MyBasketball

In terms of worldwide basketball, Southern African countries fall into FIBA’s “Zone 6 classification”. There are 10 countries included in Zone 6, namely South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

On the global stage, this represents SA’s first step into international competition, so we should be using every opportunitiy to field teams and increase our international experience and exposure.

FIBA Afrique and Basketball in Africa reported this week about the Zone 6 U18 qualifiers being postponed – they were scheduled to start this weekend (15 May 2010) but have moved to 31 May to 4 June.

Sadly South Africa won’t be sending a team – the report says that only four countries confirmed their places with FIBA Africa (Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe). Seven countries originally planned to take part (the other three were Botswana, Swaziland and Zambia).

Why is South Africa missing from this list???

A big opportunity missed for our young South African basketball players.

Let’s hope the reason for this will be sorted out now and we won’t have a repeat of this next year. With South Africa’s strong sporting traditions and history, along with some amazing talent, we should be giving all the African countries a run for their money!

Darren spent many years playing basketball in Pretoria, searching out every possible way to gain extra inches on his vertical in order to disprove the theory that white men can't jump. After being distracted by the corporate world for several years, Darren returned to the game he loves to contribute in some way to its' future. Darren firmly believes we will see basketball in its rightful place as one of the top sports in South Africa, and that one of the keys to doing so is seeing information about the game made easily accessible to everyone. This is why he is now part of the MyBasketball team.

Darren Gorton

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