Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Sport: Basketball

Matt Bonner

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2008  –  Tanzania

Matthew Bonner also known as the Red Rocket is a retired NBA player who was drafted by the Chicago Bulls as their 45th overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft before being traded to the Toronto Raptors. Aside from the Toronto Raptors, Bonner played for the San Antonio Spurs and Sicilia Messina of the Italian league.

Bonner played overseas in Sicily for a year to hone his skills before joining the Raptors roster. He averaged 19.2 points and 9.3 rebounds at the end of year. In 2004-05, he played all 82 regular season games and averaged 7.2 points per game. He is the only Raptors rookie to play all 82 games in a season.

After being traded to the San Antonio Spurs, Bonner won his first NBA Championship in 2006. He recorded his career-highs of 25 points and 17 rebounds in 2007. During the 2013 NBA Three Point Shootout during All-Star Weekend, he recorded a score of 19 knocking out Ryan Anderson and Stephen Curry and advanced to the final round. On June 15, 2014, Bonner won his second NBA Championship after the Spurs defeated Miami Heat 4-1.

Bonner and his brother Luke run a nonprofit organization called “Rock On Foundation” where they support community involvement in arts and athletics.

Marty Conlon

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2011  –  Uzbekistan
  • 2011  –  Jordan
  • 2012  –  Burma
  • 2014  –  South Korea

As a manager of International Basketball Operations at the National Basketball Association (NBA), Martin Conlon conducts basketball grassroots events all over the world, organizing, coaching in, recruiting for, and creating curriculum for camps, clinics, or coaching seminars. He also maintains relationships with international basketball federations, clubs, and organizations.

Conlon has led the NBA Haier Academy camps in mainland China for the last three years, working in nine different cities and acting as the lead scout and championship coach of the reality TV show NBA Mengniu Basketball Disciple. In 2008, Conlon also led the first-ever “NBA Hoop School” program in India, working with local coaches in Bangalore, Mumbai, and New Delhi.

Prior to joining the NBA front office, Conlon enjoyed an extensive professional basketball career, most recently as the captain and player/coach of the Irish National Team. He played one season in Spain, another in Greece, and three in Italy. Conlon played in the NBA from 1991 to 1999, spending time on the rosters of Seattle, Charlotte, Milwaukee and Miami.

A member of the Westchester County Hall of Fame, Conlon is also a junior council member of New York’s Museum of Natural History, a junior board member of SEEDS (Sports for Education and Economic Development in Senegal) and a member of the Hawk Mountain conservancy.

As a player at Providence College – from which he holds a bachelor’s degree – Conlon played on the 1987 NCAA Final Four team. He returned to the tournament with Providence in 1989 and 1990.

Mark Madsen

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2010  –  Tunisia

Ellsworth Madsen is a former American NBA player and current head coach of Utah Valley University. Due to his hustle and physical style of play, he received the nickname ‘Mad Dog’ while playing for the San Ramon Valley HS Wolves. The Los Angeles Lakers selected Madsen in the first round of the 2000 NBA Draft and contributed to the Lakers’ winning the NBA Championships in 2001 and 2002.

Madsen signed with the Timberwolves as a free agent before the 2003 NBA season and played with them for six seasons before Madsen waived on playing with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2009.

On April 14th 2019, Mark Madsen was named head coach at Utah Valley University. Prior to joining Utah Valley, Madsen spent six seasons as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers. During those six seasons, Madsen coached Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, LeBron James, Steve Nash and many others. In his first year as head coach at Utah Valley, some highlights of the season included road wins at UAB, Grand Canyon, and North Dakota State University. Additionally, in a road game against Kentucky, Utah Valley played the Wildcats to a 1 point game with less than 3 minutes remaining in the game.

Marshall Cho

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2014  –  Moldova

Cho began his career as an educator through the Teach For America program and taught in the South Bronx and Harlem for six years. He served as the boy’s basketball coach from 2004-06 at Future Leaders Institute, leading them to a New York City Charter School Championship.

From 2006-09, while living in Mozambique, Cho spent three years as a volunteer coach and instructor with the Mozambican National Basketball Federation. Cho worked to assist the under-20 and under-16 national team and for Desportivo do Maputo, one of the top senior men’s club teams in Mozambique. He also trained under-16 basketball coaches using the NBA/Nike Africa Coaches Guide for six consecutive weekends leading up to the under-16 national championship.

In August of 2008 Cho was the varsity boy’s basketball coach at the American International School of Mozambique, where he started and developed that program.

During his time in Africa, Cho served as a coach for the NBA-sponsored Basketball Without Borders Africa. He also led a variety of volunteer efforts, including rehabilitating basketball courts by partnering with Hoops 4 Hope and the U.S. Embassy and conducting basketball clinics with local basketball clubs.

Kevin Love

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2020  –  Virtual

Kevin Wesley Love is an NBA player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2008 NBA Draft, playing for them until 2014. During his 2010-2011 season, he scored his career-high of 43 points and 17 rebounds. In 2014, Love was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in which he has led them to numerous wins during the normal season and the NBA Finals. He is a five-time All-Star and won an NBA championship with the Cavaliers in 2016. He was a member of the gold winning US national team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In 2018, he established the Kevin Love Fund to provide tools and assistance for people to help improve their physical and emotional well-being; with the intended goal of assisting more than 1 billion people over the next 5 years. With the Kevin Love Fund, he has begun two program that empower high school students to make healthy choices and to the UCLA Athletics Department. In 2020, he announce his fund was pledging $500,000 matched by the UCLA Centennial Term Chair Match, to establish the Kevin Love Fund Chair in UCLA’s psychology department — the investment will support work to help diagnose, prevent, treat, and de-stigmatize anxiety and depression.

