If you’re like me, then chances are you enjoy watching sports from time to time, or perhaps even a little more than that. And that’s OK; sports teams are sources of pride for (some of) the cities they play in and they are healthy, at least for those athletes who aren’t hopped up on amphetamines or injected with the latest in pharmaceutical enhancements. They’re slightly less healthy for those of us who are wont to sit on the sofa screaming about why the defensive coordinator should have employed a cover two scheme on the last play, or why the manager was a complete moron because he didn’t call for a suicide squeeze - as if we actually know anything - while small bits of buffalo wing, tortilla chip, and beer fly out of our mouth. But bloggers are notorious armchair quaterbacks, so this is OK too.

Anyway, if you’re a fan and you watch sports with even moderate regularity, then it’s likely that you’ve seen promos for each league touting their prowess in giving back to the community. This tripartite series of posts will explore what exactly each of the big three leagues does and why.* This week we’ll examine the NBA.

The league that most wants you to know about its involvement in the community is the National Basketball Association. I’m not a huge professional basketball fan, but this year has been something of a renaissance for the NBA and my (current) hometown New Orleans Hornets are having a surprisingly great season, and my (former) hometown Atlanta Hawks aren’t completely miserable, so I tune in from time to time. But as anyone who watches NBA basketball will verify, it’s impossible to watch a game without being inundated by ads for NBA Cares. The NBA is, in fact, desperate for its fans casual and otherwise to know just how much it does for the community. Why is this? Glad you asked.

Earlier this decade the NBA had a horrible image problem. Photos such as this were ubiquitous, players would show up to post game press conferences looking like they were gang-affiliated, and, accurate and even slightly racist or not, the prevalent perception was that most NBA players were thugs. The players’ reputation was damaged further in Auburn Hills, Michigan on the evening of November 19, 2004. On that night, during a game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, a fight occurred that quickly escalated out of control and culminated with Pacers forward Ron Artest getting hit with a cup of beer and entering the stands and fighting with several fans (pretty amazing footage here). It was not a pretty sight and Artest was suspended for 86 games - over a full season - the longest suspension in NBA history.

In 2005, in an effort to restore a sense of dignity to his league, commissioner David Stern issued a dress code much to the chagrin of many players, that required business casual clothing while players were engaged in team or league activities off the court, and forbade many items including t-shirts, hats, chains, or anything else that one might associate with a rap star (full details here). The following year, the NBA instituted its NBA Cares PR blitzkrieg.

Now, the official explanation for the establishment of NBA Cares (motto: “Where Caring Happens,” I swear I didn’t make that up) was to publicize all the great things that teams and individual teams were doing for their respective communities that didn’t get much press. If you believe that, then I’ve got some lovely beachfront property in Iowa to sell you. But just because the timing may have been self-serving, doesn’t mean that the NBA isn’t doing good. In fact, the NBA has ponied up big time.

According to its website, the NBA, its teams, and players “have committed to donating $100 million to charity, providing a million hours of hands on service to the community and creating 250 places where kids and families can live, learn or play.” For the record, that’s a lot of scratch, and precisely 114.16 years of hands-on service. For the most part, however, the NBA has been making steady progress toward its goal. According to the website, players, teams, employees, etc. have already raised $62 million and have donated over 450,000 hours of their time. The league has partnered up with 38 leading charities (see here for a full list) including the American Red Cross, the Make a Wish Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, and KaBOOM. During NBA All Star weekend in New Orleans this past February, the NBA had a service day in which 2,500 in the NBA community came together to help rebuild the city (covered on this website here).

So, was there community service in the NBA prior to 2006? Absolutely. Was the establishment of a league-wide umbrella service organization awfully self-serving in light of current events? You bet. But the NBA has really stepped up to the plate (free throw line?) and delivered a staggering amount of time, money, and service to the entire country in a relatively short period of time. Of course, the league has also promoted the hell out of it, congratulating itself all the way. Still, cynicism aside, perhaps the NBA really does care.

Next week we’ll explore NFL. In the meantime, lets all hope I don’t get sued.

*As a quick note, I’m only exploring this at a league level. Many teams and individual athletes do a lot of great service projects and donate huge amounts of time and money to charities, but a comprehensive catalog of that would be tedious and is far beyond the scope of this series. Also, sorry to all you Canadians, but for the purposes of this series and my life in general, I no longer consider hockey a sport. Ice hockey simply should not be played in places like Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Nashville, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose and Dallas. Ice is the operative word there NHL. I’ve been to all those places and they are warm. Go Whalers.