Excitement has gripped the local basketball fraternity ahead of the National Basketball League Association (NBA) draft which will see Tanzanian duo Hasheem Thabeet and Martin Kolikoli competing with other budding stars for the NBA selection tonight.
The entire basketball family in the country of Tanzania was eagerly waiting for the draft to be conducted between 2:00 am to 7:00am (local time) at the Madison Square Garden in the USA.
“This is a historic moment for our country; it’s a very big thing….a very significant event for our country and for the sports sector than what most people think. We know even the President (Jakaya Kikwete) and the US embassy in Tanzania are waiting for it. “We don’t think if there’s any other athlete since Filbert Bayi in the 1970s who could match the success that could be attained by these two players.
NBA is the leading professional league in the world, in which players are paid bigger wages than professional footballers. If Thabeet and Koli both selected to join NBA the duo would completely change the face of the country, hence the need for them to grab with both hands the opportunity to impress. We urged local basketball players to follow in the path of Thabeet who has been a big hit in the US basketball College league,
“He has done it, and it’s up to young players to trace his course. “They need to work hard to get where he is, most often things don’t come on a silver platter. Thabeet could open the doors for other players from our country,”. Should Thabeet and Kolikoli excel in the draft they would become the first basketball players from Tanzania to play in the NBA.
NBA draft is an annual North American event in which the NBA’s thirty teams can select players who wish to join the league. Thabeet decided to forgo his senior season and declare for the 2009 NBA Draft on April 14 this year. He was named First Team All-American in 2008-09 by the NABC and the John R. Wooden Award.
He was the NABC National Defensive Player of the Year and BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year in each of the past two seasons and was the 2008-09 BIG EAST Co-Player of the Year. He averaged 13.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 4.2 blocked shots per game (No. 2 nationally) in 2008-09 and helped lead the Huskies the 2009 NCAA Final Four and a 31-5 final record.
As for Kolikoli, he has spent his career playing for Pazi Basketball Team. He is 6'2" tall and weighs 189 pounds. Last year he represented the country at the 2008 Basketball Without Borders Programme, held at American International School of Johannesburg and organized by the NBA and International Basketball Federation where he was among the outstanding performers.
KoliKoli comes from a family filled with basketball; his cousin Louis Charles Ngonyani played for Pazi for four seasons between 1994 and 1998 but stopped to focus more on studying. His other cousin David Wilbard Ngonyani is still an active player in the ACAMIS and ISAC league of Beijing, China
CCMMAREKANI WISH THEM ALL THE VERY BEST FOR THE FUTURE !!!!
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