The National Basketball Association announced its appointment of former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey to the new role of special adviser to league commissioner Adam Silver.
Dempsey will attend league meetings, NBA events, and provide advice for the NBA’s military initiative and youth basketball program, the latter of which serves up to 5 million kids. Dempsey will also serve as the chairman of the newly formed Jr. NBA Leadership Council.
“Basketball has always been a favorite sport in my family and, through my relationship with the NBA, I’ve seen firsthand how it can bring people together,” Dempsey said in a statement Friday. “After four decades of service in the United States Armed Forces, I look forward to working with the league to help improve communities and positively impact the children of civilian and military families.”
“We are honored to have one of our country’s most respected leaders, as well as a brilliant strategist, serve as our Special Adviser,” Commissoner Silver said in a statement. “General Dempsey’s unwavering commitment to a life of service reflects the values that we strive to embody as an organization, and I am delighted he will continue his work with the league.”
This isn’t the first time that Dempsey has engaged in basketball programs. In August the general joined a leadership panel at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada along with U.S. men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, a fellow graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, and USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo.
Dempsey has had a busy month already. Earlier this week he was named as the 2016 Rubenstein Fellow at Duke University.
The general served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 2011 to September 2015.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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