Digicel NBA Clinic comes to Barbados

This weekend 45 teenage basketball players are getting the opportunity to be part of the Digicel NBA Jumpstart Basketball Clinics as It returned to Barbados for the second consecutive year.

 

The clinics, which tipped off in Bermuda is currently being held in the Bond at Kensington Oval where local coaches teamed up with Matt Brase from Houston Rockets to take the boys and girls through their paces.

 

“It is an amazing event Digicel is putting on,” said Brase.

 

For the first time girls, from nine Caribbean countries are taking part in the clinics and at the conclusion of the clinics, the top seven players in each territory will be selected to attend the Digicel NBA Jumpstart Elite Camp in the British Virgin Islands, from October 7 – 9.

 

Speaking to the media yesterday Brase siad that “at the camp today we are doing a lot of the testing that they do at the NBA combine and WNBA combine.”

Part of the testing involves getting their height, wing span, standing reach, shuttle runs, ball handling, shooting, lay ups and scoring.

 

Brase said that they are “testing them in different physical attributes and skills, we have shooting competition within the group and then individual shooting competition and just helping the kids get better. After this we will play five and five games and let them compete a little bit they are teams.”

 

“We want to have fun with the kids but we want to improve their skill work.”

 

Brase mentioned that it was also about leaving a footprint, “when we leave we will leave drills that they can work on and help with the player development here in Barbados.”

 

Brase said that the work is two fold as they also work with the coaches as well as the players “we don't just want to come here for a few days and then we are gone.. we leave drills and somethings they can keep using and work..”

 

“It is always fun to see kids that enjoy the game and want to play and you can see them get better everyday. Certain fundamentals we worked with them yesterday and they were frustrated with some of the things as it might have been new to them, but we encouraged them to keep going and working and they do it and you can see improvement.”

 

Brase has been with the Huston Rockets for Five season, played college basketball and coached College basketball. He started out on the scouting side as an assistant role, been assistant coach for Huston Rockets D-league team which is the developmental team.

 

He has also been director of player development for two years and last year he was the head coach of the NBA D-League Team.

 

Marc Massiah Marketing Executive at Digicel said that there are 30 under-16 boys and 15 under-16 girls.

 

“Even if they are not selected they will walk away from here with skills they would not have had before and a lovely experience.”