Kasi tour 2008 ends with a BANG in Alexandra
A youth subculture is a youth-based subculture with distinct styles, behaviours and interests. According to subculture theorists such as Dick Hebdige, members of a subculture often signal their membership by making distinctive and symbolic tangible choices in, for example, clothing styles, hairstyles and footwear. However, intangible elements, such as common interests, dialects and slang, music genres and gathering places can also be an important factor. Youth subcultures offer participants an identity outside of that ascribed by social institutions such as family, work, home and school.Case-in-point… The Kasi Basketball tour that was launched on the 30th August in Kagiso. Being there made one get instant and free access into generation “KIP”. I’ll get into that later. Firstly, I wanna start with the psychological feelings that hit a brotha. Walking around the A-Trek centre one easily felt a sense of nostalgia. It was like a scene from a movie that I had in archives. What do I mean…?? Well – rewind 10 to 15 years back. You know, when ball was coming up and people in my age group (Young Bucks!) were excited to be able to touch the rim for the 1st time. When being able to do a left handed lay-up meant the difference between winning and losing a game of H-O-R-S-E, When we had players to look up to both nationally and internationally (Word up Terry Kieta and Francis Makai!). Without getting too emotional, that is what the Kasi Tour was like for me. It was about hope, it was about youth culture, youth expression (I call it the AMA-KIP-KIP generation!!) and it was about a brighter future.
I can honestly say that I used to fall into the pessimist block of “Basketball South Africa” – excuse the pun – but being out there and seeing what was happening in the Alex was truly inspiring. To the laymen out there who don’t know what was going down let me give you a “brief-briefing”?
In a bid to grow local awareness of this exciting and challenging activity called Ball, ESPN, in association with the Gauteng Basketball Association (GBA) and the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation launched the Kasi Basketball Tour.
The road show visited various townships in the province to promote basketball as the sport of choice, and also to refurbish basketball courts in the area.
The ESPN Kasi Basketball Tour bounced into action at the Kagiso Sports Complex in Kagiso on Saturday the 30th August 2008, before moving to the Thokoza Stadium on the 6th of September, the George Thebe Stadium in Sharpeville on the 13th September, the Temba Sports Centre on the 20th of September, and the last stop on the tour was the A-Trek sports centre in Alexandra on the 4th of October.
Back to the nostalgic element though, it was great seeing kids come out in their hundreds and actively participating in the numerous events, and there were numerous events!! I mean who the hell knew that e-Kasi produced Baseball Players… BASEBALL!! There is an Alex Baseball Association for Pete’s Sake!! It was beautiful. Trust me, it’s a not cool working on a Saturday but I could just feed off the energy around me in this case. There was cricket, there was netball, and there was soccer… I mean, I thought I even saw some sumo-wresting!! It was just a wonderful concoction of activity, song, dance and CULTURE!!
It was great seeing some of our SA veterans out there doing their thing and mingling it up with the up-‘n’-comers. But damn!! Who the hell knew that Lezz “I wish my surname was Bryant” Molebatsi could still get above the rim?!? Don’t get it twisted, I know my man used to get up, but c’mon, “USED TO” are the operative words here! This dude was my Roommate in college so I know what he “COULD DO”. Case-in-point, one time we were running full court in our fresher year and this dude has the audacity to get on a fast break and put the ball between the legs for the Tomahawk Jam!! (Ummm… How did Kobe win the 1997 Dunk contest again?)
Damn, there I go with the nostalgia again! But I’m sure if you are reading this right now you can feel the energy! It was great. My “O-Gee” Paul was out there laying claim to the home-court advantage, crossing cats, talking trash and backing his things up! Oh, and Lucky!! Just slow down Goodness!! Even though there is no answer for you, you are not Allen Iverson Dude!! What is that dude like 5 foot 5 (When standing on a piece of paper)? My man had like 35 points! All due respect to my NBA Finals MVP Paul Pierce but little money was “THA TRUTH!!”
I just hope there are gonna be some young bucks that I can rant and rave about in future articles. I just hope the GBA cats, and Darkchild, Pro Sport, Government… Damn… Anybody can just provide the platforms for young bucks to come out there and do their thing. God knows it’s about time!
Props to everyone who put everything together. It was truly a job well done. Oh, and props to dat-dude KP for getting a TV crew out there. I hear he is about to change the game “from behind the scenes” (You need to go to school Pa!!”).
Article by Chi – Tha GODD!! edited by Nthabiseng Mushi
Big up my dad Francis Makai even though his son has surpassed him basketball wise