The NBA All-Star Game at Intuit Dome is days away, and no one is looking forward to it more than Barbara Bush, daughter of former President George W. Bush and the NBA’s vice president of social impact. She found her “dream job” and is loving every minute of it.
“I played basketball until fifth grade. I grew up in Dallas and everyone watched the Mavericks. Then when I moved to Austin it was all about UT,” she said, referring to the University of Texas. “I never thought I’d work in basketball. For most of my career I’ve worked in global health with nonprofits. During COVID, I started paying more attention to the NBA as it utilized its arenas for vaccination sites and voting centers since you could be socially distanced and compliant by using them.”
While representing the foundation for which she worked, Bush attended meetings with NBA executives and sought ways to work together.
“I became more and more interested in what they were building,” she recalled. “So serendipitously I mentioned ‘If you ever have an opening, I’d love to go through the recruiting process and see what happens.’ One year later there was an opening, I applied, and I’ve been with the NBA for about three years now.”
Bush was promoted to her present position in 2023. Collaborating with the Clippers, she is overseeing this year’s All-Star youth and development programming and social impact initiatives, beginning with Thursday’s NBA Cares State Farm Assist Tracker Legacy Project Dedication in celebration of the YMCA’s 175-year anniversary at Weingart YMCA Wellness & Aquatic Center in South L.A.
“The YMCA’s been a great partner with the Clippers for years and years and we feel a strong affinity to the Y, given that our sport was created at a YMCA, so it’s been part of the story of the NBA itself,” Bush said. “We, the National Basketball Players Assn. and the Clippers, are renovating youth-serving spaces, including a STEM lab, teen center and basketball court.”
On Thursday night, seven L.A.-based entrepreneurs will present their companies to a panel of celebrity judges and compete for $200,000 in prizes in the All-Star Pitch Competition at the Kia Forum. Judging will be actress Issa Rae, marketing executive Bozoma Saint John, private equity partners Will Bumpus and Ted Oberwager, and Ann Miller, Nike’s executive vice president of global sports marketing.
“It’s a ‘Shark Tank’-style competition, we had 200 companies apply, and this will be the final rounds where seven entrepreneurs get to pitch their business to some pretty well-known judges, so I’m sure they’re going to be nerve-racked,” Bush explained. “It’s really fun and inspiring to watch entrepreneurs have the courage to share in front of an audience their impressive businesses.”
The Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Day on Friday morning invites 1,000 local youth from the Beyond the Bell and Woodcraft Rangers programs to participate in clinics teaching fundamentals of the game.
The 18th annual NBA Cares Day of Service is Friday afternoon at the Convention Center, and 500 volunteers will build home structures with Habitat for Humanity and pack essential kits for underserved families with Baby2Baby.
All weekend a Basketball Without Borders Global Camp at the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo will bring together elite high school-age prospects from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe to take part in shooting competitions, life-skills seminars and five-on-five games guided by current and former NBA players and coaches.
“One interesting tie this year is how we’ve reconfigured the All-Star Game so it’s the USA vs. the World, given that so many players are from other countries,” Bush said. “Since NBC is covering the Olympics at the same time, we think it’s compelling to have our format be USA vs. the World.”
Bush is perhaps most excited about the NBA Total Health All-Star Walk on Sunday morning, a two-mile route in Inglewood.
“We’ll be working with Girltrek, a phenomenal nonprofit focused on walking as a way to maintain your health,” she said. “We expect 1,500 people and it’s open to the public. NBA and WNBA legends are participating, and Evernorth Health Services will do biometric screenings and skin cancer checks to take care of yourself before heading to the game.”
Bush acknowledged the Clippers’ role in planning everything the NBA is doing next weekend and praised the franchise for its community outreach.
“What I love about my job is I still get to work on health and social justice issues but from a totally different vantage point,” she said. “We’ll have eyeballs around the world watching so we want to make sure we leave the community better than when we arrived.”