Haiti on the NBA's Mind

Friday night, Samuel Dalembert played in his second game since a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake sent his native Port-au-Prince, Haiti, into devastation, with upwards of 100,000 reported dead. Dalembert, who moved to Montreal as a teenager, has immediate family and close friends in Port-au-Prince. Despite the incredible weight of worry and sadness on the Philadelphia center, Dalembert has played lights out this week, with 12 points and 21 rebounds Wednesday against the Knicks and 17 points, 12 rebounds Friday against Sacramento.

More importantly, Dalembert has been the centerpiece of the NBA's push to get money for critical supplies to Haiti. Dalembert himself donated $100,000 to UNICEF. The NBA and its players union teamed up to donate $1 million. The Sixers asked fans for donations Friday night, and Philadelphia responded with a tremendous $30,000 in donations at the Wachovia Center. (Dalembert and the Sixers matched that giving.)

Dalembert told reporters he plans to commission a charter plane next week, once conditions at Port-au-Prince's damaged and overwhelmed airport clear up. Dalembert plans to use his flight to deliver as many supplies as he can, and also pick up his brother and sister to bring them back to the United States.

Olden Polynice, a Haitian-born big man who bounced around the NBA for 16 seasons, has been similarly active. FanHouse's Kevin Blackistone caught up with O.P. on Wednesday, one day after the quake, as Polynice awaited word on the well-being of his father (among other relatives). (Polynice's father is alive and well.)

Polynice later spoke to Dave Zirin for a piece in The Nation. Zirin asked Polynice to comment on prominent televangelist Pat Robertson's controversial (and unbelievable) comments that Haitians made a deal with Satan in the early 19th century in order to achieve freedom from the French, and that the horrific quake was Satan's recompense. Polynice, obviously and understandably angered, obliged.

Pat Robertson can suck a big one -- you can quote me on that. He is not a man of God and shouldn't claim to be. And you can quote me on that. Please.

(Consider it done, O.P.)

In Miami, where the Haitian-born population is large and where you imagine some count of refugees will enter the United States in months to come, Heat star Dwyane Wade and legend Alonzo Mourning have teamed up to get pro athletes involved in relief efforts. (Mourning actually hitched a ride to Port-au-Prince with a medical team Friday.)