Motivational speaker and former National Basketball Association (NBA) champion Wali Jones will be gracing the shores of Guyana for the first time to conduct clinics as part of the National Community Basketball League (NCBL) International Allstar Weekend this Saturday.
Jones, who won a championship alongside the great Wilt Chamberlain with the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1967 season, took his talents to South Beach (Miami) after retiring from the sport and is now known as the founder and director of the National Shoot for the Stars programme in America.
Jones is expected in Guyana tomorrow and will be conducting a basketball clinic at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) from 10:00hrs and organizers of the NCBL are urging schools and parents to send their children, ages 10-18, to the clinic.
As the Heat’s community affairs liaison, Jones has become quite a motivational speaker to youths across South Beach and according to reports his ambition to work with the youths is quite phenomenal and could quite possibly be a game changer once he delivers the right kind of seminar to the Guyanese youths.
The clinic will also afford persons in attendance the opportunity to receive memorabilia from the Heat franchise which could be enticing since they are now the 2012 NBA champions.
“We expect a great clinic from Wali and we hope that the youths come once there is an interest in the sport…it’s just another way of trying to light the fire of basketball back into the community and to start with the youth would be a good thing,” NCBL organizer Kwame Mentor told Stabroek Sport.
Further it might also be a wise idea that the national players attend the clinic, so as to receive some extra motivation to put a bounce in their step that would be a boost for the basketball community.
