BEIJING AND NEW YORK, June 2, 2014 – The National Basketball Association (NBA) today announced it will launch a limited-edition NBA-branded shoe, NBA Anniversary 2014, on June 6.   Only 1,946 pairs will be available to commemorate the NBA’s first year in 1946. The launch will coincide with the start of the 2014 NBA Finals.  
The shoe will have a suggested retail of $119, and will be available globally on NBAStore.com, the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City, NBA’s official WeChat account “nbashoes” in China, NBATienda.com in Mexico, NBAStore.in in India, and NBA Shop in Taipei.
 Each pair of shoes will be a collector’s item, identified with a unique four-digit serial number, sequentially numbered from 0001 to 1946 and includes an Official NBA Certificate of Authenticity.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will autograph the first pair of shoes with the serial number 0001 which will be auctioned live on http://auctions.nba.com on June 6.  The proceeds will benefit NBA Cares community partners as part of the league’s social responsibility efforts.

“The global popularity of the NBA is at an all-time high and we wanted to create a unique product that would allow fans around the world to display their passion for the NBA,” said Sal LaRocca, NBA President, Global Operations and Merchandising. “This shoe gives collectors the opportunity to celebrate the league’s incredible heritage.”
The shoe features a red, white and blue design inspired by the NBA logo, while the 30 stars on the heel commemorate the league’s 30 teams and its world class athletes. The shoe is packaged in a specially crafted box with the league’s most significant milestones and the 30 team logos etched in gold on the inside of the cover.
 

About the NBA:
The NBA is a global sports and media business built around three professional sports leagues: the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the NBA Development League. The league has established a major international presence with games and programming in 215 countries and territories in 47 languages and NBA merchandise for sale in more than 125,000 stores in 100 countries on 6 continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2013-14 season featured a record 92 international players from 39 countries and territories. NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, which is available in 60 million U.S. homes, and NBA.com, which set a record last year with more than 9.5 billion page views, with more than half of all visitors originating from outside of North America. The NBA is the No. 1 professional sports league on social media, with more than 600 million likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms. Through NBA Cares, the league and its teams and players have donated more than $230 million to charity, completed more than 2.8 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 860 places where kids and families can live, learn, or play.
 

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Contacts:
Rick Pendrick, NBA, (212) 407-8121, rpendrick@nba.com