With just a few more days to go before the Rawle Toney 3×3 Classic tips off, Ballin4Peace, a US-based team, is hoping to leave the Land of Many Waters with all of the accolades and prizes up for grabs in the tournament’s third edition.
Burchell Glenn is the lone Guyanese on the team that is headed by former Sacramento State University point guard and NCAA Division One standout player Haron Hargrave. Professional 3×3 ‘ballers’ Anthony Soares and Sony Cabral are the other members of the team heading from New York to compete March 18-19 at Burnham Court.
According to Toney, the team is made up of players who have competed on the FIBA 3×3 World Tour and other FIBA 3×3 tournaments both in and out of the USA.
However, Toney said this is the first time the team will be playing in the Caribbean and he’s happy that Guyana was chosen as their first destination.
“It was simple because the tournament is endorsed by FIBA and with Ballin4Peace being an active 3×3 team with one Guyanese, they registered online, and later on they reached out to finalize the details of their participation,” Toney said. A long-serving member of the sports media, Toney said the US team will raise the profile of the tournament, adding “this is what I initially had set out to do when I launched this tournament in 2019…bring players to Guyana and place basketball in the bracket of sports tourism.” “It’s now up for our guys to step up and show what Guyana 3×3 is made of because the US team is coming to win, and it’s not a vacation for them,” Toney noted. Meanwhile, Toney said to complement the officiating, two FIBS-accredited Referees from Suriname will be part of the tournament.
“Officiating is a sour point in local basketball, and last year the players complained about how our local refs carried their whistle. So, along with a few sponsors, I was able to work through the Guyana Basketball Federation (GBF) and president Michael Singh to have some of the Surinamese be part of the tournament,” the 3×3 Organiser highlighted.
Thanks to Team Mohamed’s, the 16-team tournament will carry a winner’s purse of $400,000 and four Championship rings, compliments of Century Tamara Energy Services Inc., and Jacobs Jewelry.
