Kenyan players set to be picked for Junior NBA camp in April

A number of players who played in the Junior NBA and Safaricom tournament at the Sabis International school in Nairobi on Sunday will have a chance to join an NBA camp to be held in Mombasa in April.

40 coaches were on site to help with the work outs for the players before the tournament and some of the boys and girls will be selected for the Junior NBA elite 100 camp.

According to Mike Finley, Kenya Country Lead for NBA Africa, 15 girls were also selected for ‘Her Camp’ which will be hosted by the Basketball Africa League in Nairobi at the end of this month.

“We had all the 500 players playing games and doing work outs. 100 were identified for more workouts on day two before the semi-finals and finals. 15 girls were selected for the for ‘Her Camp’ in Kenya,” Finley said.

During the tournament on Sunday, Olympic boys and girls were outstanding as they won silver and bronze in the event that attracted 24 schools.

Olympic won gold in the girls’ competition after beating St.John 25-3 in the final while St John’s won the boys final after beating Olympic 17-14.

In the girls’ semi-finals, Olympic beat Daima 26-4 while St John was made to sweat before edging out Chrisco 12-10 in an entertaining encounter. In the boys’ semi-final, Olympic were in a class of their own as they brushed aside Harambee 15-6 while St John beat favorites Makini School 16-14 in the other semi-final tie.

Daima won bronze in the girls’ tournament after edging out Chrisco 13-5 and in the boys’ competition, Makini beat Harambee 23-10.

“It feels great. We have really worked hard and winning a tournament like this is a just reward for all the efforts we put in. Preparations were vigorous because we have been training since schools closed in November. When others went on holiday, we remained behind in Nairobi,” Olympic coach Ezra Alenga said.