Birmingham, United Kingdom — Kenya will be targeting to intoduce the 3X3 basketball league after making its debut at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Kenya men’s 3X3 Basketball team head Coach Zadock Adika said after guiding his team of Larry Shavanga, Faheem Juma, John Odhiambo and Darril Omondi into the quarter-finals.
Kenya is the only African representatives in the games and coach Adika believes if the sport is made popular in the continent, then Kenya will be a force to reckon with.
“In Africa, we don’t have such big tournaments. There was stage fright at the beginning from my boys, but after two days we got used to the situation,” Adika said.
“With this kind of game, we are going to the next level and get to where these teams are. They play in Euro leagues and some of them play in the United States, but for us, we play in the local leagues,” he added.
“As we go back we are going to ensure that we improve and get 3X3 basketball as a league, something that can help us move to the next level.”
Adika charges gave it everything in their Group A, narrowly going down 14-15 in a thrilling match in what delivered their most competitive performance of the Championship.
“We looked at Scotland videos, did our homework and tried to correct what we were doing wrong in the previous two days and I think the boys really stood out to the occasion,” the coach added.
Adika expressed joy with qualification to the quarters.
“We are already in the quarter-finals which is very important for now. We will know who our opponents are. We have already seen how the teams play and I am sure we’ll do something good going forward.”
-Shavanga’s word-
On his part, Larry Shavanga concurred with the coach that they played their hearts out.
“It was a good game. We started off well but we had a few mistakes. We learn from our mistakes and focus on the next game. We just lost concentration a little bit but I believe in my boys,” Shavanga said.
“We appreciate the opportunity to play 3 on 3. We don’t take it for granted.”
Faheem Juma described the match as tough but somewhat disappointing given the amount of effort Kenyans put in.
“The game was tough but didn’t end as we expected-not the kind of stuff we wanted as the match wore on. We desperately wanted the win from the onset but all in all, we have learned our mistakes and moved on.”
-Alex Isaboke is reporting from Birmingham, United Kingdom-