Darren Gordon
Kashif and Shanhai Kings defeated Amelia's Ward Jets in the final of the GoMosley tournament. Kings' Thorton Wilson got the MVP prize in the competition.
Young promotion group, Next Level Entertainment on their first assignment hosted a nation-wide tournament for all first-division teams. Kashif and Shanghai Kings defeated Ravens in the final to cart off the $200,000 first place prize, while Ravens got $100,000 for second place. Courts Pacesetters was third in the nation-wide tournament and received $50,000. Kings' Steve Neils jr. won the MVP of the final award after the guard, down with an injury, returned limping during the game to lead his team to victory.
However, Courts Paceset-ters recovered to win GABA's Albert Bentick Open League tournament against Scorpions in a two-best-three final. Pacesetters won game one while Scorpions took game two.
Pacesetters defeated Scorpions 100 - 88 in the third game of the three-game final to lift the beautiful Albert Bentick Trophy. Scorpions Basketball club made it possible for local basketball referee Vijay Panday to attend a Federation of International Basketball Ass-ociation (FIBA) referees training course in Trinidad.
However, Panday was not successful in the course owing to personal struggles with fitness and a life-long battle with a knee injury.
Designers, Michelle Cole and Trevor Rose staged an inaugural Bounty Colts Facts and Roses first and third divisions basketball tournaments in May with a first place purse of $200, 000. Ravens basketball club ensured that they cash in when they won the tournament ahead of Georgetown rivals Pacesetters, whom they defeated in the semi - final round to advance to the final against Scorpions.
The final was a two - best - of - three one-sided affair as Ravens blew way Scorpions to win with a clean sweep. Scorpions got $150,000 for placing second, while Paceset-ters took home $100,000. The LABA staged three first division tournaments for Linden teams with Sponsorship from U -mobile for the first, Banks Vita Malt for the second and the Linden Town Week organisation for the third.
Jets got the best of Kings in the U -mobile sponsored tournament, which saw Rawle Toney emerge as MVP, while Kings won the latter tournaments on points and defeating Retrieve Raiders respectively.
Neils was the MVP for the latter two first 'D' tournaments to complement his nation - wide award at the Next Level tournament earlier in the year.
The Supligen All Star weekend came off with a bang in July with Trinidad-based player Steven 'Lighter' Lewis lighting up the Sports Hall with ferocious dunks in the slam-dunk competition.
The All-Star weekend also included the usual junior and senior three-point shoot out along with the feature games. For the first time this year, a Linden All Star team matched strides with a Georgetown All Star team. GABA president Chris Bowman, tasked with preparing Guyana's Inter Guiana Games (IGG) basketball team staged a nation-wide High School Basketball tournament in collaboration with the National Sport Commission (NSC).
St. Roses High School edged Kwakwani High in the final of the tournament in June to come away with the title. Director of Sport Neil Kumar was on hand to deliver the awards to the young players.
Pepsi Sonics Basketball team held a summer vocational basketball programme for boys and girls between ages nine and 17 at the National Gymnasium.
National coach on his inaugural stint as head coach for Guyana's national senior team, Abdullah 'Zico' Hamid conducted one of the sessions of the programme. The Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) staged an international Goodwill Basketball tournament that included Washington D.C Jammers, Trinidad and Tobago male and female team and a Guyana 'A', 'B' and female team.
The Trinidad female side blew away the local women team in all three games to complete a clean sweep. The Trinidad women side embarrassed the home team 91 - 54 in the last game to prompt their male counter parts.
The Trinidad male team defeated Guyana 'A', 'B' and D.C Jammers to end with the most wins in the round robin male competition. Trinidad's Lewis was given the MVP award at a lunch held for the teams at Malteenoes Sports Club.
The New Era Promotion group hosted a first division competition for teams in Linden with a top prize of $100,000. Kings was on top on the list of finishers again with the MVP going to centre Jason Alonzo.
An otherwise good year for local basketball was daunted when a fight broke out on the McKenzie Sports Club hard court that involved Ravens' Dwayne 'Sugar' Roberts and Alonzo during an invitational fixture.
Roberts was slapped with a two-year ban from the sport, from all related activities and from all venues by LABA. A position later revisited and reversed by LABA's George-town counter - part, GABA. Alonzo was given only a three-month ban for his role in the incident. The contradicting decisions by both GABA and LABA in the matter were indicative of an executive battle between the two associations.
Sport enthusiasts had called on the governing bodies for both the GABA and LABA, the GABF to step in and heal the rift between the two associations. Maybe the GABF is awaiting the commencement of the New Year to act accordingly. Guyana's IGG male team was demoralized in Suriname as they returned to Guyana empty handed with losses to both Suriname and French Guiana in the games late September. The GABA resumed its Georgetown League tournament in November in an effort to seed teams for the new season in 2007. A new basketball League structure was designed and implemented by GABA.