AND1 baller joins fight against sexually transmitted diseases

Jet, April 7, 2008 by Melody K. Hoffman

Streetball legend Troy "Escalade" Jackson is a "truck' on the basketball court, and when he steps off, the 6-foot-10 player employs the same muscle when encouraging responsible sexual behavior.

Since losing a brother to AIDS in the late 1980s, Jackson, 32, has been active in the fight against HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases and infections. The former Harlem Globetrotter, who is a fixture on the AND1 Mixtape Tour, recently partnered with the brand ONE condoms to raise awareness about the increased rates of transmission and how using a condom can reduce those rates.

"To see my older brother dying and watch the disease take over his body, that was a painful thing," reveals Jackson, a New York native who played basketball at the University of Louisville.

"When I did research about the disease, the numbers blew me away. I felt the sheer impact it was having on our community was being ignored," says Jackson, referring to data that shows Blacks have the highest number of HIV-related deaths than any other ethnic group, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. "I said one day I was going to have the opportunity to have a platform to be able to impact change."

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Jackson has made a commitment to donate 5,000 ONE condoms to health centers and non-profits nationwide quarterly. The first of which is going to Crossroads Clinic in Jackson, MS.

"We want to educate these kids about protecting themselves and saying you don't want a 10-minute decision to affect you for the rest of your life," Jackson tells JET. "If you can preach to a kid not to use drugs ... you can preach to a kid to protect themselves. I think adults are the ones uncomfortable with the sexual conversation, not the kids."