NBA Collin Sexton of the Cleveland Cavaliers answers questions during a media availability session at Hotel Raffles Makati on Wednesday, May 15, 2019). Sexton along with WNBA legend Ticha Penicheiro is set to grace Jr. NBA Philippine National Training Camp at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall on May 19. (PNA photo by Jess M. Escaros Jr.)
MANILA -- Collin Sexton and Ticha Penicheiro will be the special guests in the 2019 Jr. NBA National Training Camp in Makati City this weekend.
Sexton and Penicheiro will help the coaches in conducting basketball drills in the training camp proper on Saturday at the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati and will also be in attendance in the culminating activities, the boys-versus-girls exhibition game and the alumni all-star game at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall in Pasay City on Sunday.
"I can't wait," Sexton said during a media availability session at Hotel Raffles Makati on Wednesday.
"It'll be good just to interact with the kids, me being there personally and talking and being normal to them,” he added.
Sexton was selected as the eighth overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft by Cleveland, giving him an opportunity to team up with Gilas Pilipinas player Jordan Clarkson.
Penicheiro, on the other hand, was the second overall pick of the 1998 WNBA Draft by Sacramento, helping the team win the WNBA title in 2005.
Following a 15-year career that also had stops in Los Angeles and Chicago, the Portuguese guard is set to be enshrined this June in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
The National Training Camp finalist were selected from regional selection camps in Benguet, Butuan, Dumaguete, Lucena and Metro Manila, and from the Alaska Power Camp.
The Jr. NBA, the league’s global youth basketball program for boys and girls, teaches the fundamental skills as well as the core values of the game at the grassroots level in an effort to help grow and improve the youth basketball experience for players, coaches and parents.
During the 2018-19 season, the NBA and its teams plan to reach more than 51 million youth in 75 countries, including the Philippines, through league play, in-school programming, clinics, skills challenges, and other outreach events. (PNA)
