Basketball experiencing a good problem to have

Power point guard Fahmy Ssebatindira elevates for the basket against KIU in Game 5 of the regular season. Photo by JB Ssenkubuge

What you need to know:

  • No one saw it coming. Not Fuba, not clubs, not basketball journalists, not fans and not the sponsors.

When the league season tipped off in the second quarter of the year, the season was naturally projected to be done in December.

Even with the distraction of the Zone V Club championship which would eat into the scheduling of Oilers and UCU fixtures, the league was always going to be concluded in the final month of the year. Or so we thought.

Fast-forward today and the 2016 champion won’t be known until mid-January 2017.

For the first time since the inception of the league more than two decades ago, players of the two teams in the finals will spend the festival period distracted by a looming best-of-seven showdown.

That is because Oilers fly to Egypt tonight to take part in the Afrobasket club championship that will last 11 days.

Oilers’ participation in Egypt is expected to hold them in good stead going into the final against Power where they are red-hot favourites for a first ever four-peat in Ugandan basketball.

It is a no-brainer that their battles against the cream of Africa will make them doubly equipped to smother Power’s best punches.

If Oilers’ organization has got problems, money is not one of them and the length of time required to prepare for the January final will not cause a flinch to their ball club.

Power is the direct antithesis of Oilers. They are a club deeply in debt.

It says much for their woes today they despite a tremendous history, their 3-2 victory over KIU Titans in the semi-finals was treated like an upset of seismic proportions. Which it was anyway.

They crept into the final and must maintain the team for the next 40 days in preparation for the final, which translates to more expenses on a team that is financially crippled.

In the bigger scheme of things, Oilers’ participation at Afrobasket is a new frontier from our game.

And Power’s against-all-odds berth in the final is evidence that the will to win can endure any degree of adversity.

The women’s final between UCU Lady Canons and KCCA Leopards has maintained the December tradition and will for now whet the appetite of basketball fans.

When the awkward Oilers-Power final tips off in January, organisers of the league will start factoring in various possibilities to avoid the dilemma that befell the Pepsi NBL playoff Final of 2016.
‘Hall of Famer’ Afidra

A couple of seasons ago, Power legend Isaac Afidra took to the court looking haggard and out of shape. He was a pale shadow of a star who had been associated with every Power championship tile over the years.

It was around the time that he was jettisoned to KIU for whom he represented for a year.

Afidra in KIU looked a square peg in a round hole not so much because of talent like the DNA of the YMCA veteran.
He is Power through and through and the only logical way forward was for him to return home.

Once back, Afidra embarked on a religious fitness regime that saw him hit supreme fitness and in essence appear like he shed a year or two. He is now back in the playoff final and despite his many successes at this level, a championship at the expense of a very formidable Oilers team would rank as his greatest ring yet.

Championships in 2000, 2008, 2010 and 2011 were sweet accomplishments but they would pale in comparison to an upset of three-time winners Oilers in a best-of-seven final series.

But regardless of the final outcome, Afidra’s place in Fuba Hall of Fame is secured.

He has ticked the boxes of dedication, longevity, enduring talent and commitment to the game.

Afidra belongs to a small bracket of contemporary players - Stephen Omony, Norman Blick and Henry Malinga the others - who have passed the test of time.

[email protected]
@mnamanya