By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
One Team, Euroleague Basketball’s Corporate Social Responsibility program, was front and center at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague FanZone with a pair of sessions that included some of the EuroLeague’s biggest stars.
On Friday, May 19, the afternoon of the EuroLeague Final Four semifinals, a group of Final Four Ambassadors, which included past greats of the game, met athletes from Special Olympics Lithuania at the FanZone main court for a session open to the public. The session was led by Zalgiris Kaunas’s One Team coaches with the support of Euroleague Basketball and consisted of several activities focused on life skills, culminating in an animated 3-on-3 inclusive game.
“Zalgiris Kaunas is a club that is strongly meshed with the community and through One Team we have found more ways to strengthen that connection with families,” Final Four Ambassador and Zalgiris assistant general manager Paulius Jankunas said. “Not only does the One Team program have such a strong positive impact on the participants, it is incredibly rewarding for the players, too.”
“Events such as these are among the highlights of the Final Four,” Final Four Ambassador and Kaunas native Jonas Maciulis added. “It brings me personally great pleasure to see smiles on the faces of these children and I am very proud to be able to take part in it.”
The following morning, One Team Ambassadors from the participating Final Four teams congregated at the FanZone for a session with the Zalgiris Kaunas One Team participants.
“I am very honored to be part of this organization and try to develop and try to give some special moments to these kids,” Adam Hanga of Real Madrid said. “I have kids of my own, so I know how important this is. It takes us out of thinking about basketball and thinking about the most important thing in our life, which is the kids, their lives, and how they are going to approach life. And how we can help them. Especially like this today, it can give them a lot of hope and some positive energy. One Team does an incredible job throughout the years.”
Together they celebrated the positive impact the One Team continues to have on Euroleague club’s local communities. The sessions saw the One Team Ambassadors take part in several activities and games alongside the local participants.
“I think this is above everything,” concurred EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov of Olympiacos Piraeus. “The last couple of years One Team gave Kostas [Papanikolaou] and me an opportunity to have this interaction throughout the season with the kids. I think it is the most important for the kids to have fun, to smile, to find motivation through us and with us, to play this sport and we are very happy to give them this joy and happiness. One Team does a great job, and I am sure it will be even better and better and more and more in the next years.”