Basketball Northern league this month
The spokesperson for Botswana Basketball, Tumelo Boima this week said that the northern league, which is scheduled to start this week, consists of six teams based in Palapye, Phikwe, Maun, Orapa and Francistown. “The league will actually be run in a tournament format as a pilot for the inaugural league,” he explains. Games will thereat
fore be played in Maun, Francistown and Palapye. Boima says that this league serves an important role, not just for the Basketball community but the entire community.”Seeing that our teams are mostly from mining areas, we are adopting a blue collar mentality. This means we are essentially bringing toughness, grinding, fight for everything kind of mentality to our style of play,” he says.
“Our players will put in the necessary work to produce a product that any and all will be willing and eager to associate with,” he adds. He further tells Sun Sports that they aspire to be known as the tougher league in Botswana.
Boima further says that, just like any other sport, sponsorship is integral to the growth of their sport and they hope to attract the ideal partners that can help grow their brand as well as the game of basketball. Boima shares that, there was a North league some 13 years back but at the time there were not as many teams as now. “It seems like, eventually the teams got integrated back to the national league, therefore we believe now there are enough teams and the Northern league would be reestablished,” he says.
“We are using this year’s league to create excitement about the game in the Northern part of Botswana,” Boima adds. He also highlights that, , they still do not have the ladies teams and with the inception of this league, they hope to attract female players that will form a ladies league for the following season.