by Tim Povtak

Filed under: Magic, Mavericks, Warriors, Thunder

Coaches and players often travel the globe — Asia, Africa, Europe — this time of year to spread the NBA gospel, promoting basketball camps that attract adoring youngsters eager to learn the game.

Rarely do they find anything as diverse and far-reaching as they do in the little hamlet of Zofingen, Switzerland, which becomes a very popular basketball melting pot for two weeks every summer.

Almost 400 kids of all ages from more than 25 different countries attended this year, turning two dozen courts into the United Nations of Roundball.

“It’s the most unusual camp I ever work,” said veteran NBA assistant coach Tom Sterner (pictured right working with kids at a camp in Dallas), who spent the last two seasons with the Dallas Mavericks. “Just working there is an educational experience. The personalities of the players are so different. The Italians are loud and crazy. The Germans are straight-laced, the Swiss precise, the French just happy-go-lucky and free-spirited. The Egyptians are real proper. And basketball brings them all together for two weeks.”