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  • Jamaica and Basketball

    Williams: Ja creating basketball 'dream team'

    BY PAUL BURROWES
    Wednesday, July 08, 2009

    PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Basketball Association (JABA), Ajani Williams, believes the current group of national players has laid the foundation for a "dream team" and will stay on court for a shot of the 2012 London Olympics.

    Willilams, a former NBA player, has given credit to Samardo Samuels and Kimani Ffried with Jerome Jordan either next year or the following year as "the best front courts Jamaica has ever had".


    Jamaican basketballers and members of the country's delegation to the Caribbean Basketball Championships in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, celebrate at the closing ceremony after winning the tournament last week.

    Jamaica rallied last week to capture the Caribbean Basketball Championships in Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI). Though Team Jamaica lost their opening match to Trinidad & Tobago 88-76, they won their remaining matches, beating Cuba 98-93 in the semi-final and hosts BVI, 65-61, in the final and will now play in next year's Centrobasket Tournament.

    Williams noted that "Team Jamaica" has few new components which it has never had before. It has three dynamic coaches, two of which are NBA coaches, and the third is Jamaican Julian Dunkley who coached the team to victory in 2006.

    "Team Jamaica also has something which it has never really had before, which is private corporate support with KFC and Flow as joint lead sponsors, and also the backing of minister Olivia Grange and the warm and protective support of the Association of Jamaican residents in the BVI which helped rally hundreds of Jamaican fans who live in Tortola."

    While the basketball boss wants to avoid using the term "Dream Team Jamaica" at this time, he feels that "it is the beginning of something very special in our country's history in sports and specifically basketball and really believes this group can and should make it to 2012 London".

    He pointed out that under new leadership "these were all able to pull together to create the perfect storm of opportunity in a time when our country needs a refresher from our sports industry".

    Williams noted that while Jamaica have won the CBC Championships before, "this victory and gold has a different polish to it and different value". He sees this achievement "as an opportunity to build one of the biggest sporting brands the region has seen and feels the team's value will continue to rise exponentially both with victories and the notoriety of players like Samuels, Oritseweyi Efejuku and Jordan (who didn't play), and will continue to explode after they are drafted or signed to the NBA.

    "Let's not fall asleep at this unfolding of something potentially very special and with wide implications for local basketball and sports in general. Congrats to Team Jamaica for becoming 2009 CBC champions and for qualifying for their next tournament on their road to 2012 and beyond," he declared.

  • #2
    Jamaica's Championship Years

    Originally posted by Historian View Post
    Williams noted that while Jamaica have won the CBC Championships before, "this victory and gold has a different polish to it and different value". He sees this achievement "as an opportunity to build one of the biggest sporting brands the region has seen and feels the team's value will continue to rise exponentially both with victories and the notoriety of players like Samuels, Oritseweyi Efejuku and Jordan (who didn't play), and will continue to explode after they are drafted or signed to the NBA.
    The years in which Jamaica won the Caribbean Basketball Champions (previously known as the CARICOM Basketball Championships) were 1981, 1996, 2006, and 2009.

    Comment


    • #3
      if memory serves me correctly there have been times when funding was an issue.

      it is all well and good to dominate but these sports require regular and conostent funding for peparation even the sunshine girls as dominant as they have been, are oftentimes chasing funding.

      in cuba, sports are and sportsmen are given elite status within their system because it is state funded...if jamaica could rely on that kind of funding we certainly would dominate.

      my larger point, I think in the last 30 years or so we have probably won everything at least once....from body building to swimming to tennis to squash to crickt to football to basketball (that is ntohing to sneeze at)

      Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe. Thomas Paine

      Comment


      • #4
        I Just Saw Your Reply

        Originally posted by Gamma View Post
        if memory serves me correctly there have been times when funding was an issue.

        it is all well and good to dominate but these sports require regular and conostent funding for peparation even the sunshine girls as dominant as they have been, are oftentimes chasing funding.
        I just saw your reply, Gamma.

