NBA Africa (www.NBA.com), Stanbic Bank and the Luol Deng Foundation tipped off the second season of the Stanbic Jr. NBA League for boys and girls ages 16 and under at Nimra Talata Basketball Stadium in Juba, South Sudan last Saturday.
The league, featuring 28 boys and girls’ teams, will play regular season games through September, which will be followed by the second edition of playoffs and finals in October.
Prior to the season’s tip-off, a league draw was held at St. Mark’s Orthodox School on Thursday, where participating school teams selected jerseys of NBA teams which they will represent throughout the season. This was followed by a basketball clinic for 40 coaches and educators on Friday.
The inaugural season’s finals took place at Nimra Talata Basketball Stadium in Juba last August with two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng and 1995 NBA All-Star Cedric Ceballos in attendance. Juba One 76ers were crowned the inaugural season’s champions.
The Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA is the league’s global youth basketball program for boys and girls that teaches the fundamental skills and core values of the game – teamwork, respect, determination and community – at the grassroots level in an effort to help grow and improve the youth basketball experience for players, coaches and parents. The Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA program has been launched in 19 African countries, reaching more than 350,000 youth from across the continent last year.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of National Basketball Association (NBA).