BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The 2021-2022 NBA Finals have come to an end, with the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics giving fans six wonderful games, and for Yao Foundation, this year's Finals have seen Yao Foundation's old friends Draymond Green, Gary Payton Jr. and Jason Tatum on the field.
Warriors players celebrate winning the championship. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Dong Xudong)
In addition to their wonderful performances in the NBA, they have also brought wonderful performances to fans in the Yao Foundation Charity Game over the years, dedicating love to rural children outside the arena, serving the community, and helping the public welfare.
In 2015, Green scored 55 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds and 4 steals at the Yao Foundation Charity Tournament held in Shanghai, which made the audience addicted; In 2017 and 2018, Gary Payton Jr. appeared in the charity competition of The Yao Foundation in Hong Kong and Dalian for two consecutive years to interact with rural children; Tatum's dunk performance in 2018 is still fresh in everyone's memory.
Green participated in the 2015 Yao Foundation Charity Tournament Hope Primary School Training Camp to demonstrate the essentials of movement techniques for young players
The biggest difference between the Yao Foundation Charity Tournament and other basketball tournaments is its "dream third quarter" - young players from the basketball season of Yao Foundation Hope Primary School in rural areas represent the two teams in China and the United States. Since 2013, the "exclusive" third section has become the tradition and highlight of the Yao Foundation Charity Competition. The outstanding young players from the Yao Foundation hope that the basketball season of primary schools will become teammates with their basketball idols, learn from zero distance, practice ball skills, enjoy the joy brought by basketball, have the courage to pursue their dreams, and bravely strive for victory.
Nengbi Wuji, a big Liangshan girl who lost her mother's love and was dependent on her father for her life, once dropped out of school at home due to her family's poverty. Because of basketball, I can have a different choice than the life of Wu Ji. In 2015, as the only contestant in Sichuan, Nengbi Wuji went to Shanghai to participate in the Yao Foundation Charity Competition and stood out. In 2016, she participated in the "Yao Foundation Hope Primary School Basketball Season" for the second time, and her outstanding performance made Sichuan Xichang Aerospace School decide to recruit her as a basketball orientation student, and the Xichang Municipal Sports Bureau bore her a living expense of 300 yuan per month. With the help of basketball skills, she also successfully entered junior high school and high school. Now she often thinks: If she hadn't had that basketball, if the volunteers of the Yao Foundation hadn't come to her school, what would her life have been like?
On August 12, 2018, Yao Ming, the founder of the Yao Foundation, and Ye Li, chairman of the Board of Directors, together with the American Nike Star Sharp Team Kevin Luck, Jason Tatum, Markle Fortz, Dalong Fox, Gary Payton Jr., Laurie Markkanen Jr., and the Chinese men's basketball star team Li Xiaoxu, Han Dejun, Lu Wenbo, Arslan and other stars walked into Lingshui Primary School to share the fun of basketball with everyone.
Gary Payton Jr. (left) was a guest of honor at the 2018 Yao Foundation Charity Dinner to help the charity auction
The school was founded in 1946 and most of its students are the children of nearby migrant workers. For Lingshui Primary School, the most well-known is its "most cattle recess exercise" - nearly 1600 students in the school, during the recess exercise, dance basketball exercises together, neat and uniform, magnificent.
Lingshui Primary School Principal Wu Xiaohong is still impressed by that visit, in 2019, their school's "basketball big class" physical education teaching case was selected from more than 2600 cases in the country to be selected as the "Dynamic Campus" excellent case national top 100, Wu Xiaohong once again met Ye Dawei, secretary general of the Yao Foundation in Shanghai, she excitedly introduced to him the changes in the school after the Yao Foundation Charity Tournament, she said that the visit of the Yao Foundation Charity Tournament stars, inspired more students to love basketball, More importantly, it inspires students to set up more lofty ideals, and no matter what industry they are engaged in in in the future, they can stand on a higher and bigger stage.
Lefu and other players came to Lingshui Primary School to visit, which was sought after by the teachers and students of the school
In 2007, Yao Ming and NBA celebrity Nash jointly launched the "Yao Na Charity Game", after more than ten years of growth and exploration, the Yao Foundation Charity Game has grown into a high-level basketball performance event integrating sports and charity. Over the past ten years, it has received the participation of more than 200 Professional Chinese and American basketball players, including Green, Gary Payton Jr., and Tatum.
Source: Xinhua News Agency