11th June, 2010
Two of the four cities short-listed by the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, would host the All-Stars Weekend Match-up slated for 3- 4 July, 2010 and the Final-8 Play-offs.
The cities include the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Lagos. President of the Federation, Tijjani Umar, stated that the federation’s decision to short-list the four cities is to allow for a wide range of choice for the two important programmes of the federation this season.
While Lagos and Port Harcourt have been short-listed to host the All-Star Weekend Match, Kaduna and Abuja are in the race to host the Final-8 Play-offs coming up in the first week of September after the clubs might have had their two weeks break from the regular season of the DSTV Premier League.
The slam and dunk sport, boss said the NBBF is determined to make all cities in the country feel the impact of the game and encourage them to develop their individual potential in the sport by taking it to the grassroots.
He congratulated the sixteen clubs in the NBBF/DSTV Premier League for raising the standard of the league, though he believes more still needs to be done to further raise the standard to compete favourably with the best in Africa and indeed the world.
He, however, appealed to Corporate Nigeria to emulate MultiChioce Nigeria, owner of DSTV, and Zenith Bank Plc who are title sponsors of the Nigeria Men and Women Premier League by identifying with the federation’s programmes so that Nigeria basketball can taken to the next level.
Meanwhile, The fortunes of Yelwa Hawks Basketball Club of Bauchi continue to swell as they earned a well deserved away win in Kaduna on Tuesday with a 59-56 points victory over Tapgun Rockets at the Sports Hall of the Ahmadu Bello Stadium.
The Coach Oche Omuh tutored side, who recorded her first win of the season during its live telecast game against Plateau Peaks basketball club in Bauchi penultimate weekend, have continued in the build-up to take its record to 2-3 in the Savannah conference.
Secretary of the club, Adenike Carew, believes her team still stands a chance of making it to the final-8 play-offs slated for the first week of September this year.
—Wale   Joseph