NBA takes stand against gun violence with Christmas Day ads

A series of TV spots featuring NBA stars Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and others will first air during the games on Christmas Day.

by Yaron Weitzman

Dec 23, 2015, 4:04 PM UTC

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&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt; &amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The NBA has embarked on a unique partnership with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-gun violence advocacy group, &amp;lt;a href="http://everytown.org/" mce_href="http://everytown.org/" target="_blank"&amp;gt;Everytown for Gun Safety&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;, to air five 30-second anti gun violence ads during Friday's five-game slate of nationally televised games.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt; &amp;lt;p&amp;gt;"We know far too many people who have been caught up in gun violence in this country," Kathleen Behrens, the league's president of social responsibility and player programs, told the &amp;lt;a style="background-color: #ffffff;" mce_style="background-color: #ffffff;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/sports/basketball/nba-gun-violence-campaign-michael-bloomberg.html?ref=sports&amp;amp;amp;_r=1" mce_href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/sports/basketball/nba-gun-violence-campaign-michael-bloomberg.html?ref=sports&amp;amp;amp;_r=1" target="_blank"&amp;gt;New York Times&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;. "And we can do something about it."&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt; &amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The ads, which feature &amp;lt;a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/players/71907/stephen-curry" mce_href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/players/71907/stephen-curry"&amp;gt;Stephen Curry&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/players/21662/chris-paul" mce_href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/players/21662/chris-paul"&amp;gt;Chris Paul&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/players/21501/carmelo-anthony" mce_href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/players/21501/carmelo-anthony"&amp;gt;Carmelo Anthony&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; and &amp;lt;a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/players/24203/joakim-noah" mce_href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/players/24203/joakim-noah"&amp;gt;Joakim Noah&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; sharing personal stories of how gun violence has impacted them, where paid for and shot by Everytown for Gun Safety. The commercial time on ABC and ESPN was donated by the NBA, which controls the advertising slots.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt; &amp;lt;p&amp;gt;"I'll never forget playing basketball in a park with some kids, and a young woman approached me in tears, and told me that her brother had been shot and killed on that same court a year earlier," Noah says in one of the ads. "Ultimately, it's about saving lives. There's just no room for gun violence."&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt; &amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;iframe frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bSAx7ittGl8" mce_src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bSAx7ittGl8" height="315" width="560"&amp;gt;

In another spot, Curry talks about what it was like to hear that a child the same age as his 3-year-old daughter had been shot. Paul and Anthony share personal stories as well.

Along with the NBA players, the commercials feature survivors of shootings, as well as relatives of individuals killed by guns explaining how gun violence has impacted them.

The partnership with the NBA was the idea of film writer and director Spike Lee. Lee’s latest film, Chi-Raq, focuses on the gun violence epidemic in Chicago. Lee, according to the Times, presented the idea of NBA anti-gun violence adds to ESPN president John Skipper who then passed it on to NBA commissioner Adam Silver.