NBA Star Set Visits Bluewood

DAYTON -- One year after Shawn Kemp became the first former NBA star to visit Ski Bluewood, another basketball celebrity is destined for the mountain this season.

A.C. Green, who started his career at the L.A. Lakers and retired from the Miami Heat with detours through Dallas and Phoenix, is expected to spend the day at the resort on Saturday, Feb. 4.

"He's not really into the cold," said Brenda Ford, the Walla Walla-based co-founder of the 3BA International basketball league for which Kemp and Green act as ambassadors. " So, he won't ski, but just come up and say hello, have pictures taken and maybe shoot some hoops (outside the lodge)."

Ford, who invi ted Kemp last year to the delight of area skiers, said Green is coming up to the Northwest from Los Angeles to film a commercial on Feb. 3 for Hoopfest in Spokane, then drive down to the Walla Walla area and visit Bluewood on Saturday.

An avid skier and friend of Ski Bluewood co-owners Mike and Kelly Stephenson, Ford wants to introduce Green to the Stephensons because he shares their interest in doing positive things for kids.

"Mike and A.C. have a passion for children," Ford said. "A.C. works with them a lot."

Bluewood Manager Travis Stephenson said Green's visit to Bluewood on Feb. 4 will make it a special day on the mountain.

"It means a lot when really successful people like (Green) choose to come to Bluewood and share their mission with others," Stephenson said. "It's a big thing."

When Kemp came to the slopes last year, "everybody got to be a kid for the day," he said. "It was a pretty fun day."

After a record-setting career in professional basketball, Green now has a non-profit organization called the A.C. Green Youth Foundation, which promotes abstinence until marriage.

Green, who was born in 1963 and reached a height of 6-feet, 9-inches, played more consecutive basketball games than any other NBA or ABA player. With 1,192 straight games over some 16 years, he earned the nickname "Iron Man."

Born in Portland, Ore., and a graduate of Oregon State, Green was a firstround draft pick at the L.A. Lakers in 1985, then played for the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat before retiring in 2001.

Green helped the L.A. Lakers win three NBA championships in 1987, 1988 and 2000.

He converted to Christianity when he was still in high school in Hermiston, Ore., Green is known as deeply religious. He proclaimed to have started and ended his NBA career as a virgin.

During his playing days, his teammates would frequently send women his way to tempt him to compromise his morals, only to learn that Green would simply resist them by calmly quoting scripture. The NBA celebrity married Veronique Green in 2002.On his foundation's website, Green says his organization is about building character, strong bodies and minds, and teaching kids to win and lose with dignity, sacrifice and teamwork.

"I feel many of our nation's young people feel largely rejected or neglected, which breeds hopelessness and despair," Green writes. "Having 12 nieces and nephews, I'm in touch with the youth of today on a personal level and feel a great deal of love and concern for them."