NBA Africa and the Royal Bafokeng nation, through its sports development arm Royal Bafokeng Sports (RBS), on Thursday announced an expansion of their long-term youth development partnership.
The partnership will see the 12th year of the Royal Bafokeng Junior NBA Programme reaching more than 20 000 boys and girls from 44 schools across the Royal Bafokeng nation and Greater Rustenburg region.
Through its basketball development and youth engagement initiatives, the Royal Bafokeng Junior NBA Programme, launched in 2011 with 36 boys and girls teams, has reached more than 100 000 young people.
The programme features a youth basketball league for boys and girls in primary and high schools, elite development camps for the top 50 boys and girls in the programme, monthly clinics and camps, coaching clinics and certification programmes, and basketball court refurbishments.
“Basketball has been much more than a sport among the Bafokeng youth,” said Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi, the 36th king of the Royal Bafokeng nation.
“Through the support of the NBA and RBS, the programme has helped develop and inspire top athletes and coaching staff, create educational opportunities, and grow the sport not only for the RBN [Royal Bafokeng nation] community, but across the continent. The RBN welcomes the continued partnership and success with the NBA.”
NBA Africa CEO Victor Williams said the Royal Bafokeng Junior NBA Programme, which was launched 10 years ago, was the NBA’s first youth development programme on the continent.
“We are excited to expand our partnership with RBS and look forward to continuing to use the transformative power of basketball to inspire more boys and girls in the North West province in the years to come,” said Williams.
The programme is the league’s largest junior NBA programme in Africa and has achieved a number of milestones since its launch in 2011. More than 120 youth and 15 coaches from the programme have represented the North West in national tournaments.
Six girls and two boys went on to represent South Africa at international tournaments at the youth and senior levels, and two girls and two coaches participated in the Junior NBA Global Championships in Orlando, Florida in the US in 2018 and 2019.
In addition, more than 100 former participants have gone on to study at universities and colleges in South Africa, with two alumni receiving full scholarships to high schools and universities in the US.
In August 2017, the programme hosted the first Junior NBA Africa Festival, which featured junior NBA teams from Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe competing and taking part in life skills programming in the lead-up to the NBA Africa Game 2017.
That same year, the programme was recognised with the development programme of the year award at the Sport Industry Awards in South Africa. The NBA has a long history in Africa. It opened its African headquarters in Johannesburg in 2010.
Since then, the league’s efforts on the continent have focused on increasing access to basketball and the NBA through social responsibility, grassroots and elite development, NBA Africa Games and the launch of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).
South Africa’s Cape Town Tigers will make their BAL debut during the league’s Nile Conference group phase at Hassan Mostafa indoor sports complex in Cairo, Egypt from April 9 to 19.
For the latest sports news from Sunday World, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
