SA basketball’s chance for a gold medal in 2008
SA’s basketball team sadly didn’t get anywhere near the Olympic games in Beijing, and from the looks of the poll results alongside (so far), it seems there are no high expectations for 2012 either.
However, SA basketball does have a chance at a gold medal this year. The SA Wheelchair Basketball team will be travelling to Beijing to take part in the 2008 Paralympics, after having won at the 2007 All Africa Games.
There was a good article on the team in the May 2008 edition of SA Sports Illustrated that gives more information, but unfortunately we could not locate an online copy to direct you to. If you can, get a copy and read it.
It’s easy for this team to be overlooked, but in reality, Wheelchair Basketball has been very successful compared to it’s able-bodied counterparts in South Africa. The real reasons for this are probably only known to a few individuals, but it’s clear that the efforts of Vivian Sierra (who has been involved in the sport for over 20 years) have played a key role, much of it on a volunteer basis. Vivian has also been nominated for, and won an SA Sports Award for his contribution, very deservingly so.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the team’s performance at Beijing, and wish the SA team the best of luck in their quest for Gold. Go SA!
Read more about the Wheelchair basketball at the 2008 Paralympics
Wheelchair basketball is well organised in the country. They have a very competitive professional league which is representative. Their sponsors have been their backbone. Despite being led 0-2 by England at their pre-olympic series, I wish them well at the Paralympics. They have set an example which our leaders should be proud of.
Viva!!!
I believe South Africa can’t compete in the highest game of basketball.How do you compete with the like of Anglo,china,America and Spain,if you don’t have professional league running,We had one,what happened to PBL,corruption has destroyed our sports,University basketball is not competitive enough to compete International,Our basketball is like high school basketball in America,if look at players like Kobe,Lebron and Garnet,come out from high school straight to the NBA,what does that say about their high school basketball.
South Africa has not done enough to promote basketball in low level,like primary school,high school and community,Engen it self cannot promote basketball.
If you can start building basketball in primary and high school we can have good chance of compete in International level in 20 years from now.
Did you heard about china,how many basketball court they have built,60 thousand courts in a billion population country,we have on;y 47 million people,why isn,t so hard to make sure every school has basketball court.I am have being playing Basketball since 1994,Even now i can see any improve of basketball standard in South Africa,I am being In the UK,each and every place has basketball court,but still they don’t use this courts,As we know it nation of Football.
HOW DO COMPETE IN THE HIGHEST LEVEL IF DON’T HAVE THE LOWEST LEVEL-(CAN A TREE GROW WITHOUT IT’S ROOTS-NO)
IT IS THE SAME THING WITH THE BASKETBALL IN SOUTH AFRICA
Did you Know?
That the wheelchair association is part of the BSA council and that some of its members were part of Vusi’s Exec?
We ranked 12th in the world so, i think that we have a fair chance of getting a medal. lets just hope things work out for our team.
Pumlani
let us not forget that south africa in itself is not a sporting country. if you comparing us with china or uk, then we are far behind. we do not invest in sport like these countries do. until we get to that level where sport is part of our daily lives, then we will get somewhere.
lets take for example, how many soccer fields and netball fields do you have in our township schools? countless as you may know. then my question will be, how many teachers have you seen after school coaching the kids to play soccer or netball. your guess is as good as mine 1 in a million.
my point is, we can have all the facilities in the world but if we not investing again in human capital then it will be pointless. a friend who is a teacher once went for an interview at the so-called Model C school and they asked him, which sport does he play and he was surprised. funny enough he was told that its part of his job to teach kids sports after classes. and he got a job cos he could coach basketball and was involved at club level..the school didn’t have a basketball coach. couple of months down the line, he already formed at team at school which he is tasked with the responsibility.
at the end we also need interventions where our teachers are coached in sport when doing their training and also for people in the township playing this sports to volunteer to teach school kids the sport. then the government should also be willing to pay professional coaches to be involved in school sport 24/7.
question is, will our governmet do that? i doubt it. so, at the end it is left up to us who love sport to be involved on a voluntary basis to make sure that kids play sport either at school or the townships. that is the only solution we have for now. the china model will take us years.
