Horford will travel to Rome as basketball ambassador

Hawks forward Al Horford missed part of the season with a torn right pectoral muscle.

Credit: Mike Lawrie

Credit: Mike Lawrie

Hawks forward Al Horford missed part of the season with a torn right pectoral muscle.

Al Horford will be making another trip abroad this summer with Basketball without Borders. This summer the Hawks center will spend four days in Rome, his fourth international trip for the organization.

The BWB Europe camp is scheduled June 2-5 in Rome, the first time the event will be held in the city. Horford will be joined by the Bucks’ Brandon Knight in addition to three current Italian NBA players and former 2003 BWB campers in the Nuggets’ Danilo Gallinari, the Knicks’ Andrea Bargnani (BWB 2003) and Italian national team captain and the Pistons’ Gigi Datome.

“I’m excited about the opportunity of going and helping develop the game of basketball with the NBA,” Horford wrote in an e-mail to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday. “It’s something that I enjoy doing teaching about the game and learning from the coaches that participate.”

BWB is co-operated by the NBA and FIBA. The organizations describe the effort as a global basketball development and community outreach program that unites young basketball players to promote the sport and encourage positive social change in the areas of education, health and wellness. The camps are held each year in cities in Africa, Asia, South America and Europe.

The European camp will bring together the top 50 players born in 1997 from more than 25 European countries. The camp was held previously in Treviso, Italy.

BWB will also hold camps this summer for the first time in Taipei, Taiwan (June 13-16) and will return to Johannesburg, South Africa (Aug. 5-8). Several other NBA players and coaches will participate in those events.

Horford participated in the event last year in South Africa. He has also been to Mexico City in 2008 and Singapore in 2009 as part of the league’s initiative.