www.NBA.com<\/a>) and the Luol Deng Foundation today hosted the first edition of the Stanbic Jr. NBA\/Jr. WNBA Finals, which took place at the Nimra Talata Basketball Stadium in Juba, South Sudan.\u00a0 Juba One 76ers were crowned the inaugural season\u2019s champions, with Khalid Jibrin named the finals\u2019 Most Valuable Player.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nNotable attendees included Stanbic Bank South Sudan Head of Business Fred Ouko, Luol Deng Foundation Founder and two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng, Luol Deng Foundation CEO Arek Deng, 1995 NBA All-Star and 1992 Slam Dunk champion Cedric Ceballos, Basketball Africa League President Amadou Gallo Fall, and South Sudan national team members Wenyen Gabriel, Kuany Kuany and Nuni Omot. \u00a0The event builds on Stanbic Bank and NBA Africa\u2019s multiyear collaboration, which launched in 2022 and featured the unveiling of a new outdoor basketball court at St. Mark\u2019s Orthodox School in Juba last December.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe remarkable performance of the South Sudan national basketball team at the Paris Olympics highlighted\u00a0the tremendous\u00a0sporting talent within South Sudan,\u201d said Stanbic Bank Chief Executive for Kenya and South Sudan Dr. Joshua Oigara. \u00a0\u201cThrough our collaboration with NBA Africa and the\u00a0Luol Deng Foundation, we are supporting the\u00a0country to build on this\u00a0potential and remain committed to driving South Sudan\u2019s growth through meaningful collaborations and initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe success of the first Jr. NBA\/Jr. WNBA league season in Juba speaks to the great passion for the game of basketball in South Sudan and its impact on local communities,\u201d said NBA Africa CEO Clare Akamanzi.\u00a0 \u201cThe South Sudan national team\u2019s performance on a global stage in recent months demonstrated how much the sport is growing in the country and we look forward to further collaborating with Stanbic Bank and the Luol Deng Foundation to make the game even more accessible for young people here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew South Sudanese children had what it takes when the stage is set right for their learning, so I was not surprised about the talent,\u201d said Deng.\u00a0 \u201cWhat impressed me the most is the improvement in coaching and seeing how each school showed up to support players. \u00a0The joy, the competitive, but yet peaceful spirit that the spectating students showed was so amazing to see.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first visit to South Sudan, and it was incredible to see all the excitement on the court this afternoon,\u201d said Ceballos.\u00a0 \u201cI have seen firsthand the impact basketball can make on young people\u2019s lives and continuing to build on such platforms for boys and girls to play the game will be paramount to their success on the court, and in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jr. NBA\/Jr. WNBA is the league\u2019s global youth basketball program for boys and girls that teaches the fundamental skills and core values of the game \u2013 teamwork, respect, determination and community \u2013 at the grassroots level in an effort to help grow and improve the youth basketball experience for players, coaches and parents.\u00a0 The Jr. NBA\/Jr. WNBA program has been launched in 19 African countries, reaching more than 170,000 youth from across the continent last year.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JUBA, South Sudan, August 19, 2024\/APO Group\/ — Stanbic Bank in South Sudan, NBA Africa (www.NBA.com) and the Luol Deng Foundation today hosted the first edition of the Stanbic Jr. NBA\/Jr. WNBA Finals, which took place at the Nimra Talata Basketball Stadium in Juba, South Sudan.\u00a0 Juba One 76ers were crowned the inaugural season\u2019s champions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nba.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/3df9b39b543d970","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nba.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/3df9b39b543d970","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}