Interbasket

With the Olympics less than a week away, Africa’s resident humanitarian and Houston Rocket Dikembe Mutomobo made a visit to his teammate Yao Ming to speak with him about the his responsibility China’s most recognizable athlete.  Because of the Olympics, a lot of people now ask me about Taipei, human rights, Tibet.” said Yao, referring to the hot button topics surrounding the Olympics. “I want to keep the Olympics separate from politics.”

And who else to get advice from than Dikembe Mutombo, the Congolese center that has involved himself in funding and building a $29-million dollar hospital, actively participating in Basketball without Borders, and meeting with Nelson Mandela. “(Yao) watches some movies and plays some of his video games. That’s going to change.” says Mutombo.

“I’ve learned so much from Dikembe already.” responded Yao. “He always has a notebook, never stops talking to people on the phone. He has three or four. But I didn’t really understand until I had to do it with the earthquake. That’s when you understand, it’s not something you just do, you have to put your heart into it.”

Here are a couple more snippets from their conversation:

Yao: I’m not going to talk about (Taipei, human rights, Tibet) now because I want to keep the Olympics separate from politics. That’s not what the Olympics are for. They were started to bring people from different countries and different ways of thinking together to compete in sports.

Mutombo: To refuse to participate because of something political? C’mon. China was not the country that voted itself to have the Olympics. The Olympic Committee of more than 145 countries made that decision. Why didn’t those countries tell their sports ministries not to vote for China?

Yao: I can tell you that most Chinese people still think the way I once did. When I lived in China and someone would describe us in a bad way or say we were doing something wrong, I would think they were against us. Do that, and you will push us away from what you want us to do.

Mutombo: Be patient, Yao, because your heart will tell you to make everybody happy and you can’t. It came to a point when I was building the hospital that I almost quit because I faced so many challenges with the government. You will get some support from people in the government but there will be other people that will feel you are taking their job by coming to the spotlight.

Yao: What inspires me are the stories that have come out. There is a picture on a website of a teacher who, when the earthquake was happening, put four kids under a table and put his body on top of the table. When the school wall came down, the teacher died but the kids were saved. You can’t stay away when you hear stories like that.

Links and Resources: Yao Enters Mutombo’s World (ESPN), Mutombo set to open Hospital in Congo (NBA),  Basketball without Borders (NBA), Ewing, Mutombo and Yao at Yao’s Restaurant… (Interbasket Forum)

The Cameroon National Team is one of the twelve international teams vying for one of the three remaining spots in the 2008 Olympics.

And Cameroon, along with the other underdogs in the World Qualifying Tournament, such as Lebanon, Cape Verde and Korea, will have to face some huge hurdles on the court to earn a ticket to Beijing.  Unfortunately, the small West-African nation also has had to deal with a number of off-the-court issues.

Cameroon has always has issues with funding their sports.  And have always had trouble with infrastructure and preparation - finding and securing proper training facilities in their homeland.

Back in April 2008,  Federation president Chrysogone Simon Noah was saying all the right things about taking care of his national team: “Right now, I am working directly with the Ministry of Sports in an effort to give our young patriots an ideal preparation for the upcoming Olympics and I would like to invite any sponsors that would like to represent us during these preparations.”

Then with less than 2 weeks before the tournament began, there was word that UCLA player, recent NBA draftee, and Cameroonian star Luc Mbah a Moute may miss the Qualifiers because of issues with the Milwaukee Bucks, dashing the hopes of their first Olympic berth in history.

Still, Cameroon was able to deal with these issues as they were not different from other country’s struggles, but there was one outstanding issue, one that if it was not resolved, may eventually force Cameroon to prematurely leave the tournament before it even started.  This problem could also discourage young, talented Cameroonian players to not participate in national competition.

Broken Promises
After winning a silver medal in 2007’s Afrobasket, the players from Cameroon were promised that they would be paid by the Cameroonian Federation and Ministry of Sports for their accomplishment and participation in the tournament.

