Slam da Trash Festival

What a day full of fun, dance and off course basketball… Fans braved the chilly Johannesburg wind to come out and support the initiative around this festival. The idea was to get people to keep their city clean and with a huge crowd in attendance, the message was put across using different methods… People rapped, danced and slammed the trash away and hopefully the message will be carried throughout the rest of the year.

Before the big basketball game of the day between Egoli Magic and Wits Alumni, there was a shooting competition for the fans and players alike. This competition is sponsored by Champion (who are making a comeback in the SA market), Yfm, ESPN and they will be sending 3 lucky winners to the London NBA/Europe live tour in October this year. Accompanying the 3 winners, will be Cabby Magongwa of Darkchild and 2 Yfm DJs and there are different ways to qualify for the trip, two of which include making 5 three pointers in a row or one chance to make a shot from the half way line. During the Slam da Trash festival, contestants were picked from the crowd and from the two teams competing in the exhibition game. This was the 1^st round of many that will take place throughout the coming months during the LOP games and further details will be provided in due time. Three people were selected from this 1^st group and they await the final round to compete for the big prize… Look out for more information….

Back to the basketball game, Egoli Magic vs Wits Alumni, you are bound to get some hot action, add R5000 as the prize money then you are certainly stroking the fire… The game started at a slow pace with the wooden uneven surface making for an unspectacular early display from both teams. But with the talent on show and the huge rivalry there was some tension in the air and the game felt more like a final than an exhibition game.

Wits Alumni arrived in Newtown early with a full roster and spent a lot of time warming up while they were waiting for their opponents to get ready. Before the game, the Wits Alumni coach Lebo Maepa said that his team had a good chance of winning but that Egoli shouldn’t be underestimated because they practiced more regularly than them. Egoli Magic started the game with only 5 players but soon had about 8 after the 1^st quarter. Egoli were doing amazingly well with their limited resources by keeping the score close going into half time led by efforts from their starting 5, Joseph Mazibuko, Lesego Molebatsi, Alaska Kizundu, S. Ngobo and Castro. Wits Alumni were relying on their shooting early on and with rebounding machine, Joe “Tsunami” Loo, shooters like Quintin Denyssen and Thabo Letsebe were having a field day. At start of the 3^rd quarter, Egoli had a surprise up their sleeves with the appearance of Neo Mothiba, which gave the Egoli coach an opportunity to rotate the players around. The intensity of the game picked up with some huge blocks from both sides and some heated word exchanges which underlined the importance of this clash. Wits Alumni were making too many turnovers and with 2 minutes left on the game clock they were trailing by 10 points so they resorted to fouling to stop the time… In the end it was all in vain as the experienced Egoli players made them pay from the free throw line and won the game by 5 points.

The crowd was a little subdued by the lack of dunks during the game, but they got their just reward for their patience when they witnessed the dunking battle between Joe “Tsunami” Loo and Joseph Mazibuko. In the end the Tsunami swept to victory with a dunk over Tshepo Ditshego… The dunk contest was a fitting end to the basketball section of the festival.

The entertainment continued after the basketball with the dance battles that included some impromptu performances from some of the people in the crowd… All in all, a good day to be in the inner city and hopefully the people present will strive to keep their city clean.

Tags: Basketball, Champion, Egoli Magic, ESPN, Johannesburg City, NBA, Wits Alumni, Y fm