Basketball Without Borders is a basketball instructional camp organized by the NBA in conjunction with FIBA. It presents itself as a “basketball development and community outreach program that unites young basketball players to promote the sport and encourage positive social change in the areas of education, health, and wellness.”

Organized annually since 2001, 41 BWB camps have been held across 23 cities in 20 countries with over 2,300 participants from more than 120 countries and territories, 33 of whom were later drafted into the NBA. Around 150 different current and former NBA/WNBA players have joined nearly 140 NBA team personnel as staff.^[1]

History

Billed as a “summer camp for 12-14-year-olds designed to promote friendship and understanding through sport,” the initial editions focused on peace and international relations, bringing together youths from former Yugoslavia in 2001 shortly after the Yugoslav Wars and from Greece and Turkey in 2002 amidst tense Greek–Turkish relations, with leading participation from the UN in both cases.^[2][3]

From the 2003 editions onwards, basketball became the focus of the camps. The age of the participants grew (17 on average) and participants are now mostly selected for their potential, although the selection process by FIBA and national federations is an inclusive system that sees consensual selections from weaker basketball countries.

2003 also saw the first edition of the camp in Africa, seen as uncharted basketball territory at the time. The camps would later expand to the Americas in 2004 and Asia in 2005, including youth from all around the globe (those from Oceania have attended editions in the latter two mentioned regions).

A global camp was first organized in 2015 in New York City as part of the All-Star Game Weekend, giving an opportunity for selected players, identified as the best in their regions, to have a taste of the game at its highest level. This was announced as an recurring annual event.^[4]

The camps have gradually become a hotspot for scouts, with an impressive number of former campers who have made it into the NBA (see Attendees) and college basketball. They are seen as a means of spotting unheralded talent with high upside.^[5] Players such as Luc Mbah a Moute^[6] and Bruno Caboclo^[7] are noted examples.

Though basketball skill is now at the forefront of the camp, the social goal is also still pre-eminent. Few campers are expected to make it as pros and a declared goal of the camp is to develop its attendees life-skills, with an emphasis on leadership and personal relations, to make them leaders of change in their home countries.

Ideally, the personal goal for them is to enter a high school or college in the U.S. to get an education they can use in the future.^[8] In a given year it was estimated more than 60 former participants were playing and studying in American colleges.^[9]

There is a camp for girls as well with coaches from FIBA and the WNBA; however, it receives far less exposure than the boys tournaments.

Basketball Without Borders and program director Masai Ujiri are profiled in Hubert Davis's 2016 documentary film Giants of Africa.^[10]

Format

Basketball Without Borders brings together young players (called campers) usually aged 18 and under to a single location for a few days (3 or 4 on average). They are identified by the FIBA, NBA and participating federations with input from international FIBA/ NBA players from the region. For example, some players have been chosen for BWB Africa through Sprite Slam camps in the past.^[11]

The youths are divided into teams (sometimes after a draft) named after real NBA teams and managed by coaches who are current and former NBA or FIBA players and coaches. They attend daily basketball fundamentals clinics (passing, shooting, dribbling...) with these coaches and participate in individual and/or team shooting games for prizes before playing in tournament-style games against the other teams.^[9][12]

Also offered are seminars for the campers to improve their life skills (character, leadership, and health concerns...), normally run by local non-government organizations (NGOs).

The camp ends with an All-Star game featuring the camp's best players. Starting in the 2007 edition, a game MVP and a camp-wide MVP are then elected.^[12]

In parallel the organizers also implement social responsibility programs with daily community outreach activities in the local area such as organizing seminars for local youths or Special Olympics. These are supplemented by product donations to local organizations, such as schools, and usually an NBA Cares initiative such as building or refurbishing playing and educational infrastructures.^[13]

The NBA and its corporate sponsors pay for transport, lodging and meals for the campers and the entourage of personnel (including a full training staff for injuries). Some of many examples include the La Ghirada center in Treviso that was used in early camps and was leased for free by Benetton Group,^[2] the campers in BWB Africa flown in by South African Airways, ^[14] whilst Nike has outfitted the campers in multiple camps.^[13]

