NBA and Sprint Host NBA All-Star E-Recycling Day

– NBA Legend Bo Outlaw to Help Collect Fans’ Old Electronics and Distribute NBA All-Star Jam Session Tickets on Saturday, Feb. 18 –

NEW YORK & OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), February 14, 2012 – The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Sprint (NYSE:S, news, filings) today announced that they are joining forces with the City of Orlando, Keep Orlando Beautiful, and Creative Recycling to host the NBA All-Star E-Recycling Day presented by Sprint at Orlando Festival Park on Saturday, Feb. 18. The NBA and Sprint are encouraging fans to bring their electronics nearing end of life, such as computers, cell-phones, televisions, DVD players, stereos, copiers, and fax machines so that they can be recycled responsibly. NBA legend Bo Outlaw will be on hand that day to welcome fans at 9 a.m. ET, with the collection going until 3 p.m.

Fans who drop off their electronics will receive two tickets per car to NBA All-Star Jam Session on Thursday, Feb. 23, or Friday, Feb. 24, while supplies last. Jam Session, a four-day interactive basketball event featuring more than 500,000 square feet of NBA All-Star entertainment, will take place at the Orange County Convention Center from Thursday, Feb. 23 through Sunday, Feb. 26.

The NBA and Sprint will partner this year on a series of sustainability initiatives to educate and encourage fans to recycle and reduce their carbon footprint. Fans can learn more about the NBA and Sprint recycling events and view a complete list of accepted items at www.nbacares.com.

“Sprint is excited to partner with the NBA to promote the safe disposal of electronics,” said Ralph Reid, Sprint’s vice president of corporate responsibility. “This is a great opportunity to drive awareness around the growing concerns surrounding electronic waste and for fans to recycle their used electronics responsibly.”

“All-Star E-Recycling Day underscores the NBA and Sprint’s shared commitment to raise environmental awareness and encourage fans to do their part,” said Todd Jacobson, NBA senior vice president of community relations. “Thanks to guidance from the NRDC, the NBA and its teams continue to take steps to reduce our energy consumption and waste and hopefully together with Sprint and our fans we can continue to make a difference.”

Fans who are unable to attend this event on Saturday will still have the opportunity to recycle their mobile devices by bringing them to a Sprint retail store, located at 4104 Millenia Blvd, where NBA legend Nick Anderson will be in attendance on Friday, Feb. 17, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET. At this Sprint retail store, fans can participate in the Sprint Buyback program (www.sprintbuyback.com) which offers new and existing Sprint customers credit for recycling their unwanted wireless devices. Sprint offers a service credit of up to $250 for eligible devices, even if they’re from other carriers. To date, Sprint has kept 27 million cell phones out of landfills, helping to conserve resources and prevent air and water pollution.

This season, the NBA is continuing to take steps to become a more environmentally responsible organization and will continue to explore ways to improve in this area. The league will hold 2012 NBA Green Week presented by Sprint April 4-11, where the entire NBA family will team up, along with Sprint, to generate awareness and funding to protect the environment through on-court activations and hands-on community service projects.

The NBA, in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), is also introducing additional greening efforts as part of the league’s year-round NBA Green program to make NBA All-Star 2012 environmentally friendly and sustainable. These efforts, which include expanding recycling efforts in the arena and at Jam Session, an increased number of education programs, greater use of sustainable flatware, and eco-friendly linens to further eliminate waste and energy conservation, are an outgrowth of a sustained leaguewide commitment to environmental awareness.

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 55 million customers at the end of 2011 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in its 2011 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

To learn more about Sprint programs that protect the environment, go to www.sprint.com/responsibility or follow @SprintGreenNews on Twitter.

About NBA Cares

NBA Cares is the league’s social responsibility program that builds on the NBA’s long tradition of addressing important social issues in the United States and around the world. Through this umbrella program, the NBA, its teams and players have donated than $175 million to charity, completed more than 1.8 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 675 places where kids and families can live, learn, or play, in 22 countries and territories on five continents. In addition, this year the league launched the NBA Cares Community Caravan, a year-round community and fan engagement program, through which the NBA family will reach more than 10,000 schools and community centers and touch the lives of more than 15 million fans. NBA Cares works with internationally recognized youth-serving programs that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes, including: KaBOOM!, Special Olympics, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, UNICEF, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.