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Coolio, Ice Cube, Brian McKnight & Others Participating In Celebrity Basketball League
08/23/2001 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Soren Baker
(8/23/01, 4 p.m. ET) Ice Cube, Coolio, Brian McKnight, Dalvin DeGrate of Jodeci, Morris Chestnut, Boris Kodjoe, Bill Bellamy, Don Cheadle, Joe Torry, and Larenz Tate are among the celebrities who participate in the NBA Entertainment League (NBAEL). The NBAEL, which is an invitation-only, closed-to-the-public basketball league for celebrities and entertainment-industry executives, comprises 12 teams that play two 11-week seasons at undisclosed locations in Los Angeles.
The NBA provides the NBAEL with official logos, regulation team uniforms, socks and shoes, and professional referees. Zane Stoddard, senior manager of entertainment marketing for the NBA, explained that it is extremely difficult to get into the NBAEL, "The league has gotten extremely difficult to get into. You have hundreds of thousands of people in the entertainment industry and only 130 spots in the league. Everybody is a basketball player when they come."
Brian McKnight, who was voted NBAEL MVP two years ago, recently shared with LAUNCH that he used basketball and weightlifting to get into shape prior to taking the promo photos for his next album: "Over the summer, before the photo shoots and stuff, I was playing twice a day and lifting weights," he noted.
--Yves Salomon, New York
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