MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY – The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Intendencia de Montevideo – the municipal government of Montevideo – today announced a partnership to launch Jr. NBA Leagues and host a two-day Jr. NBA Coaches Academy in Uruguay in 2022.

The Jr. NBA Leagues will tip-off with drafts on Friday, Jan. 21 featuring aspiring players born from 2008-2011 from Montevideo’s eight municipalities.  The Jr. NBA Leagues will begin play on Tuesday, Jan. 25 and will consist of 60 teams (30 male and 30 female) – the two leagues will be divided into two conferences (Eastern Conference and Western Conference).  Each team will play six regular-season games.  The eight male teams and eight female teams with the top records in their conference will advance to the playoffs, which are tentatively scheduled to begin Wednesday, March 2 and conclude with the Jr. NBA Uruguay Finals 2022 on Saturday, March 12.

Also as part of the partnership, 35 youth coaches and teachers will have the opportunity to participate in the Jr. NBA Coaches Academy Uruguay 2022 Presented by Intendencia de Montevideo from March 9-10.  The two-day clinic will offer tools and resources to help participants enhance their youth basketball development curriculum by emphasizing rules and regulations, fundamental drills and life skills programming.  Coaches and teachers interested in the Jr. NBA Coaches Academy can register at https://montevideo.gub.uy/.

“We are committed to providing more opportunities for young people across Latin America, including Uruguay, to play and learn basketball while also equipping coaches with the necessary resources to teach the game,” said NBA Latin America Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Arnon de Mello.  “We look forward to further engaging players and coaches in Uruguay through these new Jr. NBA initiatives as we focus on growing participation at the grassroots level across the region.”

For more information about the Jr. NBA, fans can visit http://jr.nba.com/, download the Jr. NBA app, and follow the NBA on Facebook (Facebook.com/NBALATAM), Instagram (@NBALATAM) and Twitter (@NBALATAM).

About the NBA
The NBA is a global sports and media business built around four professional sports leagues: the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, the NBA G League and the NBA 2K League.  The NBA has also partnered with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) on the Basketball Africa League (BAL), a new professional league featuring the top 12 club teams from across Africa.  The NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 215 countries and territories in more than 50 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents.  NBA rosters at the start of the 2021-22 season featured a record 121 international players from 40 countries.  NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass.  The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 2.1 billion likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms.  Through NBA Cares, the league addresses important social issues by working with internationally recognized youth-serving organizations that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes.

About the Jr. NBA
The Jr. NBA is the league’s global youth basketball program for boys and girls that teaches the fundamental skills and core values of the game: teamwork, respect, determination and community.  The Jr. NBA is focused on helping grow and improve the youth basketball experience at the grassroots level for players, coaches and parents, and offers a free curriculum covering all levels of the game that includes 48 practice plans and more than 250 instructional videos featuring NBA and WNBA players.  During the 2019-20 season, the NBA and its teams reached 14.5 million youth around the world through in-person events and clinics, before transitioning to virtual programming and online youth basketball development events that generated more than 210 million views from youth players and fans in 118 countries.  The Jr. NBA Global Championship is an annual youth basketball tournament that brings together top 13- and 14-year-old boys and girls teams from around the world for basketball competition, life skills education and community service programming.  For more information visit www.JrNBA.com or download the Jr. NBA app.

About Intendencia de Montevideo
The departmental government led by Carolina Cosse has placed its focus on a program, Plan ABC, that aims to improve the quality of life of Montevideans.  The plan is centered on sustainable and innovative public policies that look to create equal opportunities, employment access, improve the environment, and drive inclusion, accounting for gender, youth, diversity, ethnicity and inter-ethnic policies for all members of the communuty.