Giants of Africa is what Rwandan basketball needs

Usher Komugisha I started playing basketball when I was 15 years old in high school. I was attracted to the game because a very good friend of mine Sumaya Hood introduced me to the school team and because I had played netball in primary school, it was very easy for me to adjust to basketball. I played basketball because I wanted to be part of a team sport. I had played golf, did a lot of cycling and athletics in primary school and basketball presented the perfect opportunity for a new challenge and I was very hungry to prove myself. I remember being named on a 12-girl shortlist after the national schools championships to go for a training camp in South Africa sponsored by Sprite but ultimately this did not happen. I can imagine what difference this would have made. However, that would not deter me from trying to achieve my set targets in basketball. We worked hard in training and three years later won the national title albeit losing all our games in my first year at the nationals. Basketball to me was not just a leisure sport but rather a tool that taught me life lessons that are very applicable in my life like teamwork, good communication, optimism, patience and tolerance. My high school coach Eric Malinga, a legend of the game in East Africa taught me among the many fundamentals of basketball, to fall back for defense every time we lost the ball on offense whether it was my fault or not because we were a team. Fast forward and the lesson in life is that when you face a challenge in life, you can never give up but rather to move on and keep doing the right thing and success will be assured. In basketball, when you fall back for defense you contain your opponents and then can you get a steal or a defensive rebound to spark a fast break that would ultimately get you points on the board. While I was covering the recently concluded Giants of Africa (GOA) youth basketball programme last week, I could not help but admire the young players that were getting lessons from top NBA coaches. It means a lot to spend even a few minutes of your life with such inspirational figures of the game but here they were spending two days listening to them preach the fundamentals of the game and get an up-close on their life experiences. GOA proprietor Masai Ujiri also the general manager of the NBA franchise side Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets assistant coach Patrick Mutombo and Toronto Raptors’ assistant coach and scouting director Patrick Engelbreght were some of the faces present to inspire the next generation of young Rwandan players. This too was a lesson for the Rwanda Basketball Federation (FERWABA) that the country has young talented players that are yearning to feature on the national side rather than solely depend on naturalized players, a feat that threatened the growth of Rwandan basketball in the past decade. However, a recent Rwf21m fund from the Olympic Solidarity Program has ensured a countrywide basketball program that has attracted 500 teenagers from schools across the country with half of them being girls. This is the future of Rwandan basketball and a mark will be made on the continent very soon.

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Giants of Africa is what Rwandan basketball needs