        I posted this basketball story because I view it as a really positive development. Maybe, just maybe, we can do in basketball what we have so far failed to do in senior men’s soccer .

        Also, I posted the years in which Jamaica won the Caribbean basketball Championships only for the purpose of historical accuracy. In other words, I tend to lean towards specifics as far as information is concerned.


        Originally posted by Gamma
        in cuba, sports are and sportsmen are given elite status within their system because it is state funded...if jamaica could rely on that kind of funding we certainly would dominate.
        The Reggae Boyz funding is not too bad, which is no doubt why they dominate their opponents so much and so are now headed for an almost certain CONCACAF Gold Cup victory !!

        Originally posted by Gamma
        my larger point, I think in the last 30 years or so we have probably won everything at least once....from body building to swimming to tennis to squash to crickt to football to basketball (that is ntohing to sneeze at)
        I fully agree with you here, but for a so-called “sports power” with a population of some 2.7 million people living within its borders, and an even greater number abroad, I see very little to boast about outside of the four sports disciplines I identified! Certainly that is not what my definition of “sports power” is! (Consider for a minute Brazil and soccer, Cuba and boxing, the USA and basketball, etc. and you will no doubt realize that occasionally winning a sporting event does not make Jamaica an all round sports power by any means!)

        As I said before, we are a bona fide “sports power” in international track and field and netball, and on a regional level in women’s soccer and cricket. We are a “sports power” in these areas because we dominate our opponents on a consistent basis in the same way that, for example, Cuba dominates the region in volleyball, boxing and field events, and Trinidad in swimming! No Caribbean country is going to beat Cuba in volleyball or in boxing!

        When Jamaica takes to the tracks regionally in sprinting and relays, people know exactly where to put their bets as only a certified idiot would bet against Jamaica as far as total outcome is concerned! The same thing goes on a regional level for netball and women’s soccer. Jamaica is a regional sports power in those areas! That is what a “sports power” is all about, unless, of course, we both have radically differing interpretations of the term.

        Comment


        • #5
          Historian, leave the football thins alone. I am very sensitive when it comes to my ReggaeBoyz. I didn't even know that you read the football forum.

          "The Reggae Boyz funding is not too bad, which is no doubt why they dominate their opponents so much and so are now headed for an almost certain CONCACAF Gold Cup victory !!"
          Hey .. look at the bright side .... at least you're not a Liverpool fan! - Lazie 2/24/10 Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015

          Comment


          • #6
            Reggae Boyz

            Originally posted by Jangle View Post
            Historian, leave the football thins alone. I am very sensitive when it comes to my ReggaeBoyz. I didn't even know that you read the football forum.

            "The Reggae Boyz funding is not too bad, which is no doubt why they dominate their opponents so much and so are now headed for an almost certain CONCACAF Gold Cup victory !!"
            Sorry about that, Jangle (I mean it). Actually, I watch a great deal of football, including CONCACAF third rate….sorry again …. including CONCACAF soccer. I also read the football forum up top after every major soccer match. I just don’t comment on soccer because I can’t be bothered, plus I am more of a track and field fan than a soccer fan. (Track and field is my first love, closely followed by soccer. Others come much further back in the line.)

            By the way, I have a higher opinion of our top DaCosta Cup teams than I have of Grenada’s national team! And our DaCosta Cup teams have no players plying their trade abroad like Grenada does!! Anyway, that’s all I’m going to say about soccer for now!

            Comment


            • #7
              "By the way, I have a higher opinion of our top DaCosta Cup teams than I have of Grenada’s national team! And our DaCosta Cup teams have no players plying their trade abroad like Grenada does!! Anyway, that’s all I’m going to say about soccer for now!"

              I see that you are trying to steal my thunder. I have been meaning to make a similiar post for days now next door, but I keep getting caught up in reading and commenting on other post. That Grenada team is total crap and does not deserve to be there.
              Hey .. look at the bright side .... at least you're not a Liverpool fan! - Lazie 2/24/10 Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015

              Comment

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