NBA, Nonprofits Partner On Youth Basketball Initiatives

In June 2015, after working for 14 years in the NFL’s league office, David Krichavsky joined the NBA to spearhead the Jr. NBA, the league’s youth basketball program that had begun in the early 2000s. Krichavsky was drawn to the job because the league was making an increased commitment to the Jr. NBA under Adam Silver, who was named commissioner the previous year. Krichavsky had experience in youth sports initiatives, as well, from his time at the NFL.

During the past six-plus years, the Jr. NBA program has grown to reach millions of children throughout the world, most of whom are between ages 6 and 14. And it is looking to have even more of an impact as the league is partnering with two nonprofit organizations to focus on helping coaches and players on and off the court.

The NBA is working with the Laureus Sport for Good, which was founded in 2000 with the goal of using sports to help foster youth development and combat violence and discrimination. The nonprofit says it was created in response to former South Africa president Nelson Mandela’s declaration that “sport has the power to change the world” and supported more than 341,000 children in more than 40 countries in 2019.

The NBA and Laureus is launching a free online program for youth coaches with an emphasis on communicating with players and teaching them social, emotional and leadership skills. The league already offers online coaching programs and seminars for youth coaches, but those focus on the Xs and Os and drills to improve dribbling, passing, shooting and defense. For instance, it has 48 practice plans and more than 250 instructional videos featuring NBA and WNBA players that youth coaches and players can access free of charge. Still, the league wanted to expand its offerings and thought Laureus was an ideal match.

The NBA is also partnering with Girls Leadership, an Oakland, Calif.,-based nonprofit that works with girls and women on leadership development. Girls Leadership has created  an online curriculum on emotional and social learning that will be part of the Jr. NBA’s “Her Time to Play” initiative that launched in 2018 to increase participation in girls basketball.

In addition, the NBA is expanding its Jr. NBA Next Level Mentality program, which consists of online videos focused on mental health and featuring insights from mental performance coaches and NBA and WNBA players. The league plans on having the program in more than 3,000 elementary and middle schools this year.

“(These programs) are about access and opportunity, increasing equitable participation in the sport of basketball,” Krichavsky said. “That comes out of our experience living through the pandemic when sports were taken away from so many of us as well as the lack of equity across communities. We knew we had to do more to increase access and equity as it relates to youth basketball.”

During the 2019-20 season, about 14.5 million youth players throughout the world attended Jr. NBA youth clinics and events, according to the league. But since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020, the league has discontinued those in-person events and transitioned to online events. The league claims those virtual events have drawn more than 210 million views on social media from 118 countries.

The Jr. NBA’s marquee event is the Jr. NBA Global Championship, a tournament that began in 2018 and features many of the best 13- and 14-year old boys and girls players throughout the world. That tournament was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic, but league officials plan on holding it in 2022 as long as the number of coronavirus cases are low and government officials permit indoor events.

Now, through the partnerships with Laureus Sport and Girls Leadership and the expanded Jr. NBA Next Level Mentality program, the NBA is hoping to impact even more children and coaches and impart lifelong lessons that last well beyond their playing days.

“We know that the experience a young person has through sports can be incredible developmentally in terms of how they develop as a person,” Krichavsky said. “Investing in that off-court development and providing leadership training and mentorship through coaches will benefit players that are a part of their programs.”