Sports: Basketball

One of my friend’s Ugandan boyfriend (Jimmy) introduced me to the local basketball scene. And by local basketball scene I mean the one court in town with a rotating set of regulars and random players. It’s no coincidence the only court in Kitgum was built on the property of a school constructed by foreign missionaries. It’s not cheap to build a basketball court and I’m surprised that it was ever built in the first place. Basketball isn’t very popular in Uganda, especially in the isolated north. Still, there are enough players that have been trained in other parts of Uganda and enough players that are interested in learning that we can have fun pick-up games.

I’m by far the oldest guy that plays, most of the guys are probably somewhere between 18-22. I used to alternate between futbol and basketball during the week but I’ve found myself going to basketball more often. We start to play around 5pm and end when the sun is setting, usually around 7pm. The first few games before the sun goes down a bit are ridiculously hot and I drink about 3L (.8 gallons) during play. The players are very friendly and there aren’t a lot of ball hogs making it a lot of fun. It also helps that we can play full court, a rarity even in a lot of parks in America. The court is in good shape, aside from one of the hoops that is about a foot lower than regulation height, something I assume was done on purpose to make it easier for younger kids.

Recently it was “malaria week” in Uganda (and I assume other places?) and there was a slew of activities going on in the area. Since I am friends with many of the Peace Corps volunteers in the area, there was no shortage of activities to be involved in. There was a softball showcase, a volleyball tournament and a basketball tournament. I thought of it as a mini-Kitgum Olympics, where our mascot was a mosquito and the message was malaria. I was involved with the basketball tournament as Jimmy and I are the unspoken leaders of the basketball pickup games.

 

Getting ready for the opening tip. I'm sporting my "Malaria Week" t-shirt; they ran out of black and all that was left was pink.

We arranged with the local high schools, both boys and girls, and organized the regular pick-up players into two teams. It was a small four team tournament with a showcase involving the Kitgum High girls and some of the younger players from the pick-up squad. I was surprised at how well the Kitgum High School kids could play, seeing as they didn’t have a basketball court or hoop to practice on. The Kitgum High girls were obviously picked because of their netball skills and they played basketball pretty much exactly like they would play netball. What’s that you say, you’re not British or you don’t live in a former British colony so you have no idea what netball is? Watch this youtube video and you’ll get the idea.

The day was a lot of fun and we had some mosquito nets that were donated from a few different organizations that we gave away to people for malaria trivia, three point contest and free throw contest. Because most of the participants have never touched a basketball before, the three point contest was excruciatingly painful to watch and the winner ended up having one shot made out of 12 attempts. And that was the second time we let all 5 contestants have 12 attempts. That means after 60 missed attempts, we basically said “the first person to make a shot from beyond the three point line wins”.

 

Three point shoot out contestant.

Both of our “pick-up game” squads beat their respective Kitgum High teams so we met familiar faces in the final. My team ended up losing by three and I was a bit annoyed because the “referee” suddenly announced that the game was over while our team had possession. If we had known that time was running out, I’m sure we would have at least attempted a three point shot. Anyway, the game was all in fun, no one got hurt, and a lot of young kids learned a bit about malaria. And the winning team? For their victory they all received…mosquito nets! 

That's me, sinking a three pointer from the corner.