– organisers
Many seasoned basketball players have been reluctant to embrace basketball’s flashy ‘Streetball’ format that has been perfected and modified by the world-renowned AND 1 basketball team.
However, this derivative of the game has captured the attention and interest of an entire generation of young basketball players and the scale at which the AND 1 team has grown in popularity prompted a number of promoters to pursue the team to perform their theatrics at a number of basketball events.
Promotion company Wildfire Entertainment (WE) successfully solicited the world-renowned team to display their bewildering tricks and highflying dunks when they compete for the first time in Guyana at this year’s annual All-Star weekend, which will run from November 12-14.
Chief Executive Officer of WE Jonathan Beepat and Event Manager Vijay Panday made the revelation when contacted by Stabroek Sport yesterday, but didn’t release details of the All-Star weekend’s main attraction, since they plan on doing so at the official launching of the event, which is slated for next week.
The younger generation, new-age players, and older supporters who have been enticed into appreciating this highly entertaining format of the game will certainly be anticipating the arrival of the AND 1 team.
Organisers are promising a very entertaining All-Star weekend.
The AND 1 team is famous in the United States, where they rose to prominence, and around the world for their ball handling tricks and dunks. The team was formed by and named after its initial sponsors, an American athletic shoe company that specializes in basketball shoes and apparel. The company in turn derived its name from a phrase used by basketball broadcasters: when a player is fouled while shooting, makes the shot and makes the awarded foul shot as well, they score the points for the made basket “and 1” for the made free throw.
AND 1 has amazed audiences worldwide with basketball antics such as zipping passes through traffic on the court, dunking over all states of matter, bouncing balls off defender’s foreheads, and dribbling between every discernable gap in the human body.
The AND 1 tour has featured street ball players of fame, including ‘Skip to My Lou’, ‘Main Event’, ‘The Professor’, ‘Hot Sauce’, ‘50’, and ‘AO’ along with a new generation of skillful streetball players who have also been inducted into the team.
Organisers did not reveal which members of the team will be touring Guyana, stating that this will be announced shortly.
