By Rawle Toney
A war of words erupted on Wednesday between the presidents of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LA BA) and the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Associa-tion (GABA) ahead of the Beepat Scorpions Supligen All Star weekend scheduled for the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on October 25-26.
The event was a press conference held by the organizers but it was the two presidents GABA’s Trevor Rose and LABA’s Uburn Smith who stole the show.
The two, Smith and Rose pledged an all out war between their respective sub-associations for the sixth installation of the event which will see their senior and junior players battling for top prizes and bragging rights.
Both presidents highlighted their teams’ readiness to put on clinical but entertaining displays of basketball in both divisions despite the lack of competitive play in both of the associations this season.
“Even though we don’t have tournaments right now, when you travel around the community you would always see players on the court training or just playing a scrubby game, so there is no low expectation in terms of these players rising to demonstrate competitiveness, ” said Smith.
Last year the Linden side claimed the senior but lost the junior championships.
Smith said this year LABA was looking to win both.
That proclamation did not sit well with Rose.
“My guys have been in training all year round even though basketball hasn’t been played at a club level and as such all of them are physically fit and they are eager and hungry to play basketball,” said Rose.
There will also be a Guyana-Trinidad showdown in the mix.
National forward, Andrew “Mr. Dunk” Ifill will meet his rival from the Trinidad and Tobago Basketball League, Steven “Lighter” Lewis which, according to the organizers, will provide some fire works since the two players have been going back and forth at each other in Trinidad recently and both players will be bringing a strong fan base from Trinidad for the weekend. Ifill will join the Georgetown senior team of: Stephon Gillis, Royston Siland and Naylon Loncke (Courts Pacesetters) Ryan Gullen, Ryan Stephney and Darcell Harris (Ravens), Kester Gomes and Travis Foster (Beepat Scorpions) along with Fabian Johnson (Nets) and Vivian Aulder (Bounty Colts).
Former national basketball players Lugard Mohan and Mark Agard will coach the senior and junior team respectively.
The junior team is: Tyrone Hamid, Kevin Levans, Jermaine Slater and Binium Norton (Ravens), Travis Burnett, John Fraser (Courts Pacesetters) Jaime Mayers (Beepat Scorpions), Keshon Robes (Bounty Colts) Jermaine Reid (Pepsi Sonics) and Michael Thompson (Disciples).
Linden’s team will be coached by Raphael Damon, and will include Trinidadian Lewis who played for them last year.
The team will also include Marin Hartman, Jason Alonso and Omally Sampson (Kashif and Shanghai Kings), Quincy Jones, Nevin Grenville and Trevor Proffit (Wismar Pistons), Dwayne “Brown Sugar” Roberts and Anson Durant (Victory Valley Royals), Terrence James and Kurleigh Austin (Bulls).
The junior team reads: Akeem Kanhai, Orin Rose, Javon Nelson, Chris Williams, Stravin Etienne, Dane Russell, Mark Rose, Travis Leach, Seon Cameron and Harold Adams. Claude Williams is the coach.
Linden will be without point guard Steve Neils Jr. and national centre Nkossi Gurrick who have both migrated.
Apart from the games and the slam dunk and three-point competitions, the organisers are promising a surprise international artiste who will perform during half time of the senior game on Saturday and the junior game on Sunday.
The name of the artiste will be released two days before the event.
