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Charlotte Bobcats center Nazr Mohammed has never forgotten the night when he was a youngster and, along with a friend, got tickets to see the Chicago Bulls play the Atlanta Hawks in the old Chicago Stadium.
It was Mohammed's first time seeing an NBA game in person and, though the seats were near the top of the now-gone arena, the memory of that evening has remained with the 11-year NBA veteran.
He also remembers not having enough money to buy anything to eat at the game.
"We enjoyed the experience and we were happy to be there, but no one had enough money to buy something at the arena," Mohammed said.
"I didn't want to see another kid go through what we went through."
When the Bobcats played their home opener Friday against the New York Knicks in Time Warner Cable Arena, more than 500 kids were in attendance and saw the game for free - and got a hot dog and soda - as part of the Bobcats' Player Nation program.
It's not a one-time thing.
Between 500 and 600 kids will be given the same experience at each of the 41 home games this season, Bobcats President Fred Whitfield said.
The tickets have been purchased - they're not complimentary - by 12 Bobcats players, coach Larry Brown and owner Bob Johnson.
The program will be overseen by Sporty Jeralds, formerly of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.
The past three seasons, the Bobcats have had a smaller version of the program. This year, it has increased significantly with the players taking a larger role and more seats being allotted for each home game.
"We're focusing on housing authorities in North and South Carolina. We're focusing on schools with predominantly free or reduced-price lunch programs," Whitfield said.
"We're going throughout the Carolinas. YMCAs. Boys and Girls Clubs. Orphanages. The Speedway Children's Charities."
The tickets will be distributed collectively, but there will be banners in the arena recognizing contributions made by individual players. Point guard Raymond Felton will have "Felton's Friends" and Mohammed will have "Nazr's Squad."
This is Mohammed's sixth NBA team and he has been instrumental in getting the program underway. He stressed to team officials the importance of adding a food element, something the team worked out with Levy Restaurants, which handles catering in the arena.
"When they come to the game, you want them to get more than just the experience of coming to the game and watching. It's important that we feed them and they go home with some type of souvenir, some type of memory," Mohammed said.
"Everybody is going to have different types of groups. Some kids are going to be from areas that don't have as much as we have. You want to feed them. It's dinner time."
The Bobcats host approximately 17,000 middle school students at one preseason game each year as a reward for grades and class attendance, among other factors. The Player Nation program will be focused on kids in greater need.
"If you think about 41 games and 500 kids a night, that's 20,000 kids," Whitfield said. "We still don't have our first generation of Bobcats fans. A lot of these kids will remember it as long as they live."