Phumlani
I agree with Baller, if I was a rich man I pay him for his take above, we do not need courts, we need people who are prepared to coach at the ground level where there is no reward but sacrifice.
As I mentioned, I quit ‘playing’ at 25 cause I understood that bball needed me more as a coach and an administrator than as a player. How many ballers are prepared to take take that decision? How many are prepared to sacrifice their hardearned cash to bus a team to matches instead of using the money to party or eat at the trendiest Newscafe? How many are prepared to sacrifice their after 4pm love life and work life in order to coach a team? How many I prepared to risk being fired at work cause they abuse work resources for bball?
To echo Ballers take, I moved from my location to another place. Before I moved I was coaching, administering and sponsoring a team. But now when I go back there my heart bleeds cause there are two basketball courts staring at me emptily with no soul in sight.
I have tried to encourage some of the the former players to take on the baton, but without success. Mostly, when I meet them, they will tell me how busy they are attending funerals during Saturdays and church on Sundays. Come night you will find them at the latest happening spot with money to buy as much booze as is needed to get drunk.
Joe
I know a lot of talented people who can add value to the sport. But they have been disoriented at the lack of professionalism from the administration.
As for us, we will work as hard as we can because we know the is sunshine towards the end of the channel.
Pumlani
i agree with you. that is the problem we have with our former players and coaches. once they get soughted in life, they now focus their attention on other things besides bball. believe you me, they are the 1st to complain that bball has problems and nothing to offer. unfortunately, we spend years listening to them pulling us down and forget that we can contribute to the growth of the sport.
i think most of us here in this forum has spend thousands of rands in the sport to sustain our teams as we all know our backgrounds and yet we are still here. if there is one thing people don’t know is that, it feels great knowing that you helped a kid avoid drugs or bad things cos of bball. you should experience a feeling where a kid comes to you after 10 years and say thank you for what you for the part you played in my life. that to me is fulfilling and i hope our former and current players will realise the importance of ploughing back what ever little they can to bball and their communities.
Gents,
People like myself that had a lot to do with basketball as foriegn players in SA in the early 90’s when Bball was at its best were looked down at when it came to administration issues and yet our dunks, ups and loyalty to the games were greatly appreciated by the masses.
I still walk tall and feel proud of the achievements & my contribution to SA Basketball. Almost 2 decades later, the sport is dead!! may I suggest that we get together as ex WBA players,PBL,NBL or whichever league one played in so that we rebuild the standards of Basketball in SA.
Let’s get guys such as Zoli Mthimukulu, Soli mashiane,Gavin Ditmar, stuart Howard,Thierry Kita, paul phume, dave Uniake, Graig Hilcrest,Inana nkanza, Junga jao,Alaska Kipundu,a couple of other guys including myself in a room and strategize to save Basketball and revive the league…( Besides all of us can’t play ball no more but loaded!!! ha ha ha)
Talk to me,
Francis
Gentlemen, these comments speak volumes!
It’s because of people such as yourselves that basketball has not completely died out in SA [Francis, I know it seems dead, but it isn’t yet].
I watch my six year old son and the enjoyment he gets playing the game and I want him to have what we never had… I agree with you all there, and if we can focus this positive energy, I believe we will see amazing things happen in the sport. Just as it’s popularity grew overnight in 1992, who’s to say we can’t see that happen again.
I’m in!
PS Guys, watch out for our upcoming community area, it might prove to be a useful tool in helping with the big task that lies ahead!
Francis
i think that everytime we talking strategy that never takes us anywhere because the same paople saying they want to strategise are not willing to do the dirty work on the ground for free. i would say to you, do something at your community no matter how small it is as your contribution to reviving bball which i believe its not dead.
do the dirty work at the ground first then we will talk strategy.
Baller
What you say is critically important. We need to consider that strategy also implies ideas we never think of, that could be the trigger to the administrators of the game. The alumni of PBL have a huge role to play, other than being coaches in their communities. We look at the person such as Craig who continue to coach in his community in KZN. Thierry has also been of help in Cape Town.
