Coaches Mike Brown, Rick Carlisle and Monty Williams will serve as the 2014 Coaching Ambassadors for the Hoops for St. Jude program, highlighted by HFSJ Week March 7-13. Each year a select group of players and coaches do their part in promoting the HFSJ program across the NBA and the United States, raising funds and creating awareness for cancer research and treating sick children.

The Hoops for St. Jude program has long been supported by NBA Coaches as ambassadors, including two-time cancer survivor George Karl. What began as a simple dinner at the NBA Summer League has grown into a league wide initiative with the goal of raising millions of dollars. Rick Carlisle, Dallas Mavericks Head Coach and President of the NBA Coaches Association, said “St. Jude is one of the really special places in our country…the research and what they do for sick kids is unbelievable. I enjoy every visit I can make to the hospital, especially spending time with the kids and their families. They inspire me and remind me of what real champions look like.”

ST. JUDE STATS:

• Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to 80% since 1962.

• On average, St. Jude has more than 67,000 patient visits each year.

• Bone marrow transplant survival more than doubled for young, high-risk leukemia patients treated at St. Jude in 2011. The results are believed to be the best ever reported for leukemia patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation.

• In 2012, St. Jude published 775 research articles – that equals, on average, a new discovery shared every 11 hours. • St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90%, by 2020. We won’t stop until no child dies from cancer.

For more information on Hoops for St. Jude and how to get involved or make a donation, log onto www.hoopsforstjude.org.