Basketball in Africa

Everyone who came to the Imperial Royale Hotel on Saturday night for the 2013 basketball awards agreed on Kami Kabange being crowned men’s playoffs Most Valuable Player (MVP)Kampala.

Everyone who came to the Imperial Royale Hotel on Saturday night for the 2013 basketball awards agreed on Kami Kabange being crowned men’s playoffs Most Valuable Player (MVP).The Congolese-born Rwandan big man received a near-unanimous standing ovation from the fraternity even if the emcee, basketball player Joseph Ikong called him “Kami Kabenge.” No one had doubts about who deserved to win the most prestigious award in any basketball culture as Kabange led City Oilers to a 4-3 final series victory over Falcons.He averaged 18.4 points and 10.5 rebounds through the series and his side-kick Jimmy Enabu was only an escort and Kabange could get any hug he wanted in the room. He received so many hugs from everyone.“It’s good to win this but importantly the team won in its first season in the national league,” the humble Kabange said, smiles aplenty. Beyond Kabange and the obvious awards like top scorer, which he also took, the rest was littered with arguments including Peace Proscovia’s rather expected women’s playoffs MVP gong.The UCU Lady Canons centre played only two of the six finals’ games against KCCA Leopards having had to travel to Singapore for a netball tournament. Proscovia, also best netballer for 2013, is also in the running for the journalists’ sports personality of the year gong.Perhaps that wasn’t as controversial as the regular season MVPs. Magic Stormers’ Carol Nyafowno won it despite Lady Canons winning all their 21 regular season games with Proscovia outstanding there.UCU even beat Stormers thrice during the regular season but the Fuba technical committee so Nyafwono more deserving that players from a team that touched perfection. There are never enough awards, they say, or everyone deserves an accolade for competing.The murmurs at the well-organised, though time-dragged, event grew when Vegetarians’ Bernard Okumu got the men’s equivalent even if his team was 10th out of 12.Vegetarian spent the entire season fighting relegation and Okumu, the runner-up in the scoring charts, kept them afloat. It was similar to Geoffrey Soro winning in 2012 despite his Ndejje University Angels team sneaking into the playoffs in eighth position.By the end of the night, the fraternity was perhaps happier that the glamorous event had been restored to the calendar having not been held the previous year due to lack of finances.

Fuba even announced the respective winners of the men’s and women’s Airtel National Basketball Leagues will receive an extra Shs3m in prize money with the figures reducing with positions