There is a much more need than coaching that these people can contribute in basketball other than coaching. They have somewhat an ambassadorial role to play particularly in representing the interests of basketball across the country. They can surely help in more ways than coaching. The contributions these people can make are valuable.
Development is an ongoing process. We need the strategy to get the Pro ‘Ball back on track. We need to re establish a platform where talented players can make a living from their sport. We need our sport to provide opportunities of employment to those who have passion for it.
What happens to the developed players? How do they turn Pro?
Hint:
After the 2010 soccer world cup, the marketers will be shifting their focus. I predict that marketers will contend between basketball and college sports (it must get more popular). But basketball must put itself in a better position now. The pro ballers must have had a common vision on the direction of the sport. They need to share that with the administrators for us to be in a better position to lure sponsorships. They need to get involved in the local structures to ensure that there is a common vision.
Setlogelo
if you go through my mail, i simply say contribution because i didn’t want to limit it to coaching. the reason is that there are too many things we the former players can contribute besides coaching..things like, administration, join the local federation, form forums, help upcoming coaches, the list is endless. lets rather not put our focus on the national strategy before we can help in our communities.
if for example, you call all the former players they will be more than a thousand and the strategy will take years to formulate..but if they are part of the structures at local and provincial level, then their ideas will be fast tracked to national as they will be ensuring that at local and provincial level they are implemented then that will be easy at national level to implement.
i hope my point is clear.
What is BWB in the 6 years running bringing to the table for SA ball under all umbrella’s(be it coaching, clinics, development or whatever else they claim to be trying to achieve)? That’s ofcourse other than freebies?
This BWB must be VERY important cos the league this weekend was a disaster cos the people who run the league(refs,administrators etc)were all there.Considering that this was the second last weekend before the season ends,the matches that were being played had teams trying to qualify for semis.I was surprised that a league could be run like a spaza shop.If people knew that BWB was more important then they could have postponed the games.These are the small things that make me feel like basketball is going nowhere slowly.
I was very disapointed by the league management. I mean the BWB has been on BSA calender since last year, if the management of the league knew that they would be available for theat day and the refs too why couldnt they just postpone the games? I expect players and young kids to run and try and get freebies not the administrators. When are we going to prioritise, the league has been running so smoothly for the past three weeks, why engage in actions that would jeopadise that.
People wonder why certain individuals take advantage of situations during the games, because there is no one from the league who is accountable. The actions of some individuals leaves a lot to be desired and they are at liberty to do that because they see that the people in charge are really not in charge. I havent heard whats going to happen to the actions of Flosh last week when he delayed the game or what will happen to the officials who neglect their duties.
It seems like we divert much from the themes in the reports.
We should be talking wheelchair basketball here. By the way it was published that the goal of these paralympics is for the African Champs to reach the quarterfinals. It will be a good achievement.
Perhaps the Mybasketball team have compiled a report on BWB so that we can speak our minds on the event.
Otherwise I think the NBA has good intentions about this programme. But they can do better with more strategic partnerships with bodies such as the PBL Trust.
I think we have already diverted from the topic.
I support what Neo has published. Priorities are important in life. It takes leaders to recognise the critical position of a relentless focused mind to achieve a dream.
Administrators must develop a vision of the direction they want to see the league taking. And they must ensure that there is capacity to drive the league towards what they envisage.
Perhaps the administrators of GBA have forgotten the pain they went through starting the league. Maybey the do not understand the aim of setting standards. Leaders would tell you that you either maintain your standard or improve them.
The league has been a motivation for me. It has led me to believe that there are good administrators out there who have taken a position. That they made a decision that whatever the conditions there will be a competitive league.
But after the reports of what transpired, things are just the same. Nothing has changed. I will look elsewhere for role models who do not mind carrying the hopes of basketballers on their shoulders.
What happened is not better than what contributed to the sponsors taking their brands off the game of basketball.
