As we have recently reached the 9k milestone, we wanted to thank all of you for the immense amount of your support you have shown our organisation. To show our appreciation we are going to be giving away 9 limited edition New Era DENG snapback caps via our Facebook Page.

How it works

We need you all to share the giveaway via Facebook, Twitter etc by using the #GiftedToGive where every 9 days we will award a fan with a FREE hat. The first giveaway will be on Monday 18th March 2013.

If you aren’t a member of Facebook then you can also enter the giveaway for free by emailing us at info@luoldeng.org

Let the giveaway begin and good luck!

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#GiftedToGive

The camp will cater for 11-18 year olds (boys and girls) where further details and registration will open in April. If you would like to be considered for our coaching, admin or physio staff, please email info@luoldeng.org.

We are pleased to announce that we will be starting our grass roots program back at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, London, SE19 2BB on Wednesday 16th Janaury from 5-7pm where the first session is FREE of charge.

Deng Mini’s is split into three age groups for u10, u12 & u14 (boys and girls) of all abilities teaching the fundamentals of the game in a fun and competitive environment. We have been in talks with some local teams who are very interested in playing in competitions so we plan to have our ‘Game Nights’ back once a month.

Registration

To register for the FREE session please email us at info@luoldeng.org with the name(s) of the participant and their date of birth. This in turn will enable us to make a more direct contact with each individual on any updates to the program and also help us to register you in order to save your place as there are limited spaces available.

Please note if you have already registered, you do not need to send us any further information, where you will just need to turn up for the FREE session on Wednesday 16th January as planned.

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We have some exciting new projects lined up in 2013 so please make sure to join our mailing list to be kept up to date.

Event Details:

Venue: Crystal Palace Sports Centre, Ledrington Road, SE19 2BB
29th October : Doors open to public at 10.30am | First game tips at 11.00 | Last game tips at 18.00
30th Ocotber:  Doors open at 9.30am | Last game tips at 13.00

Spectators more than welcome with courtside seats at £2 | Terrace – free.

You can visit http://www.bluestareurope.com/ for more information and follow on Twitter here
[Contact Dan Bowmaker 07939575650]

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PRESS RELEASE:

Welcome to the 3^rd Blue Star Europe tournament

The aim of the event is to provide all players with a very competitive environment in which to showcase their talent and develop their game.  For those players interested in securing a scholarship in America this is the place to be!

As ever we are delighted to welcome our visiting players from Europe and their parents.  This year we are pleased to have a strong Portuguese contingent after their success last year and the top 2 scorers from the European Championship team, Maria Kostourkova and Simone Costa will showcase their talent.  We also have the top two leading scorers from the Austrian National u18 team Sigrid Koizar and Anja Fuchs-Robetin. Home grown stars are in abundance as we see 8 of this summer’s U18 National team that led England to promotion, of course we are extremely proud of your achievements girls!

The tournament provides a great opportunity for players to challenge themselves and gain valuable experience playing with and against other European National team players.  18 players from last year’s tournament were successful in achieving their dream of securing a scholarship and they are all currently studying and playing in the USA.

The teams have been named after the top ranked from last season’s NCAA Tournament – of course eventual winners were the Baylor Bears led by the unstoppable Brittney Griner – let’s see how our London tournament unfolds, best of luck to all involved and thanks for your support of what surely is Europe’s best showcase event.

Special thanks to The Luol Deng Foundation UK for their support of this event.

FamFest is an interactive community event that celebrates the inseparable ties between basketball and music. The event features a variety of on court games for children as well as entertainment for adults. Details:

Venue: Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, Ledrington Road, SE19 2BB

Date: Saturday 15th September 2012

Doors open: 12:30pm

Please note that the U21 select team will be hand picked by Creon Raftopoulos who was the Head Coach of last years event.

Pre-game clinic

Play on the hallowed hardwood before the Legends take to the floor. If you’re male or female, aged 5-16, you can take part in an exclusive clinic with expert coaches. Places are free with a valid child ticket and you can book your place here. The first 50 campers will get a limited edition FamFest t-shirt!

Get your tickets online now.

Check out last years event via Hoopsfix:

As we have informed many of you via individual emails as well as our social media platforms, the London 2012 Olympics is occurring this summer which has caused issues around finding a suitable venue as well as Luol’s and staff members availability. We had very much planned on continuing our great partnership with the UK’s leading sporting venue, Loughborough University which unfortunately cannot happen this year. With their first class elite facilities has meant many Olympic teams booking their venue for training during the Olympic and Paralympic Games which in turn has caused it impossible to fit in a week long residential basketball camp during August.

With a number of our staff involved with London 2012, obviously including Luol himself, we were at risk of delivering a camp below the standard you have rightly come to expect. I am sure you will all understand Luol’s main focus and commitment with Team GB for the Olympics once he has finished his season with the Chicago Bulls. Add to this that many UK families will be organising their summer holiday trips around London 2012 meaning trying to run the camp with limited numbers of both campers and staff will again make it very challenging for our organisation to continue to raise the bar and deliver the best residential camp in UK.

On behalf of Luol and everyone in our organisation, we apologise that the 2012 camp will not take place this summer but please be reassured that the camp will be back in the summer of 2013 bigger and better than ever!

We strongly recommend that you sign up to our mailing list HERE to be kept up to date with further details on the 2013 camp.

Melita Emanuel-Carr, a product of the Haringey Angels programme who has been to many of our organisations clinics and camps was chosen as part of the Adidas 2012 #TakeTheStage campaign around the build up to the London Olympics. The campaign gives the chance for undiscovered talent to “take to the stage”, which in this case saw Melita fly out to America to be put through a series of training delivered by Adidas Nations Head Coach, Ed Schilling. Check out how she got on in the video:

Last night brought some truly amazing news, where it was announced that Luol Deng got the go ahead to be appear in his first NBA All-Star game after being selected as a reserve by the Eastern Conference coaches. It comes at no better time for Deng who has bounced back after being out with a wrist injury to help catapult his Chicago Bulls to the best record in the East with many analysts calling them the best team in the NBA right now.

Luol was emotional and honoured to be chosen into his first all-star appearance, turning to his Twitter account to express his feelings:

Luol got a huge reception via his social media platforms with so many fans really getting behind him responding with some truly amazing and positive messages. Pictured you can see his tweet has already received over 1500 re-tweets:

“Words can’t describe how happy I am to make my first all star. Thanks to all my supporters and the coaches who voted for me. #Honored”

Honored: “It really is such a honor. To be apart of it, to say you are an All Star. I am excited to get to Orlando and soak up the atmosphere, it really is a huge honor”

UK Fans can watch the game live:

The 2012 NBA All-Star Game will be played at the Amway Center in Orlando on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012 where ESPN will be showing the game live in the UK starting from midnight. We hope all you tune in to watch Luol in action, where we want to take this opportunity to thank you all for voting and supporting him – it means a lot to Luol and our team.

To see a full list of the All Star players and for more information please click HERE