NIKE, INC., USA BASKETBALL, AND JAY-Z TIP OFF INAUGURAL WORLD BASKETBALL FESTIVAL IN NEW YORK

 NIKE, Inc. and USA Basketball are set to tip off the inaugural World Basketball Festival tonight opening with an on-court showcase of the 2010 USA Basketball World Championship Team followed by an electrifying musical performance by music mogul and multi-platinum selling recording artist JAY-Z, all at legendary Radio City Music Hall.

The best place to catch a courtside seat for the entire Radio City Music Hall basketball and musical performance will be on Facebook, streaming live at http://www.facebook.com/wbf beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT until its conclusion. Following the event at Radio City Music Hall, highlights will be available online at www.NBA.com and www.USABasketball.com.

NBA TV will air the basketball performance live, and tonight ESPN2 will tape-delay the basketball performance from 11 p.m. ET to midnight.

The World Basketball Festival is a four-day celebration of the performance and culture of the game, an event that Nike has committed to reprising every two years. The action runs August 12-15, and features basketball’s leading brands within the NIKE Inc. portfolio – Converse, the Jordan Brand, and Nike Basketball.

From Radio City Music Hall tonight, the action moves uptown to New York City’s legendary basketball courts at Rucker Park in Harlem, Friday and Saturday, August 13 and 14. Rucker Park will be home to open-air practices and scrimmages by National Teams from Brazil, Puerto Rico and France. Performances by some of the best DJs in the country will take part throughout the weekend while adult playground leagues and youth teams from New York, China, and Brazil will be playing over the two days.

The World Basketball Festival concludes Sunday, August 15 with an exciting exhibition double-header featuring the United States taking on France (1 p.m. EDT) and China meeting Puerto Rico (3:30 p.m. EDT) at famed Madison Square Garden. The exhibition games are being utilized as part of the teams’ preparation for the 2010 FIBA World Basketball Championship in Turkey, August 28 to September 12. Both games will air on NBA TV and ESPN2.

In addition to his performance at Radio City Music Hall, JAY-Z has joined forces with Nike to create an iconic collection of Air Force Ones – the All Black Everything collection inspired by the World Basketball Festival. Nike has donated the shoes to the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation who in turn have linked up with eBay on a charity auction where the five unique pairs will raise funds for its mission to provide financial assistance to promising individuals upon acceptance into any accredited institution of higher learning.

One hundred percent of the funds raised will support the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. The charity auction begins on August the 12, and bidders can visit www.ebay.com/jayznikewbf to enter a bid. Only two pairs of each of the five designs will be created, one for the winning bidder and one for the man behind the design, JAY-Z. The charity auction begins on August 12, at 9:00 a.m. EDT and ends on August 22, at 9:00 a.m. EDT.