Charlotte (Steve Goldberg’s Wheel World) –  Next Thursday afternoon, in what’s become the unofficial competitive tipoff of the NBA All Star Week, the best of the East and West among players on NBA affiliated wheelchair basketball teams will take it to the hoop.

Nineteen players have been named to the two rosters for the 17th running of the NBA/NWBA All-Star Wheelchair which comes back to where it all started with the inaugural game in 1998. That one was played on the main court at Jam Session in the Jacob Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s west side.

This time around, the week’s festivities and events are spread out among the Boroughs as the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets share the honor of being the host teams.

Back in the game again is Chuck Gill of the Golden State Road Warriors who was there for the first one and has played in… well, let’s just say it would be easier to count the ones he hasn’t been a part of.

None to my knowledge though have been to as many as former NBA Commissioner David Stern. Since the beginning, Stern has been a presence.
Dick Bryant, who served as the NWBA from 2002-2008 and as president from 2008-2012 says Stern enjoyed the game and was supportive of it.$

"He always did a photo with the team and shook hands with everyone there. And you’re talking about someone who had a schedule to be everywhere."
Bryant also says the Commish was a fan who paid attention even while his minions were waiting impatiently to whisk him away to his next appointment or appearance. "When he was there, he was in to watching the game and the skill of the players."

His presence as well as being there in the first place, according to Bryant, gave recognition and credibility to the NWBA. "It was an opportunity to showcase the game of wheelchair basketball at the highest level of publicity."

For the athletes, Bryant says there was, "a sense of pride for the players to be recognized and treated first class."

For Bryant, it became personal when Stern signed a photo of them together, "From one commissioner to another."
It wasn’t just Stern. The game, which morphed from All-Star Week exhibitions by the Phoenix Banner Wheelchair Suns into a full-fledged game representing the bulk if not all of the NBA affiliated teams in the NWBA began under the guidance of Steve Martin, the former NBA Director of Corporate Affairs and Karen Proctor, the former Director of Community Relations.

It grew and flourished under the auspices of Kathy Behrens, whose title now reads as the NBA’s President of Social Responsibility & Player Programs, and Todd Jacobson, the Senior Vice President, Social Responsibility. They both joined the league in 2002.

Also in the mix supporting the game has been former NBA star and Naismith Hall of Famer Bob Lanier, who held the title of Special Assistant to the Commissioner and who’s focus was on the community-oriented NBA Cares program.

The big and burley but elementally affable Lanier was always on hand for the Wheelchair Classic along with the public wheelchair basketball clinics that have been part of it. Bryant says the clinics were just as important as the game because they further integrated the NWBA and its players into the NBA’s fabric of public service.

From the start, Behrens and her team integrated former and current NBA and WNBA stars into the event as honorary coaches. The first year it was Lafeyette “Fat” Lever and Rolando Blackman. Last year in New Orleans, NBA legends Darryl Dawkins and John Starks and WNBA stars Ruth Riley of the Atlanta Dream and Tamika Catchings of the Indiana Fever joined the benches.

This year’s All-Star Wheelchair Classic will be held on the campus of Long Island University in Brooklyn on Thursday, February 12.

Remember what former Knicks community relations director said after seeing his first wheelchair basketball game in 1998, "I was blown away; these guys can just flat out play."

Steve Goldberg

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