The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Street Legends’ 10-week summer basketball league returned for its 18th year last week Saturday. The summer league was derailed from 2020, like most sporting events, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, basketball action finally kicked off after three years at the Edmond E Moxey Community Center basketball park. The league is played in a constituency vs constituency format across four divisions.

The divisions that will compete until August 19 are 8-11, 12-15, 16-19 and the men’s division.

Wilton Russell, president of the Street Legends Organisation (SLO), said the mission of his team is to bring young men from the various constituencies together.

“Our mission during the summer is to unite the young men of our various constituencies through our “Bridging the Gap” concept. We firmly believe that if we can hub our young men for 10 weeks during our programme with invited mentors speaking with them on a daily basis we can change this negative territory protected vibe,” Russell said.

The president also believes that there are other benefits for the young men partaking in the 10-week summer basketball league.

“New friendships will be forged during the summer, new friendly alliances will be made instead of this scared to go into various turfs because I don’t know these fellas [mentality],” he said.

Street Legends, which has been in existence since 2004, is played on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

According to the president, one of the main goals is to remove the stigma from the constituencies through the inner city constituency versus constituency summer basketball league.

Teams included in the league are the Honourable Mario Bowleg Garden Hills Stingers, Honourable Glenys Hanna-Martin Englerston Warriors, FreeTown Superwash Wringers, Honourable Leroy Major Southern Shores Sweepers, Honourable Fred Mitchell Fox Hill A and B team, South Beach boys, St Anne’s High Flyers and the Southwest Plaza Gladiators.

Although the weather has been inconsistent in their opening games, the competition between the boys and older males has not.

Russell said games are going extremely well so far, competition is fierce and talent levels are up there with the best of the best.

He added that the weather has been a bit challenging but it is also a bond-building exercise because the players work together to dry the courts as a result of being eager to play basketball.

Despite the excitement and talent level of the various constituency teams, event organisers are appealing to corporate Bahamas and members of Parliament to sponsor the teams that represent their area.

The next Street Legends games will take place on Friday starting at 5pm.