1. Salvatore Tarantino
17 February 2016
Sporting Company: National Basketball Association (NBA)
Cause: Environmental Awareness
Partnership: Green Sports Alliance with NBA Cares
National Basketball Association (NBA)
The NBA is a men’s professional basketball league in North America,
unanimously considered the premier league in the world. It has 30 franchised members
(29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The league was founded in 1946, in New York
City. The league is widely popular, as it accumulated 5.18 billion dollars of revenue in
the 2014-2015 Season. The league currently has a number of marketable players, such
as LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant. During the 2014-2015 Season,
sponsorship spending totaled $739 million, an 8.9% increase from the previous year.
NBA Cares, the league’s social responsibility program, has a number of different
programs that help promote the league’s commitment to addressing and promoting
different social issues around the world. The initiative’s within NBA Cares includes;
Hoops for Troops, My Brother’s Keeper, NBA Fit, NBA Green, and Season of Giving. NBA
Cares was launched in October 2005 and has since raised $270 million for charities,
provided over 3.5 million hours of service, and built more than 995 homes for families to
live and learn in their communities.
Green Sports Alliance
The Green Sports Alliance leverages market influences of sports in order to
promote sustainable communities. They do so by working with different sports leagues,
teams, venues, corporate partners, and fans in order to incorporate renewable energy,
healthy food, recycling, and preservation. The Alliance members represent more than
300 sports teams and venues from 20 different leagues in 14 countries. Since February
of 2010, Green Sports Alliance has brought together teams and the environmental
community in order to find ways to develop practices and solutions to their
environmental challenges. The hope is that by doing so, the sports world can find ways
to be environmentally responsible, while being cost-efficient and innovative. The Green
Sports Alliance was conceived and founded by a number of different northwest sports
franchises, including the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers, along with the Natural Resources
Defense Council and a number of different environmentally conscious businesses and
advocacy groups.
Partnership
Through NBA Green, the NBA and Green Sports Alliance have partnered in order
to promote awareness and funds for the protection of the environment. For awareness,
the NBA has put on an awareness and service campaign, using players and coaches.

2. Each year, the league designates a week of the regular season for the promotion of this
ongoing campaign.
During the 2014-15 season, Sprint sponsored “NBA Green Week”, in which a
number of different advertisements went out. Corresponding with those
advertisements were initiatives the league took that directly made an impact. For
example, for each use of #NBAGREEN, the NBA vowed to plant a tree. They worked with
the Arbor Day Foundation and ended up planting 25,000 trees. The advertisement they
compiled for this promotion incorporated the well talked about trend in the game, in
which big men are being deemphasized from the game. No longer is the game
dominated in the paint, as there has been a shift to perimeter-oriented play.
Corresponding that was their slogan, “Save the Bigs”, which both refers to big men and
trees. The advertisement below features three of the popular post-players in the league;
Nikola Vucevic, who has international appeal as a foreign-born player, Anthony Davis,
and DeMarcus Cousins.
The league also promised to plant a tree with every three-point shot made
during the week. Since the league has seen an uptick in three-point shots attempted,
this was also a creative way of promising to make an impact on the environment. With
154 three pointers made, 462 (which equals the amount of points made off that amount
of three-pointers) trees were planted. The league again used three popular players from
that year; Kyle Korver, Stephen Curry, and Kyrie Irving. Each player that year created
headlines and a following for their on-court production.

3. Visibility at games was also important. In coordination with Adidas, the league’s
apparel and jersey sponsor, players had “Green Week” warm-ups that fans could also
purchase. This helps every fan that attends the game or watches the game on TV
explicitly know that it is Green Week in the NBA. Other sports, like the NFL do this with
Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October and Salute to Service Month in November,
where the players wear pink and camouflage gear, respectively. This is a way of
symbolizing the efforts that are being made behind the scenes and in the communities.
The NBA arenas also phone recycling bins around the arena, which further encouraged
fan participation. Also, Sprint and the NBA in collaboration with Bonneville
Environmental Foundation purchased renewable energy certificates in order to ensure
that all 64 games played during that week were powered exclusively by renewable
energy.
The league also has continual efforts outside of Green Week. With Green Sports
Alliance, they have been working with teams and cities in order to gain LEED
certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. So far, 7 arenas have been awarded
which is a major step for the NBA. With new arenas in San Francisco and Milwaukee
being built soon, the NBA will have further opportunities to add to the list, as new
arenas will have to implement these standards.
Individually, teams are also taking initiatives to answer the call of NBA Green and
Green Sports Alliance. The Portland Trailblazers have been a model citizen in this regard.
They were a leading force in forming Green Sports Alliance and the partnership with the
NBA. Partnering with Daimier Trucking, they have a Trailblazers and Friends group that
plants three trees with every three-point basket made. They are a proactive member in
the community, in which they are promoting environmentally responsible activities. This
is important, as in the article How Adding Purpose to Sponsorship Amplifies ROI, by Lesa
Ukman, it is brought up how sponsorship value increases with the incorporation of
socially responsible activities. Not only are they making an impact on the community,
but they are also increasing their brand value. The Trailblazers have significantly cut the

4. number of sponsors, but increased sponsorship revenue by 50%. They significantly
increased the quality of sponsorships. The growth can be directly attributed to the
community outreach that they have been a part of. The Golden State Warriors started a
campaign, sponsored by BMW, to conserve water. In California, water resources are a
major issue as the state goes through a very harsh drought. Through the Warriors
website, fans can take the pledge to conserve water. For each pledge, the program
pledges to restore 1,000 gallons of water to critically dewatered ecosystems and
regional projects. In the future, the Warriors as well as other teams who adopt
programs like this will reap the benefits.
OPINION
I am a big fan of the NBA. I have been going to games since I was a young child
and actively support the league through an NBA.TV subscription and the purchasing of
NBA licensed gear. I watch the games on TV and have noticed commercials that
promote the community in which the NBA prides itself on. I also have gone to games
where the players were wearing the “NBA Green” warm-ups, which I thought were
aesthetic in design and practice.
The National Basketball Association is a very popular league in America. The
major events they hold, such as All-Star Weekend and the NBA Finals generate a lot of
publicity in pop culture and social media. Becoming a socially responsible organization
was a great step for the league. With this, more support is created as people always
seek to rally around organizations and individuals who make positive impacts in the
world. The NBA has been at the forefront of social change and responsibility, ever since
Adam Silver became commissioner. The league has never been as popular. There are no
villains in the league like in the past with the Bad Boys of the Detroit Pistons and Ron

5. Artest, who ignited the “Malice at the Palace”. The league has cleaned up its image, as
well as completely rebranding itself. It is not community and family friendly. Silver has
done a great job at incorporating partnerships into production off the court with
initiatives like NBA Green.
Works Consulted
Henly, Alice. "2015 NBA Green Week Tips Off." 2015 NBA Green Week Tips Off.
Natural Resources Defense Council, 23 Mar. 2015. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
“Portland Trail Blazers Find Success With “Less Is More” Sponsorship Strategy." IEGSR.
IEG, LLC, 25 Jan. 2016. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.
“Sponsorship Spending on the NBA Totals $739 Million in 2014-2015 Season”. IEGSR.
IEG, LLC, 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 16 February 2016.