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Gala opening for All-Star Weekend tonight
As Linden’s juniors battle Georgetown
Tyrone Hamid
Chris Williams
By Edison Jefford
The Cliff Anderson Sports Hall will be transformed to resemble an international National Basketball Association (NBA) arena with a similar atmosphere to usher in the showpiece of local basketball, the Annual All-Star Weekend.
Head Coach of the Beepat’s Scorpions Basketball Club-the entity that is hosting the event for the seventh consecutive time, Vijay Panday, told Kaieteur Sport yesterday that all the necessary systems are in place for a spectacular occasion.
“When you enter the Sports Hall tomorrow night (tonight) it will feel like you are coming to an international venue. It will be totally like the NBA because we have put all the right systems in place for that result,” Panday indicated.
According to the Scorpions official, Odeen Harding, a United States-based college player who is here in Guyana, will add some flare to the dunking competition as he opposes the defending champion from Ravens, Tyrone Hamid.
The Senior Dunk-Out and Senior Three-Point contests will precede the Linden versus the City Junior All-Star game. Hamid will put up a strong title defence in the Dunk-Out with Pacesetters’ Stephon Gillis doing the same from downtown.
Clive Wilson
Travis Burnett
Those two respective dunk and three-point champions will be heavily pressed to maintain their eminence against an entry list that is as impressive as possible in Guyana. The junior All-Star game take centre court in the featured event.
Akeem ‘The Dream’ Kanhai will lead Linden’s Junior All-Star contingent with Orin ‘Six Head’ Rose, shooting guard Chris Williams, Mark Rose and Michael Turner contributing to the overall purpose of the team from the Mining Town.
Those seasoned campaigners-some of whom were exposed to junior national basketball- will help some of the younger and inexperienced players that Linden has included in their junior team. It will not be an easy task, however.
Marlon Pollydore has held his own at the schools’ level and was included in the national junior squad for the Inter-Guiana Games. Devon Gittens, Shane Webster, Harold Adams and Stephon Tappin are the other players for Linden.
There are obvious reasons why those players are now junior All-Stars, but many of them have not been exposed to the atmosphere that usually pervades the Sports Hall. Heckling and crowd pressure is not akin to those later players.
Their experienced team-mates, Kanhai, Rose, Williams, Turner and Pollydore will have to help them overcome some butterflies, which could be a distraction for them in a game that Georgetown is more
Akeem Kanhai
Travis Burnett
favoured to win tonight.
The City side has gone to former Inter-Guiana Games Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Courts Pacesetters Division I starter, Travis Burnett to lead a strong junior team to one of their few chances at dominating the opposing Linden.
Junior national guards John Fraser and Shelroy Thomas will offer support to Burnett who will have his first major opportunity to go head-to-head against Kanhai. The two national junior players have long-awaited such an occasion.
Hamid, Jermaine Slater and Kiev Chesney are expected to have an easy time in the down low for Georgetown after Linden failed to adequately address the forward and centre post for the All-Star junior game. It could backfire badly.
There are a few promoted players for the Georgetown side, including Clive Wilson, Keith Tute, Courtney Hinds, Marlon Anderson and Kevin Levans. These players, however, will benefit from their exposure at their respective club level.
Generally, Georgetown has selected a deeper team than Linden but the game cannot in no way be called a walkover for the City side because of the presence of Kanhai, Rose and a lethal Williams from beyond the three-point arch.
The game should set the tone for the senior All-Star clash tomorrow night. Digicel, Ansa McAl, Brunswick Sardine, Giftland OfficeMax and Dyna’s are the major sponsors of the Beepat Scorpions Seventh Annual All-Star Weekend.
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