To raise awareness and celebrate the 2005 NBA Playoffs beginning this weekend, a bevy of NBA legends will launch a tour today in New York City.
The players kick off the 2005 NBA Legends Tour: Destination Finals include Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Clyde Drexler, Walt Frazier, Robert Parish, Moses Malone, Earl Monroe, Dave Cowens and George Gervin
The players will be part of a parade that starts at Tiffany & Co., where they will pick up the 2005 Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy. The procession will end four blocks away at the NBA Store, where the NBA legends will participate in a round table discussion about the playoffs.
The motorcade will include the players, the trophy and a fleet of Toyota vehicles, including the unveiling of the Toyota Trophy-Mobile. Toyota signed on as an official partner of the NBA last month.
The tour will head to both Phoenix and Miami for fan pep-rallies the following day, then to various NBA cities for fan autograph and photo sessions, hospital visits, reading events and playoff games.
The NBA legends will travel more than 100,000 combined miles and will chronicle their experiences through interviews on nationally televised playoff games on ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV as well as writing blogs on NBA.com.
In a separate development, 20th Century Fox is teaming up with TNT to promote the motion picture Kingdom of Heaven during the network’s coverage of the playoffs. TNT will produce and air a series of four custom in-game vignettes that will pair Kingdom of Heaven stars Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons and director Ridley Scott with NBA players Charles Barkley, Steve Kerr and John Thompson. The movie premiers on May 14.
The NBA Playoffs tip off on April 23.
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