Guyana and Victory Valley Royals’ Power Forward, Harold Adams who was part of the historic Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) senior men’s team that won the nation’s first Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) championship in 2018 in Suriname has called for more competitive play in the ‘Mining Town’.
In an exclusive interview with Kaieteur Sport, the 32 year-old divulged that even before the covid-19 pandemic, play has been stagnant in Linden and since returning home after winning the 2018 CBC championships, there has not been any competition which is sad because despite all the odds and challenges faced, the players proved that local basketball deserves support.
On September 11, 2017, Adams broke a 33-year-old scoring record of most points by a Guyanese player in a senior competition after pouring in 111 points in Victory Valley Royals’ 206-46 points win over Bankers Trust Falcons.
He bettered Auric Tappin’s 59 points for YMCA Kings against Mackenzie Knicks at the MSC Hard Court which was achieved in 1984. Adams suggested that if competition can be played regularly, not only in Linden but the entire country, more records would be set, and more importantly, players would stay motivated.
‘Mr. 111’ resides in Victory Valley and he posited that basketball has lost many players to other sports including football and cricket; moves he identifies with because of the state of affairs of the game in Region 10.
“It’s really hard to sit around and wait for a year or two for competition and then when you make the country proud, you don’t get any kind of support from the state. Being motivated now is even more difficult due to the Covid-19 pandemic which even restricts recreational play”, Adams noted.
Kaieteur Sport reached out to President of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA), Lawrence Simon, who confirmed that indeed the Association has not been able to host senior tournaments since 2018.
However, Simon revealed that LABA has been more frequent in the hosting of Under-23 and below tournaments, since it is more cost effective which is not the case with senior club tournaments since senior players are usually adamant for cash prizes.
The President noted that his association finds difficulty in getting sufficient funding for cash prizes from the corporate community. Looking ahead though, Adams remains optimistic that Guyana would be able to remain competitive in the CBC arena and spoke highly of youngsters Yannick Tappin and Danny Lee, both of whom are part of Victory Valley Royals.