Setlogelo
when are we going to forget about everything revolving around PBL. its been how many years now and we still on PBL. isn’t it time to accept that its never going to happen soon and continue developing youngsters.
haha..am laughing because of what Neo and Kim just said about GBL/GBA and Administrators. Its funny because some of the administrators attended the Kasi Tour on saturday. I had achance to go to the BWB All Star game sunday and believe you me the referees and administrators where there. in my mind i thought the games at Tuks were postponed.
I agree with you Neo that our administrators love freebies meant for kids. to them its about getting freebies and care less about theri own programmes. i’ll be honest with you on our refs, our refs are greedy. they sure love money and not bball. i mean at BWB i saw some few guys from KZN or Western Cape. shouldn’t this guys have left to officiate at the GBL games on sunday..oooohhhhh, maybe they were not yet paid by BWB so they waited for their money who knows. even the head of referees in gauteng was officiating at the BWB while he had a programme to run at Tuks.
Baller
I did not talk about PBL. I spoke about the stewards of basketball, BSA. They had a considerable number of sponsors.
I agree the pro ball wont happen now. As a marketer, I predict two years time. Things will be rolling, Baller. Mark my words!!!
By the way administrators are to blame. If they wanted to host the league on Sunday, they could have offered the referees triple of what they pay.
And referees deserves to be paid. After all, there is no game without them. I fully support the idea of paying the referees.
i don’t think its an issue of tripling their match fees or anything. simple logic will say to you that the GBL referees should have been booked till saturday then sunday they attend the games in the morning. or alternatively the fixture should have been changed. i just spoke to a friend now who told me that the refs finally got to the games around 11h30.
to me its such a simple issue of organisation. before we forget, the same eprson heading GBA is also a National BSA Administrator. then my question is, if we fail with such a simple task of running a league for one province what should we expect nationally as the basketball family.
i mean the same administrator was at the kasi tour on saturday but couldn’t attend a league program. shame on us.
Ok how many of you out there on any occasions approached an organisation/body corporate asking for help of any sort and was told to produce a plan in writting once thats done and plan scrutinised you get told that based on what you wanna do/achieve(your plan) “we”(structures/body corporates) think this is how you should go about doing this etc etc. ???
Follow-up after follow-up 6 months down the line the same very same pitch you submitted to the structures comes to your hometown under whichever banner + your local municipalities support hosts clinics, life skills coaching and the works – all this happens whilst you still awaiting response from whom you applied to for assistance…
Finally when you do get some feedback, it goes something like so……. No budget for sports this year you are welcomed to submitt your pitch to the municipality for the forthcoming budget speech/allocations and will be sure to forward your applications?
Now the irony here is none of the people who were intended to benefit from this didnt attend because they didnt know.
Yes there were a lot of kids who saw banners and loud music and came to see whats goin zon only to be lined up and taught how to make a lay up inactual fact all those who do play the sport or are keen are sidelined.
Does this happen alot or was it just the 3 or more times i experienced it?
Yo KW3KU wat you on about man? Could you break it down to us axactly is goin zon. Call a spade a spade bra don beat about the bush cos, some of I don understand.
For me BWB is not the issue here.I mean cmon guys.You are getting to the end of your league but the league director doesnt even pitch up.This last weekend is no different from an administrator saying yena he is going to chisa nyama on sunday and forgets about the league.We put so much preparing our kids and fighting so that institutions take us serious but meanwhile we dont take ourselves serious.Imagine if the sport administrators that we fight every week for funds decided to come have a look what this league was all about.
I wont talk about CUT vs Wits cos comments will be taken as I am crying over spilt milk but look at the game between VUT and TUT.That game was a very crucial game that needed graded refs of high quality.The manner in which consistency was not emminent in the game was so crazy.That game and Wits vs CUT,were the WORST games that I have EVER seen being officiated.I can forgive refs that voluntered to assist cos they might not have the knowledge of reffering but graded refs to blow in the manner that they blew is a shame.
There are refs that you can still develop but I realised that there are some that should just stop reffering.
I want to comment on the BWB, so please Victor migrate all the BWB comments to a BWB blogg.
Ciao