Oct 05
False promises, lies, deceit, corruption, nepotism and lack of planning are hurting the game of basketball in South Africa and every year is like a vicious circle of inaction on the part of the people in charge… We watch as the years go by and another wave of hope is dashed. The problem is not that we don’t have the talent but that we don’t have the administrators in place to revive the sport. And those that are trying to revive it indep
endently are faced with countless hurdles from the mother body Basketball South Africa (BSA). As a result, we end up sending teams and coaches to international competitions to fail because we don’t equip them with the tools to succeed.
After the publication of the article yesterday, we received a response from BSA challenging most of these allegations. I have posted their response to the article in green.
False dawn…
When the current BSA regime was “elected” into power it gave them an opportunity to distance themselves from the past and set the sport of basketball in South Africa on a new path to recovery. They had a chance to prepare the ground for the future of the game by setting up the structures and by having a plan of action to help the sport move forward but instead we are still at the same stage we were when they took power. Continue reading »
Tagged with: Basketball • Basketball South Africa • Dikembe Mutombo • ESPN • Florsh Ngwenya • Hakeem Olajuwon • National Basketball Association • NBA • South Africa • Tsepo Nyewe • University Sports South Africa • USSA • wbsa • Wheelchair basketball SA • Zanele Ngwenya
Feb 02
Amadou Gallo fall joins the NBA as vice president of development in africa
NEW YORK, Jan. 13, 2010 – Amadou Gallo Fall is joining the NBA on January 25 to serve as Vice President of Development for the NBA in Africa it was announced today by Heidi Ueberroth, President, NBA International.
Fall will be responsible for leading the NBA’s efforts to help grow the game and participation in Africa working with the local federations and basketball entities. He will oversee the NBA’s grassroots events and its partnerships with marketing, media and consumer products companies. Fall will start in the NBA’s New York office and then relocate to Johannesburg, South Africa this spring. Continue reading »
Tagged with: Basketball • basketball without borders • canada • Dallas Mavericks • FIBA • Johannesbourg • NBA Cares • NBA.com • senegal • South Africa • United States • University of District of Columbia
Sep 01
The senior men’s team recently took part in the African Championship in Libya. Despite this being an opportunity for South Africa to go out there and create relationships with other African nations and see how we could learn from them, our national body Basketball South Africa (BSA) missed that opportunity with various blunders along the way… Then there was the Florida State University visit to our shores that went unnoticed, well almost but BSA didn’t cover itself in glory in that scenario either (No proper kit, lack of proper communication).
With BSA being in office for almost a year, there have been a lot of positive to come out of this new regime and other things that have remained the same or gotten worse. With everyone waiting to see what structures and plans that they would put in place to lift the sport from it’s smouldering ashes, I feel that they might have missed an opportunity to engage the various stake holders and get the help that they need.
Anyway I would like to focus on the men national teams that have had a rough time of late. If there is a positive to come out of the new regime, it is the amount of games that the various national teams have participated in. From the U16s competing in Zimbabwe with dignity to our ladies senior team qualifying outright for the African Championship later this year and the Men senior team going to represent the country in Libya.
That’s was quite the busy program for the teams but the thing that BSA didn’t look at is the finer details, it’s all good to say that we are taking part in competitions all over the world but if you don’t take care of how the teams will prepare leading up to such events or how they will get to those events and be treated then they might as well not enter and save everyone the headache involved. This is why I believe that instead of jumping onto all these tournaments, BSA would have been better served making sure that the various structures within the national setup are ready for international competition. I am sure that the players and coaches would have been ok to wait another year without competition if they knew that when it eventually came back it was going to be worth it. Continue reading »
Tagged with: Angola • Basketball • Basketball South Africa • BSA • Congo • Cote d’Ivoire • Libya • Nigeria • South Africa
Mar 25
We have the likes of “Slamdunk” on the national broadcaster SABC, then we have “Basketball Africa” on DSTV and finally there is www.mybasketball.co.za for our general news on basketball in South Africa and to some extent the continent. With these being our eyes around the country for information, why not look at the value they bring to the game that we love.
