National Basketball League (NBL) start postponed

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

The much-anticipated start of the Flow/National Basketball League (NBL), which was set to tip off tomorrow, has again been postponed.

However, the reason for the postponement is still unclear as the president of the Jamaica Basketball Association (JaBA), Ajani Williams, and at least one coach, have given contrasting explanations.

"This is JaBA's league and we have 27 teams and the majority of them are ready to play. But we put it off until next Sunday because we don't have all the gear and all the venues weren't finalised," said Williams, who is in his final year of a two-year term.

budget issues

However, Rohan Robinson, player/coach of St George's Slayers, says the postponement is due to disgruntlement on the part of a number of participating teams.

"The delay is because they (JaBA) are having a lot of issues with the teams because we don't see a full budget and we don't see a copy of the contracts for this year's sponsorship of the competition," said Robinson.

"We have also been asking for last year's contract and we still haven't seen that as yet," he added. "There are also a lot of things that we have been asking them to do and they haven't done anything yet, and so we took a decision that we are going to wait because if they don't answer to us then they would have to answer to the national council, and they have been putting off the national council meeting for a very long time now."

Robinson continued: "After this meeting, they're supposed to have an annual general meeting, and 21 days after this, then we should have the elections and they have been running away from this," Robinson added.

Williams, however, has refuted the claims by Robinson.

"We are not going to present any contract because that is not what the national council is for, the national council is to produce NBL contracts," Williams explained.

"Flow's contract is at their office and anybody who wants to can go to their office and get it. The national council is set up for policy decisions and constitutional stuffs."

Williams added: "This (national council) has nothing to do with NBL teams, you're supposed to have two representatives from each conference, and so it's not like the teams can show up at this meeting."