Kermit Washington

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2008  –  Saudi Arabia

Kermit Washington is a former American NBA player. During his time at university, he became one of seven players in NCAA history to average 20 points and 20 rebounds throughout the course of their career. He is known for his ability to gather rebounds and was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers as the fifth overall pick in 1973.

Since retiring, Washington is a founder and operator of a number of charitable organizations. In 1994, Washington accompanied a team of doctors and nurses on a humanitarian mission to Goma, Zaire; to work in a refugee camp for those fleeing the Rwandan Civil War. Later in 1995, he founded the 6th Man Foundation.

Juwan Howard

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2007  –  Democratic Republic of Congo

Howard has played six-and-a-half seasons (1994–2001) for the Bullets franchise (renamed the Wizards in 1997), three full seasons (2004–2007) for the Houston Rockets, 2+ seasons for the Heat and shorter stints with several other teams. During his rookie year with the Bullets, he became the first player to graduate on time with his class after leaving college early to play in the NBA. He had one season as an All-Rookie player and a second as an All-Star and an All-NBA performer. Juwan Antonio Howard currently is an assistant coach for the NBA’s Miami Heat.

He was most recently a regular starter during the 2005–2006 NBA season. In 2010, he signed with the Heat and entered his 17th NBA season, during which he reached the playoffs for the sixth time and made his first career NBA Finals appearance. He remained with the Heat the following season and won his first NBA championship during the 2012 NBA Finals. He returned to the Heat for part of the following season and helped them win their second consecutive title.

Howard has developed a reputation as a humanitarian for his civic commitment.​ Juwan’s Foundation has been active for the past 17 years. The Juwan Howard Foundation mission is giving to at-risk inner-city children, by organizing clothing drives and donating funds to youth-oriented groups, including an adoption agency, a youth home, and boys’ and girls’ clubs. The foundation has helped to support the placement of over 50 abandoned children into permanent homes. When funds permit scholarship awards to individual high school students in Washington, DC, and Chicago, Illinois. Also the Foundation hosts an annual basketball/academic FREE camp of approximately 200 inner city at risk youth in Chicago.

Jim Jackson

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2005  –  Senegal

James Jackson is an American retired professional basketball player. Over his 14 National Basketball Association (NBA) seasons, Jackson was on the active roster of 12 different teams. Jackson was a member of the Ohio State Buckeyes. He started as a freshman for the 1989–90 season, Jackson averaged 16.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per game while shooting 49.9% from the field. He played two more seasons through 1991–92 season, earning consensus First Team All American honors in 1991 and 1992 UPI college basketball, and the UPI player of the year in 1992. OSU even decided to retire his number (22) in honor of the star player.

Jackson was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the fourth overall pick of the 1992 NBA draft after his junior season at OSU. During his first season, he only played in 28 games but the following season started in all 82 games.

Jim Cleamons

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Algeria
  • 2019  –  Tanzania

Jim Cleamons, who was born in Lincolnton, NC and moved to Ohio before high school, played nine NBA seasons and later became a NBA assistant coach and head coach, most famously assisting legendary head coach Phil Jackson during three-peats with the Chicago Bulls from 1991 to 1993 and with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2000 to 2002.

A standout at Columbus, Ohio’s Linden-McKinley High after moving from Lincolnton, Cleamons was a four-year starter at Ohio State from 1967 to 1971, beginning his career on the Buckeyes’ freshman team before three years on the varsity.

Playing for legendary coach Fred Taylor, Cleamons scored 1,335 career points in 72 varsity games and capped his career as the Buckeyes’ captain and an All-Big Ten selection in 1971 when the team finished 20-6 and lost in the Elite Eight to Western Kentucky.

A first-round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1971, Cleamons played on a 1972 NBA championship team before helping the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first-ever playoff appearance in 1976 while also earning All-NBA defense honor in 1976. Cleamons later capped a nine-year NBA career that lasted 652 games with the New York Knicks and Washington Bullets (now Wizards).

In 1982, Cleamons began a 34-year coaching career that took him to college at Furman (1982-83), Ohio State (1983-87) and Youngstown State (1987-89) and eventually the pros with the Chicago Bulls (1989-96), Dallas Mavericks (1996-97), Los Angeles Lakers (1999-2004), New Orleans Hornets (2004-06), Los Angeles Lakers (2006-11), Milwaukee Bucks (2013-14) and New York Knicks (2014-16) of the NBA, the Chicago Condors (1998-99) of the American Basketball League and the Zhejiang Guangsha (2011-12) of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Cleamons’ time with Youngstown State and the Mavericks was as a head coach.

Jerome Williams

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2009  –  Bahrain

Jerome Williams was a star Magruder High School basketball team who was recruited by Georgetown before being drafted out of by the Detroit Pistons with the 26th pick of the 1996 NBA Draft (the pick originally belonged to the San Antonio Spurs and went to the Pistons in the Dennis Rodman trade), he played four-plus years with the Pistons, becoming one of their key reserves.

In 2001, he was traded to the Toronto Raptors and was so excited about joining his new teammates that he drove from Detroit to Toronto that same day. In 2002-03 with the Raptors, Williams averaged 9.7 points per game, primarily as a starter, his career-best scoring average. Williams also made a cameo appearance in the Disney Channel movie Full-Court Miracle. Following his time with the Raptors, he played for the Chicago Bulls for one year as well as the New York Knicks before retiring from his NBA career in 2005.

Williams joined the NBA’s “Basketball Without Borders” program, an effort to teach the game and bring resources to underdeveloped nations in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. Williams continues to be a part of youth development through basketball as he was appointed the President of The Young3 which holds 3-on-3 tournaments for young people ages 9–14. Alongside other basketball legends and himself, they have implemented a digital educational program throughout North America and coupled that with talks. The name of the program is called Shooting For Peace.