But are we as ballers happy with the service we are getting? I mean when was the last time we watched a live SA game on the telly? Or how do we influence the powers that be so that we get more coverage of the game on the television?
Are you as ballers happy with the way basketball is represented on TV with Slamdunk and basketAfrica? How about this site, how do you improve these channels of information? Obviously big shows like Slamdunk and BasketAfrica have editorial lines to follow and budget constraints but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement. What are your thoughts?
Continue reading »
Tagged with: Basketball • Basketball Africa • Dstv • SABC • SlamDunk
Mar 14
ROAD TO Annual General Meeting
Notice is hereby given of the following important meetings:
Constitutional Summit and Plenary
Date : 14 March 2009
Venue : Wembley Indoor Sports Complex Board Room
Time 09h00
Agenda
1. Constitutional Reviewing and adoption as working Document
2. By Laws
3. Finance Policy
Annual General Meeting
Date : 22 March 2009
Venue : Wembley Stadium Board Room
Time : 09h00
Agenda
1. Opening and Welcome
2. Credentials
3. Address by Basketball SA Rep.
4. Chairpersons Comments
5. GBA
6. Audited Financials
7. Elections of the New GBA Executive Committee
8. Address by new Chairperson
9. Closure
Information from Bojan Palic
Tagged with: Basketball • Gauteng Basketball Association • GBA
Oct 29
This BSA board will be in office for the next four years. The Board was democratically elected in the Presence of the National Olympic and Sports Confederation of South Africa (SASCOC) and our national Government representatives.
The electors were all the nine Provincial Chairpersons and the Six Affiliated members of Basketball South Africa General Assembly.
The contact point for Basketball South Africa will be the President Mr Malesela Maleka and the National Administrator, Mr Tsepo Nyewe.
The BSA board members as elected on 26th October 2008 at Olympic House:
Continue reading »
Tagged with: Basketball • Basketball South Africa • PBL • Professional Basketball League • SASB • SASCOC • South Africa Schools Basketball • USSA • WCBA • wheelchair basketball
Oct 18
On a warm Saturday morning, Pretoria Boys High School played their 2nd game of the term against arch rivals St Benedicts High School at home. With this being off season and most schools focusing on next year’s preparations, the coaches were bound to experiment. With the matrics busy preparing for their exams, the teams look a bit different and the rookies were keen to impress. In the first games of the morning, the U14A and U16A teams opened proceedings in front of a vocal crowd of parents and schoolmates.
In the U14A game, PBHS was too strong for their opponents. They looked more confident and took the game to their opponents with some good rebounding and some fastbreak basketball. In a very surprising move by their coach Sibusiso Ntombeni, PBHS played a zone defence throughout the game while St Benedicts went with a man on man defence. The zone defence and some dodgy calls seemed to frustrate St Benedict but PBHS looked eager to get the game over and done with by half time. They always had a lead to work with and in the end despite a late rally from the St Benedict team, it wasn’t enough. This was a second victory for the U14A. After the game, St Benedict coach, James Mtwetwa said that by next year his team would be ready and would overturn the result. Continue reading »
Tagged with: Basketball • Jeppe High School • PBHS • Pretoria Boys High School • St Benedicts High School
Oct 06
Photo credit: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images
I wrote this piece on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. The USA re-established their dominance as world leaders in basketball as both women and men’s teams won the ultimate athletic achievement, Olympic gold. Asides from Mali’s butter fingered opposition to Lisa Leslie’s team USA in the women’s preliminaries, one of the most striking features of the competition were the unitards worn by team Australia. How could any self-respecting women step out onto a basketball court with a wedgie?? After all basketball is one of those sports tied undeniably to the sub-culture of music, language, and clothing that marks the sport as an urban cultural phenomenon. In South Africa we are no different in our expression of this sub-culture than our peers globally, but what really is the identity of women’s basketball in this country?
Continue reading »
Tagged with: australia • Basketball • Basketball South Africa • Beijing Olympic Games 2008 • Netball • Rugby • SASSU • Soccer • South Africa • USA
