Like football, basketball since its creation in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith is one of the most popular games in the world.
The game is played in almost every corner of the earth and it became even more celebrated when it was adopted as an Olympic sport 40 years later (1931).
Guyanese usually don’t like being left out and so Joseph ‘Reds’ Pereira, Ken Corsbie along with the Taitt brothers Clairmonte and Lawrence introduced the sport of basketball to the Land of Many Waters.
The Police drill square in Eve Leary, Queen’s College Auditorium, Parade Ground, Cosmos Sports Club, and the GNS Sports Complex were venues where the game was first played with the Ravens being the first established club along with Cosmos.
By then the game was growing in popularity and led to the formation of teams such as Eagles, Greek Warriors, Ferriers and Jugglers Linden, Celtics, Matouk Royals, Pacesetters, Houston of Berbice, YSM Hawks of Linden, Old Fort Hi-Flyers, 76ers, Kings and Pro Royals. Eventually the Guyana Basketball Federation (GABF) was formed in 1961.
Back then, basketball was more than a way of life and while there was no lavish prize money, still players like Hewley Henry, Harold Cesar, Gavin Kendal, Clifton Brusche, Brian Gonzales, Aubrey Chalmers, Merton Fitzalbert and Hewley Harry, just to name a few, attracted hundreds of spectators.
In 1981 under the presidency of John ‘Fishy’ Yates, Guyana hosted the first CARICOM basketball tournament and placed third.
Trend setter
This was a trend setter for every player who loved the game of basketball, since it was seen as the pinnacle of achievement to step forward to represent their country.
Today, that’s a far cry!
Players such as Auric Tappin, Leon Christian, Lugard Mohan, Lancelot Loncke, Remington Ram, Mark Agard, Brandis Carmichael, Orin Mohan, Shawn Semple, Gregory Wyles, Leon Lietch, Wayne Andries, Robert Byass and Royston Telford went on to represent Guyana at various levels.
Apart from money, players had something else to look forward to – the CARICOM Championships, now known as the Caribbean Basketball Championships (CBC).
Mohan, Tappin and Christian are some of the more accomplished local players at the championships and had set “I want to be like…” mentality in the minds of many young Guyanese basketball players.
But what do these players now have to target as it relates to representing Guyana at both the junior and senior levels?
Guyana played in seven CBC championships, both male and female, and only won the coveted title once through the females in 1996. And yet they are feeling the dull end of the knife by the administration as it relates to the development of the sport.
The male team’s best placing was second in the 1992 tournament and they also had three third place finishes in 1981, 1996 and 2000.
In 2007 a team of players who were all overseas-based represented Guyana after the four local players who had been selected had their visa applications denied. That year Guyana finished eighth.
This year former President Godwin McPherson had won a bid to host the tournament but a breakdown of arrangements between himself and the government coupled with a high budget forced the now late president to back down.
Dying state
But while the game of basketball is almost at a dying state, the players remain upbeat and enthusiastic although they’re aware that playing for a couple hundred thousand dollars or even just for a trophy is as far as they would get.
At the junior level, a real passionate basketball fan would be brought to near tears watching the talent we have just falling by the wayside again and again.
It has been 10 years since Guyana last played at the junior CARICOM level but when the game was hosted here in 1999 basketball was still basking in some glory.
Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts, Marvin Hartman, Rawle Toney, Kwesi Yearwood, Randolph Goodluck, Louis Simon, Louis Webster and Carey Harris were some of the players on the Junior CARICOM team that was coached by Bernard Daniels.
But today, players like ‘The Dream’ Akeem Kanhai, Orin Rose, Shelroy Thomas, and Richard Mohandatt, among many others, will never get a chance to match their skills with the region’s best.
Kanhai, according to basketball pundits, is the next big thing for basketball in Guyana, but until the 18-year-old gets a chance to play at the junior level outside of the Inter-Guiana Games and the senior championships, only then he can confidently say, ‘I’m the guy they call the dream’.
The administration today seems to think that playing tournaments constitute having a successfully-run association or federation. However, until they can gain the respect and interest of corporate Guyana as well as the ordinary folks along with seeing at least one youngster getting a break, they can’t boast, ‘Yes, basketball is going somewhere’.
In the meantime, basketball seems to have lost its way in Guyana. People are not even turning up to watch the games and sorry to say, it is going to get worse until the federation and its affiliates pull a rabbit out of the hat.
The NBA catchphrase is ‘Where Amazing Happens’ but in Guyana basketball’s catchphrase says “We’re waiting on something amazing to happen.”
