Basketball body considers 3X3 tournament

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Federation of Uganda Basketball Association-FUBA has unveiled plans to hold a 3×3 basketball tournament following the President’s guidance on sports activities in the country.

FUBA is discussing the possibility of holding the tournament in November in compliance with Standard Operating Procedures-SOPs including testing all players following the cancellation of the National Basketball League-NBL in March this year due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Arnold Katabi, the FUBA Vice President in charge of marketing and publicity says they are discussing how to hold a 3×3 basketball tournament which has few players and is shorter compared to the league. Three on three Basketball is a new initiative by the Federation of International Basketball Association (FIBA) to help make basketball a more versatile sport.

Although basketball is a game played between two teams of five players each with each team comprising 12 players including substitutes, in 3×3 ,each team has 4 players. Only three take to the pitch while one is a substitute. Katabi says that they are in talks with their partners to try and support FUBA with testing and broadcast the games live on television and other mediums.

He says they also plan to host the tournament in the open so as to ensure physical distancing. Katabi says they are still working on the logistics and budget for the entire process.

Jimmy Enabu, a player with City Oil has welcomed the proposal to have a 3×3 tournament saying at the moment all the players need is some game. He says although the players could be unfit, he believes with time they will be set to play.

Clubs in the National Basketball League, Development League and Division two are expected to express interest to play in the tournament. There are 71 teams in the league, most of them in the lower division. The lower division games are meant to build teams to progress to the top league which comprises 12 ladies teams and a similar number of men’s teams.

******

URN