Kings’ relegation dims ‘Next Level’ participation

Feb 14, 2009 Sports

– LABA further castigates team

By Edison Jefford
It is now apparent that the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) had a further motif when they decided to suspend Kashif and Shanghai Kings after revoking the action only days after issuing the contentious suspension.

The management of Kings, including President Colin ‘BL’ Aaron had expressed concerns over the lateness of the decision to suspend the club and the unilateral behaviour that seemed to surround the pronouncement.

Their primary complaint was that the decision came at the time when the club was aiming to participate in the annual ‘Next Level Entertainment’ Super Eight Championships that is scheduled to start at the Sports Hall on March 1.

The Linden sub–association took over two months to come up with a decision to suspend Kings after the team refused to participate in the Linden League citing the financial woes of the association as their fundamental reason.

The deferral letter was issued on February 6 and the relegation decision followed on the 11th day of the same month where the suspension was also lifted. The message and the conclusion are essentially one and the same.

The LABA merely confirmed that it had ulterior motives when they retracted the deferral of the team and opted instead to relegate them to Division II in a move that could prevent the club from competing in the ‘Next Level’ event.

If Kings’ suspension was upheld it meant that the club could not seek clearance from the LABA to play in the mega tournament. The decision to relegate the team basically does not improve the club’s chances at competing.

‘Next Level’ often seeks to attract the top eight Division I clubs in the country and unless the organisers changes their precedent to include Division II teams, Kings will have to sit out the looming competition this year.

Clearly the double dose of reprimand is meant to keep the team from the ‘Next Level’ in a strategic exclusion move. Even if the managers of the upcoming event alter their rules, the LABA has to ratify teams from the Mining Town.

In other words, ‘Next Level’ could decide that they will invite Kings to play but the LABA could decline to permit the team on the basis that they did not participate in its League and as such Kings remains ‘unseeded’ in their records.

It is the prerogative of each governing association to issue or defer permission of teams that hope to participate in invitational tournaments. Without the necessary consent, those teams would not be eligible to participate in such events.

Earlier this week, ‘Next Level’ Director, Jamaal Douglas had kept optimism that Kings will be able to play in the tournament. He said that their absence will be felt but did not state if the rules will be bent to accommodate the club.

“Kings will be missed if they don’t get to play because it’s the team that actually won the first ‘Next Level’ tournament. They bring a lot of Linden fans to Georgetown; I just hope that they resolve that problem,” Douglas had said.

Instead of satisfactorily resolving the controversy, the suspension, invalidation and then relegation of the leading team in Linden, the predicament of the winner of the inaugural ‘Next Level’ contest, Kings, increases.

History is sometimes benevolent to humanity. Maybe Kings will make it into the archives of history if they are allowed to play. They can become the first Division II team to win a major Division I title but that is only presumption.

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