Basketball Without Borders
Basketball Without Borders is a basketball instructional camp organised 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”.
Organised annually since 2001, 41 BWB camps have been held across 23 cities in 20 countries with in excess of 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.
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.From the 2003 editions onwards, basketball became the focus of the camps, the age of the participants grew 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.
That year 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.
A global camp was first organised in 2015 in New York City as part of the All-Star Game Weekend, it gave an opportunity for the selected players, identified as the best in their regions, to have a taste of the game at its highest level, it was announced as an recurrent annual event.
The camps have gradually become a hotspot for scouts, with an impressive number of former campers who have made it into the NBA and/or College basketball it is seen as a means of spotting unheralded talent with high upside, players such as Luc Mbah a Moute or Bruno Caboclo 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, in a given year it was estimated more than sixty former participants were playing and studying in American colleges.
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.
Format
It brings together young players usually aged 18 and under to a single location for a few days, they are identified by the FIBA, NBA and participating federations with input from international FIBA/ NBA players from the region, for example for BWB Africa some have been chosen through Sprite Slam camps in the past.The youths are divided into teams named after real NBA teams and managed by coaches, those are either NBA or FIBA players and coaches, both current and former.
They attend daily clinics of basketball fundamentals with these coaches and participate in individual and/or team shooting games for prizes before playing in tournament style games against the other teams.
Also offered are seminars for the campers to improve their life-skills normally run by local non-government organizations.
The camp ends with an All-Star game featuring the camps best players, a game and a camp MVP are then elected.
In parallel the organisers also implement social responsibility programmes, with daily community outreach activities in the local area, for example through organising seminars for local youths or Special Olympics.
These are supplemented by product donations to local organisations such as schools and usually an NBA Cares initiative such as building or refurbishing playing and educational infrastructures.
The NBA and its corporate sponsors pay for transport, lodging and meals for the campers and the entourage of personnel, some of many examples include the La Ghirada center in Treviso that was used in early camps was leased for free by Benetton Group, the campers in BWB Africa flown in by South African Airways whilst Nike has outfitted the campers in multiple camps.
Camps
| Year | Edition | City, Country | Dates | [|Attendees] | Camp MVP |
| 2001 | BWB Europe 1 |  Treviso | 30 June to 2 July | 50 | |
| 2002 | BWB Europe 2 |  Istanbul | 4 to 7 July | 48 | |
| 2003 | BWB Europe 3 BWB Africa 1 | Treviso  Johannesburg | 28 June to 1 July 2 to 6 September | 46 106 | |
| 2004 | BWB Americas 1 BWB Europe 4 BWB Africa 2 |  Rio de Janeiro Treviso Johannesburg | 28 June to 2 July 24 to 27 July 8 to 11 September | 49 42 99 | |
| 2005 | BWB Americas 2 BWB Asia 1 BWB Europe 5 BWB Africa 3 |  Buenos Aires  Beijing Treviso Johannesburg | 30 June to 4 July 11 to 17 July 28 to 31 July 7 to 12 September | 57 50 49 106 | |
| 2006 | BWB Asia 2 BWB Europe 6 BWB Americas 3 BWB Africa 4 | Shanghai  Vilnius  San Juan Johannesburg | 8 to 11 June 30 June to 3 July 16 to 19 July 6 to 10 September | 46 51 48 114 | |
| 2007 | BWB Asia 3 BWB Americas 4 BWB Europe 7 BWB Africa 5 | Shanghai Sao Paulo  Paris Johannesburg | 5 to 8 July 31 July to 3 August 6 to 10 August 5 to 9 September | 49 51 48 97 | Not Awarded  Jayson Granger  Nika Metreveli Not Awarded |
| 2008 | BWB Europe 8 BWB Asia 4 BWB Africa 6 | Istanbul  New Delhi Johannesburg | 4 to 7 June 1 to 6 July 3 to 8 September | 46 45 98 |  Nikola Mirotić Vishesh Bhriguvanshi Not Awarded |
| 2009 | BWB Asia 5 BWB Americas 5 BWB Africa 7 | Beijing  Mexico City Johannesburg | 30 July to 2 August 6 to 9 August 2 to 6 September | 47 49 63 | Not Awarded Santiago Nicolas Scala  Cyril Bilong Sonna |
| 2010 | BWB Asia 6 BWB Africa 8 BWB Europe 9 |  Singapore  Dakar  Barcelona | 28 June to 1 July 5 to 8 August 16 to 19 September | 44 55 50 |  Tom Daly Michel Ange Enanga  Mateusz Ponitka |
| 2011 | BWB Americas 6 BWB Europe 10 BWB Africa 9 | Rio de Janeiro  Ljubljana Johannesburg | 29 July to 1 August 8 to 11 August 1 to 4 September | 40 50 60 | Gabriel Deck Boris Dallo Benoit Mbala Mendzana |
| 2012 | BWB Asia 7 BWB Africa 10 BWB Europe 11 |  Tokyo Johannesburg  Moscow | 13 to 16 June 30 August to 2 September 13 to 16 September | 56 58 42 | Yuki Togashi  Romeh Elsadani Sameh Ali  Nedim Buza |
| 2013 | BWB Americas 7 BWB Europe 12 BWB Africa 11 | Buenos Aires  Lisbon Johannesburg | 25 to 28 July 15 to 18 August 29 August to 1 September | 50 50 60 | Bruno Caboclo Federico Mussini  Gerson Domingos |
| 2014 | BWB Europe 13 BWB Asia 8 BWB Africa 11 | Rome  Taipei Johannesburg | 2 to 5 June 13 to 16 June 5 to 8 August | 50 47 50 | Luc Loubaki  Mohammad Yousof Vand Ryogo Sumino Luca Lunneman |
| 2015 | BWB Global 1 BWB Europe 14 |  New York City Las Palmas | 13 to 15 February 3 to 6 June | 50 50 |  Dragan Bender Ömer Yurtseven |
| 2016 | BWB Global 2 BWB Europe 15 |  Toronto  Lohja | 12 to 14 February 7 to 10 September | 53 40 | Harry Froling Arnas Velička |
| 2017 | BWB Global 3 BWB Africa 15 BWB Americas 9 BWB Europe 16 |  New Orleans Johannesburg  Nassau  Netanya | 14 to 16 February 5 to 8 August 2 to 5 July 13 to 16 August | R.J. Barrett  Axel Wegscheider Francisco Farabello Omar Dieng | |
| 2018 | BWB Global 4 BWB Asia 10 BWB Africa 16 BWB Europe 17 | El Segundo, California New Delhi Johannesburg Belgrade | 16 to 18 February 30 May 30 to 2 June 1 to 4 August 15 to 18 August | ? 66 ? 63 |  Charles Bassey Rence Padrigao?  Deni Avdija |
| 2019 | BWB Global 5 | Charlotte, North Carolina | 15 to 17 February | 63 | Deni Avdija |