NBA Africa Visits Ghana

9:20 AM Unknown 2 Comments

Word has been going around the Ghana basketball community about an NBA Africa event for a few months now. Finally, it is here. The Ghana Basketball Association (GBBA) has confirmed that they will host a delegation of basketball players and executives from the NBA on Monday, July 29 on a five-day visit to support the growth of basketball in Ghana. They will have discussions with the GBBA, participate in player clinics and familiarize themselves with the current status of the sport in the country.
Leading the delegation is NBA Vice President for Development – Africa, Amadou Gallo Fall. “We are committed to the development of the game of basketball across the African continent and would like to thank the Ghana Basketball Association for hosting us. There is tremendous potential for basketball development in Africa and we believe this holds true for great sporting nation like Ghana. Luol and Pops are great role models for our youth and hopefully this visit will inspire the basketball community and young boys and girls to not only pursue excellence on a basketball court, but also, and perhaps most importantly in the classroom and in society” said Fall.

Joining him is the captain of the Great Britain Basketball team, two-time NBA All-Star and Chicago Bulls small forward Luol Deng, Great Britain power forward and former NBA player  Pops Mensah-Bonsu and NBA Senior Director, NBA Africa – John Manyo-Plange.

Working with the Ghana Basketball Association, Luol, born in South Sudan and Pops, who is of Ghanaian descent, will engage with youth at school basketball clinics in selected cities to see some of the up-and-coming young talent. The young players will look to follow the footsteps of Ernest Aflakpui who stood out at the NBA West Africa Development Camp in Burkina Faso last year which consequently landed him a spot at the Basketball without Borders Africa camp in South Africa the same year, courtesy of the NBA and the Ghana Basketball Association. Ernest now has a scholarship to prep school in the US to get education and continue developing his basketball skills – and plans to attend university on a basketball and academic scholarship.  

The Ghana Basketball Association hopes that the clinics will provide the NBA with an opportunity to evaluate the level of talent at the camps and consider some of the top prospects for participation at the 2013 Basketball without Borders Africa camp to be hosted in Johannesburg between 29th August and 1st September this year. 

The team will be spending time in Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast organizing clinics. The Accra event is scheduled to take place at the Labone Secondary School basketball court at 1pm. They will then move to Kumasi on Tuesday and pay the Asantehene, Otumfour Osei Tutu II a courtesy visit and then hold another 1pm event there and then Cape Coast on Wedenesday at the HCI basketball court at Victoria park.

Theophilus Mensah is a Ghanaian basketball documentarian who has followed the game in Ghana for close to a decade. He travels across the counrty documenting all aspects of basketball culture in Ghana. His work was recently featured in Roads and Kingdoms.

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2 comments:

  1. PeeJoeJuly 29, 2013 at 6:51 AM

    in Cape Coast it is at Botwe

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 2, 2013 at 10:00 AM

    really like the initiative taken by NBA Africa... but at cape coast there was favoritism by the hoops coach.. it was obvious he chose his players from his team.... he especially made well deserving youngsters miss a lifetime opportunity of making it.....

    ReplyDelete

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