The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Basketball Federation president Eugene Horton said they are still hoping to secure the necessary funding for the men’s national basketball team to travel to the second round of the FIBA World Cup 2023 Americas Qualifiers February 24-28 in the Dominican Republic.

Horton, who moved up to assume the responsibility of president last year when Mario Bowleg got elected as the Member of Parliament for Garden Hills and was subsequently named the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, said after the first window, they thought they had sufficient funding in place, but that didn’t pan out.

“Every time we travel, it costs us about $50-60,000,” Horton said. “We are in the process of trying to put things in place where we, as a federation, try to become self-sufficient. But with this window just around the corner, we have fallen short of our target goal.

“So, hopefully with everything going out there in social media that we are pulling out of the competition, we will have some corporate sponsors or business persons step up to assist us.”

Despite the rumours on social media that the Bahamas has pulled out of the competition, Horton refuted the allegations at this time, but noted that they are willing until the end of the month to make a final decision on whether or not the trip will be on or if it will be called off.

The team is scheduled to travel to the Dominican Republic from February 22-28 with their two games being played on February 25 and 26 against the Virgin Islands and the host Dominican Republic respectively. “We are trying to find the funding now so that we can make the trip,” Horton said.

“We know we can go to the government and possibly get the funding, but with everything going on with COVID-19, we hope that the government will be our last resort.

“We are at the point where we are trying to be self-sufficient in trying to get the funding. We would like to know that the funding is secured and then we can start making plans for the team to travel. If we can’t get the funding, we will seek to ask FIBA if they can have the games pushed back to maybe the summer.”

Looking at the dilemma that they are in, Horton said the federation is not looking at not making the trip because if they don’t participate in the games, they will forfeit their chances of advancing to the next level.

“We know that this is the best chance for us to qualify for the Olympics,” Horton said. “But we have to go through these games to advance and once we advance, we could add more of our top players like Chavano “Buddy” Hield and Deandre Ayton from the NBA.

“But we have to play in these rounds in order for us to move on. We know we have the players out there who are preparing for this next round, so we don’t want to discourage them by not going to this next round in February. But we need the funding to move on.”

Moses Johnson, who coached the team in the absence of national team head coach Chris DeMarco from the Golden State Warriors in the NBA, is expected to return as the head coach. The team lost both of their matches in November to Canada, 115-73 and 113-77 in the Dominican Republic.

Members of the team were Michael Carey, Shakwon Lewis, Domnick Bridgewater, JR Cadot, Kemsy Sylvestre, Mychel Thompson, Travis Munnings, Willis Mackey Jr, Rashad Davis, David Nesbitt, Mark St Fort and Kentwan Smith. Former NBA player Dexter Cambridge was the assistant coach.

The federation was expected to host those games in the Bahamas, but because the Ministry of Health and the Bahamas Government denied their request because of the rise in cases in COVID-19, the team had to travel which, according to Horton, forced them to spend more money.

With the games returning to the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas will once again have to spend more money. But in order for the team to continue in the process, they have to compete.

Horton said hopefully the Bahamas can host the third round when they take on the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands in their final two games on July 1 and 4 respectively.