 points, but only 5 assists - so his donation was much smaller than it could have been. Still, I guess it's the thought that counts.

At the end of the night, the NBA stars had pledged a total of over $153,000 to organizations like UNICEF, United Way, Red Cross and the Salvation Army. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

<font color=deepskyblue>OH..and Major League Baseball got into the act too. Donations of $1,000,000 were made to these same organizations by the following sports groups...

Major League Baseball (from the team owners)
Major League Baseball Players Association
National Basketball Association
National Basketball Players Association.

Where did I get this information? From lying in a hospital bed and watching a LOT of ESPN over the last couple of days. ;) </font></font>

[ 01-09-2005, 02:11 PM: Message edited by: Cerek ]

Sorry to hear you were in the hospital Cerek, I hope you are doing better now.

Well, this isn't a real surprise to me. Guys like Kobe, Shaq, T Mac, and all the other big earners do a lot for the community as it is already. From what i read on nba.com, they are involved in all kind of activities, mainly for folks from the projects. Some may do it for the publicity, but others do out of the kindness of their heart. Shaq is such a person. I'm not a fan of him, but i respect everything he's done so far for kids in South Central.