Teamwork credited for Wizards success

Tivoli Gardens Wizards coach, Edward 'Ted' Marshall, says teamwork was one of the main reasons why his charges were able to come from behind and beat Majesty Gardens Legends in the finals of the National Basketball League, which came to an end last Sunday at the National Indoor Sports Centre.

According to Marshall, who has been coaching the team since 2009 and has since led them to back-to-back championships, since taking over the team he has had to instill in them the values of playing together which, combined with their natural ball-handling skills, has made them hard to beat.

"It was not a one-man show, we have a lot of respect for each other, we play togetherness basketball and, as such, it helped us to overcome and win the championship," said Marshall.

The Wizards lost the first game of the best-of-three finals series 88-83, but rallied to take the second and third 68-52 and 79-58, respectively.

Overcome selfishness

"When I started coaching the team, some people thought that they were 'the one' and I had to change that. They had to overcome their selfish ways and, credit to them, they did.

"It's been two years in a row that we have won and the aim is to continue doing so not just for myself, but for the team and the entire community," he added.

Legends' coach, Ludlow Barker, in the meanwhile, who after Game One had thoughts of winning, pointed to a lack of intensity in the second and third games of the series as the reason behind his team's defeat, but vowed to turn things around come next year.

"Defensively, we were not intense enough. We did not have the defence-to-offence transition that we are used to, and throughout the second and third matches we came out slack after some of the breaks," said Barker, who returned about a month ago after parting ways with the club the previous season.

"But credit to Tivoli and their organisation on a whole. They have a nice structure led by Edward Seaga, which we envy at Majesty, and it is something that we plan to approach our MP, Mrs Portia Simpson Miller, about.

"With that said, however, Majesty will back. We just need to have a good off season," he concluded.

- J.L.