NBA and Verizon Wireless Unveil Wireless Phone Trivia Game for Customers

New York, NY — The NBA and Verizon Wireless are expanding their existing partnership to offer the first-ever wireless NBA trivia game to Verizon Wireless customers nationwide, just in time for NBA Playoffs 2002. This cutting-edge game will leverage Verizon Wireless' 'Mobile Messenger' service, and will be the first text messaging game developed by the NBA.

Participants may register for the game in a dedicated section of NBA.com beginning April 17, and the first round of the challenge tips off April 22. New rounds launch daily, Monday through Friday, from April 22 to June 7.

Each round will consist of three NBA-related trivia questions, delivered via text messaging to registrants' 2-way enabled handsets. Users submit their responses by text messaging their replies. An NBA Playoff 2002 Prize Pack will be awarded to a randomly selected participant from each round. Winners will be notified via a phone call to their wireless phone, and will be featured in a "Winner's Gallery" on NBA.com.

All participants in the Verizon Wireless NBA Trivia Challenge will also be eligible for the grand prize drawing for an 'NBA Draft 2002 Experience' in New York City on June 26. The grand prize winner and a friend will go to Madison Square Garden to experience the Draft, meet the draftees, and be featured in NBA TV coverage of the event.

Media support for the Verizon Wireless NBA Trivia Challenge will include TV, national and local print, and online.

In addition to the Verizon Wireless NBA Trivia Challenge, Verizon Wireless is also a sponsor of this year's NBA Hoop-It-Up, offering the Verizon Wireless [FREEUP] Free Throw Frenzy and Mobile Messenger Madness for fans who visit the designated Verizon Wireless special event areas. NBA Hoop-It-Up, managed and produced by Host Communications, is the official 3-on-3 Tour of the NBA and the premiere street basketball tour in the U.S.

Mobile Messenger is Verizon Wireless' short text message service (SMS). Mobile Messenger is fast, fun, discreet and inexpensive. Mobile Messenger offers three ways to send SMS messages: From your mobile phone to another mobile phone; from your email application to a mobile phone; or from vtext.com, Verizon Wireless' text messaging companion Web site, to a mobile phone. With 29 teams in the United States and Canada, NBA games and related programming are broadcast to 210 countries in 42 languages. The NBA is one of the most popular and profitable sports or entertainment properties in the licensing world with NBA league and team products in stores across the globe, on the NBA Store on NBA.com, the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City, and NBA City in Orlando. The NBA maintains 17 marketing partnerships with the most successful companies in their categories, seven of which are global partnerships. For more information on the NBA, visit www.nba.com.

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Verizon Wireless is the nation's leading provider of wireless communications and Internet services. The company has the largest nationwide wireless network and 29 million customers. Headquartered in Bedminster, NJ, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Reporters and editors can find more information on the Web at http://www.verizonwireless.com.

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