El COLORADO (CABB Solidarity)- The Argentina Basketball Federation (CABB) initiative, Solidarity, has offered a helping hand to former national team player Jorge Gonzalez, and to a local school in El Colorado, Formosa, where the seven-foot giants lives.

Gonzalez, 43, is wheelchair bound and has to use a dialysis machine to treat his diabetes.

CABB Solidarity recently went to El Colorado in Formosa to provide Gonzalez with appliances for his house, clothes and medicine.

"I feel grateful to CABB Solidarity for this gesture,” Gonzalez said.

“It's good that they remember me at this stage of life."

The 2.30m Gonzalez played for Sport Club Cañadense, Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata and Argentina.

In 1988, he became the first Argentinian to be drafted by an NBA club when the Atlanta Hawks selected him 54th overall.

Though he never played in the NBA, he did remain in America, accepting an offer from TV mogul Ted Turner to compete in World Championship Wrestling for a few years.

Gonzalez returned home in 1995.

In addition to reaching out to Gonzalez, CABB Solidarity also provided food to the School 186 of El Colorado Formosa, which had been ransacked a few days earlier.

Ricardo Siri, the vice president of the CABB, said: "It's crucial for our institution, more than just focusing on sport, to be able to help those that are in need."

FIBA