Camps

Year	Edition	City, Country	Dates	Attendees	Camp MVP
2001	BWB Europe 1[15]	Treviso	June 30 – July 2	50
2002	BWB Europe 2[16]	Istanbul	July 4–7	48
2003	BWB Europe 3[17] BWB Africa 1[18]	Treviso Johannesburg	June 28 – July 1 September 2–6	46 106
2004	BWB Americas 1[19] BWB Europe 4[20] BWB Africa 2[21]	Rio de Janeiro Treviso Johannesburg	June 28 – July 2 July 24–27 September 8–11	49 42 99
2005	BWB Americas 2[22] BWB Asia 1[23] BWB Europe 5[24] BWB Africa 3[25]	Buenos Aires Beijing Treviso Johannesburg	June 30 – July 4 July 11–17 July 28–31 September 7–12	57 50 49 106
2006	BWB Asia 2[26] BWB Europe 6[27] BWB Americas 3[28] BWB Africa 4[29]	Shanghai Vilnius San Juan Johannesburg	June 8–11 June 30 – July 3 July 16–19 September 6–10	46 51 48 114
2007	BWB Asia 3[30] BWB Americas 4[31] BWB Europe 7[32] BWB Africa 5[33]	Shanghai Sao Paulo Paris Johannesburg	July 5–8 July 31 – August 3 August 6–10 September 5–9	49 51 48 97	Not Awarded Jayson Granger Nika Metreveli Not Awarded
2008	BWB Europe 8[34] BWB Asia 4[35] BWB Africa 6[36]	Istanbul New Delhi Johannesburg	June 4–7 July 1–6 September 3–8	46 45 98	Nikola Mirotić Vishesh Bhriguvanshi Not Awarded
2009	BWB Asia 5[37] BWB Americas 5[38] BWB Africa 7[39]	Beijing Mexico City Johannesburg	July 30 – August 2 August 6–9 September 2–6	47 49 63	Not Awarded Santiago Nicolas Scala Cyril Bilong Sonna
2010	BWB Asia 6[40] BWB Africa 8[41] BWB Europe 9[42]	Singapore Dakar Barcelona	June 28 – July 1 August 5–8 September 16–19	44 55 50	Tom Daly Michel Ange Enanga Mateusz Ponitka
2011	BWB Americas 6[43] BWB Europe 10[42] BWB Africa 9[44]	Rio de Janeiro Ljubljana Johannesburg	July 29 – August August 8–11 August September 1–4	40 50 60	Gabriel Deck Boris Dallo Benoit Mbala Mendzana
2012	BWB Asia 7[45] BWB Africa 10[46] BWB Europe 11[47]	Tokyo Johannesburg Moscow	June 13–16 August 30 – September 2 September 13–16	56 58 42	Yuki Togashi Romeh Elsadani Sameh Ali Nedim Buza
2013	BWB Americas 7[48] BWB Europe 12[49] BWB Africa 11[50]	Buenos Aires Lisbon Johannesburg	July 25–28 August 15–18 August 29 – September 1	50 50 60	Bruno Caboclo Federico Mussini Gerson Domingos
2014	BWB Europe 13[51] BWB Asia 8[52] BWB Africa 11[53]	Rome Taipei Johannesburg	June 2–5 June 13–16 August 5–8	50 47 50	Luc Loubaki Mohammad Yousof Vand, Ryogo Sumino Luca Lunneman
2015	BWB Global 1[54] BWB Europe 14[55]	New York City Las Palmas	February 13–15 June 3–6	50 50	Dragan Bender Ömer Yurtseven
2016	BWB Global 2[56] BWB Europe 15[57]	Toronto Lohja	February 12–14 September 7–10	53 40	Harry Froling Arnas Velička
2017	BWB Global 3[58] BWB Africa 15[59] BWB Americas 9[60] BWB Europe 16[61]	New Orleans Johannesburg Nassau Netanya	February 14–16 August 5–8 July 2–5 August 13–16		R.J. Barrett Kurt-Curry Wegscheider Francisco Farabello Omar Dieng
2018	BWB Global 4[62] BWB Asia 10 BWB Africa 16 BWB Europe 17[63]	El Segundo, California New Delhi Johannesburg Belgrade	February 16–18 May 30 – June 2 August 1–4 August 15–18	N/A 66 N/A 63	Charles Bassey Rence Padrigao N/A Deni Avdija[64]
2019	BWB Global 5[65] BWB Europe 18[66]	Charlotte, North Carolina Riga	February 15–17 June 10–12	63 64	Deni Avdija Juhann Begarin
2020	BWB Global 6[67]	Chicago	February 14-16	64	Ariel Hukporti
2022	BWB Africa 17[68]	Cairo	August 28–31	60	Thierry Serge Darlan
2023	BWB Global 7[69] BWB Africa 19[70]	Salt Lake City Johannesburg	February 17-19 July 28-31	40 80	Matas Buzelis Khaman Maluach

Notable Attendees