Euroleague Basketball launches 'ONE TEAM'

After almost a year of development and with the support of Turkish Airlines as Founding Patron and the collaboration of Europe's leading basketball clubs, Euroleague Basketball launches One Team today (April 17), a sport and development programme across Europe that uses the power of basketball to change lives. The programme is supported by eight Founding Partner Clubs -Alba Berlin, Anadolu Efes, CSKA, Maccabi, Olimpia Milano, Olympiacos, Real Madrid and Unicaja- extending in the next two seasons across all 24 clubs, who will all be tailoring and investing their community outreach to challenge key social issues faced by their communities using an innovative methodology of assessment, outreach and results oriented analysis to create the maximum impact. "One Team unites the passions of our fans; the clubs and our relationships beyond the court with the communities in which we exist and draw our support." said Euroleague CEO, Mr. Jordi Bertomeu. "It is a highly credible combination of social interaction programmes and education that empowers our clubs with an even greater relevance and interaction with their communities. It is a core embracing message of everything we stand for and the best values and spirit of basketball." "Turkish Airlines is very excited to be part of an initiative that uses sport to positively impact society." said Turkish Airlines CEO, Mr. Temel Kotil, Ph. D. "The One Team programme and its development have drawn from the very best examples of sport and development to create a truly blue riband programme in sport. At Turkish Airlines we believe that sport is a unique language that can inspire and One Team uses that language to talk to those who most need to hear its message of positive values." The chosen projects have been tailored by each team to meet its own local needs to have a real and dramatically positive impact on potentially excluded groups: those with disability (physical or intellectual), the economically disadvantaged, those in non-traditional family environments, and those under substance abuse or members of urban gangs. The aim of the program is not to simply involve these groups in sporting activity, but to teach them life skills, using the power of basketball to improve their situation. To know more about each one of the projects chosen by each team, please visit www.one1team.org. “ONE TEAM has a lot of power to transmit positive values to society" said Jose Carlos Gaspar, from Unicaja. "All the teams together can be an unbelievable force. “There is no precedent in Europe, not even at national level of such an initiative where different clubs put all their efforts together. We can achieve a big victory: all of us together as one team.”

VIDEO OF THE PROJECT