Despite calls by clubs, coaches and other stakeholders to postpone the National Basketball Championships, vice president of organisation and development of the NBFTT, Barry Stewart, is adamant that the tournament will proceed as planned.
The event opened on Saturday at the Jean Pierre Complex but two of the four teams scheduled to play, BTU Ballers and Petro Jazz, failed to show for the 5 pm bounce off.
In the second game, Detour Shak Attack beat Valencia Heat 68-64. Minister of Sports, Darryl Smith, who was expected to give the feature address, failed to do so, in spite of his presence.
Smith was joined by president of the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC), Glyne Clarke, and president of the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) Brian Lewis, who was also expected to address the gathering but who also did not.
The tournament continued last night with a clash between the Ministry of Sports Schoolaz and Valencia Heat from 6.30 pm at the Eastern Regional Indoor Sports Arena in Tacarigua and NBFTT officials were expected to distribute fixtures for the tournament to participating clubs.
Asked why the first match was not played, Stewart said BTU Ballers did not have sufficient uniforms for players as their manager had only recently returned from abroad. He said this was communicated to NBFTT officials, but the information did not reach him in time.
Stewart said be believed that some clubs were deliberately creating confusion by expressing unwarranted concerns that contradicted key decisions made by the board.
In clarifying this statement, he explained that the Championship was a fixed tourney on the basketball calendar which should have been held some three months ago. “The only real concern for the Championship coming off was the prize structure which stated that the winning prize would have been $10, 000,” Stewart said.
“Even I didn’t agree with that but that was sorted out as the prize money was increased to $25, 000 but yet they want us to postpone it again.”
He said it was also difficult to get two other teams to play the opening game because of the limited time available.
Stewart also took offence to a newspaper report by a group of concerned coaches calling for the postponement of all basketball related tournaments until a proper assessment, planning and organisation element was implemented.
It stated also that following a meeting on last Wednesday, club officials Kern George and Melissa Guerero called on the NBFTT for an open-forum type general meeting to be held among all stakeholders to chart a way forward and develop a calendar of events for 2016.
Stewart cleared the air, saying Wednesday’s session was not a meeting but rather a discussion to find out the possibility of holding a youth and women’s tournament as part of the national championship.
WALTER ALIBEY