The Africa boys and girls teams joined other international teams to take part in their first life skills seminar of the week. The first of the ‘Respect the Game’ life skills session featured current and former NBA (NBA.com) and WNBA players, including Grant Hill, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Jennifer Azzi and Jason Collins sharing tips on how best to approach tasks and challenges on and off the court. The players and youth discussed in groups the importance of developing and nurturing relationships, being respectful, recognizing responsibility that comes with using social media as well as dealing with injuries and maintaining healthy lifestyles.

Next, the teams headed to the ESPN Wide World of Sports for their last practice sessions before the tournament’s pool play starts today. Africa Girls will face Europe & Middle East Girls (4:30pm ET / 10:30pm CAT) and Africa Boys will play Europe & Middle East Boys (6:00pm ET / 0:00am CAT).

Watch Africa Boys vs. Europe and Middle East Boys from 0:00am CAT on the NBA Africa YouTube Channel tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3PiDHSSROE

Quotes

• Bahati Mgunda, Africa Girls Head Coach: “What I can say, they are ready. I see the attitude since we arrived here in Florida, that has been different compared to when we started training in Dakar, Senegal.”
• Jason Collins, NBA Legend: “These young athletes are learning skills that will help them not only on the court, but off the court, and will help them grow as human beings. It will open their minds and will help them later in life.”

Audio

• NBA Legends Grant Hill and Jason Collins; and Africa Girls Head Coach Bahati Mgunda of Tanzania https://we.tl/t-VVsgvLSyii