Bajan Basketball Blog

Local basketball’s modern day Bonnie and Clydes finally revealed their hands as if they were at high stakes poker table, exposing those murky fingerprints all over the sport’s decade long decline.

For too long the blame for basketball’s highly publicised demise has been unjustly laid at the feet of executives past and present.

Even the men in grey and black have endured the wrongful condemnation of the worst injustice in all Barbados’ local sports.

But not to worry, because this current crop of Premier League players is the guilty party for the traumatic fall from grace of Bajan basketball.

And it’s time they own up.

This condemned list, however, doesn’t include Andrew Alleyne, Brian Yarde, Chris Holder and the likes of those who spanned generations to end up playing in their late 30s or 40s in this organised scrimmage which currently masquerades as the sport’s top flight.

No, I’m using those born in the mid70s as the cut-off mark, alphabetically starting from Alleyne, Peter right down to Yearwood, Antonio.

Rest at ease now Gay Griffith, you of 15 long and unappreciated years of Barbados Amateur Basketball Association leadership.

Maybe the refs can finally be exonerated. Well, not just yet.

The present day “top flight” ballers’ latest and most deplorable act came to light at the end of last season when national men’s coach Adrian Craigwell revealed that his senior players were absent from the weekly training sessions.

However, not only were they not attending the practices, they were forgoing them in favour of “competing” in any one of three out-of-season tournaments.

Practice? We’re talking about practice?

Somewhere in Philadelphia a teary-eyed Allen Iverson would be beaming with pride.

Not coincidentally, this is the same generation of players whose early playing days corresponds with the prime of said legendary Sixers number three.

As we speak, only one player from the last ill-fated tour to Tortola currently attends the programme, and the 26 year-old Jason Smith is the elder of the two players at those sessions that would’ve ever represented Barbados at the senior level.

And this isn’t exactly the 1992 Dream Team we’re talking about here.

This is a national squad that has successive sixth place finishes at the last two regional tournaments and could only trip over a single win in five games at a meet devoid of powerhouses Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In other words, they need all the practice they could get.

When you struggle with mere basics like hitting uncontested jumpers at training in the friendly shooting confines of the Wildey Gymnasium, while showing shortcomings in the ability to play without the ball, then treating practice like a persistent debt collector is tantamount to sabotage.

At least the country’s junior players have had the sense of mind, if not the common courtesy, to hone whatever skills they possess at the bi-weekly sessions.

Then there’s the disturbing disloyalty shown by about five of Craigwell’s own Cavaliers, who have refused to even grace their club coach with a solitary visit.

Et tu Brute?

Such betrayal ranks right up there with that of Judas’, and at least that disciple got 30 pieces of silver for his efforts.

What did those rogue players get from the out-of-season tournaments?

A chance at dividing $1,500 among a team of seven?

An opportunity of scrimmaging against lower level players?

The again, it’s not as if that doesn’t happen in today’s Premier League anyhow, considering the mediocre standards of play that pass for top flight basketball.

It’s purported to be the highest calibre of the local sport, yet there are regular rotation players who routinely miss lay-ups (see: Reynolds, Jermaine), make free throws look like job work (see: Gaskin, Damien) and play the game as if it were a video game with the pass option toggled off (see: Yearwood, Antonio).

And the BABA, the officials or a combination of both are the ones alleged to be involved in stealing of some kind?

What could be more fraudulent than to know people have paid money to watch you go weeks between dunks or 100-point games?

Just last June unsuspecting patrons were robbed of three dollars to see Warriors and Patriots fail to tally 100 points combined.

However, they did manage to combine for 108 missed shots, 41 turnovers and 39 fouls all in 40 minutes of drudgery that setback the shot clock era by some 30 years.

Who’s exactly doing the stealing here?

This isn’t to say that the previous executives didn’t have a hand to play in the sport’s grand demise with their own shortcomings, or that the standard of officiating in this country is of an acceptable quality.

But they haven’t quite fled with the lottery either, not if we’re to go by the evidence of these murky fingerprints.

Rest at ease Gay Griffith, we’ve got the real culprits.

Contribution By Sports Writer Justin Marville