That was 11 months ago, and not one Cameroonian player has received the money they were promised for participating and bringing home a chance for the 2008 Olympics.  FIBA’s Africa Championship was held last August, almost a year ago.  And because of this reason, the players decided that they would boycott the World Qualifiers in Greece if they weren’t given the money they were promised.

“We have faced a lot of adversity…  they were promised something, and they haven’t received it. They haven’t received anything. -after playing at the AfroBasket in Angola,” Cameroon coach Lazare Adingono told FIBA.

But on the consistent promises and assurances from their Federation and government, Cameroon made the trip to Athens in hopes that the the promises would eventually come through so they could be made whole and take the court to represent their country proudly.

The money never made it to Athens, forcing the Cameroonian players to choose.

Playing for their Country and Families
And with a couple hours before their first game in their quest for a berth in the Olympics, Cameroon was left with a difficult and conflicted decision; despite the broken promises by their country, they still could put on their national team uniforms, represent Cameroon, and give their country the chance at an Olympic berth.  Or they could stick to their promise of a boycott and sit out the game against  Croatia, who were the favorites to win the game, to let their government know that they were serious.

“They came together, talked about it and said if the government and federation weren’t willing to help them in any way, they decided they would do it for the country and their families.” said Adingono

And though the Croatians would eventually win the game 93-79, the scrappy and athletic Cameroon national team not only won respect from basketball fans around the world for taking the high road, they also got big respect from their opponents.

After the game, head coach Lazare Adingono summarized the effort his team gave, “It’s a tribute to them. They wanted to show to the entire world that Cameroon can be a force for years to come, not just in Africa, but the whole world. They wanted to show what this could have been if everything could have been in place.”

The Day After
As of today, July 15th, they still have not received any money.  It has been exactly 11 months to the day.   With their game against Puerto Rico scheduled for later today, the Cameroon team is again threatening not to show up for their game as a protest against the lack of support they’ve received from their homeland organizations.

This time, the players and the coach are united in their stand against the people who run the basketball in Cameroon.  Ex-NBA star Reuben Boumtje Boumtje says the leaders have continuously failed to provide proper practice facilities for decades and the players’ stand is to highlight the issues so that something can be done.  “We’re tired of it,” he added.   Stay tuned.

Links and Sources: 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament Preview & FIBA Forum (Interbasket) Cameroon National Team Discussion (Interbasket),  Strike threat at FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament (Radio New Zealand), Croatia win as Cameroon play only for pride (Fiba), Olympic Qualifying Tournament Forum (Interbasket Forum)  Cameroon fear star Mbah a Moute may miss Athens (Fiba), Official Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament Site (FIBA), Cameroon appeal for financial backing ahead of Athens (Fiba)

Angola locked up a berth for the 2008 Olympics after winning the 2007 AfroBasket against Cameroon Saturday. Angola won 86-72 led by Eduardo Mingas‘ 18 points and Afrobasket MVP Joaquim Gomes (13 points, 5 rebounds). With the silver medal in hand, Cameroon will also be heading to Beijing. The game wasn’t as lopsided as some would expect , as Cameroon used their size and energy to keep up with the Angolans. Cameroon was buoyed by Brice Vounang’s 18 points and 10 rebounds, Patric Bouli’s 16 points and Gaston Essengue’s 14 points.

This is Angola’s ninth African Championship.

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The African regional championships have begun. Afrobasket 2007 will be held this year in Luanda, the largest city and the capital of Angola. The tourney features 16 teams from across the continent - Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde Island, Central African Republic, Congo, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia.

The main question, as with most African tournaments in recent memory is Can Angola be beat? and not just that, can they be defeated when the tournament is being held in Luanda? Olumide Oyedeji believes that many African teams can defeat the perennial African champions, but most teams on this continent lack Angola’s dedication. [article]

If Angola’s first game was any indication, it’s going to be a difficult task to unseat the defending champions. Angola defeated Afrobasket first-timers Rwanda 109-66. Angola was led by Olimpio Cipriano’s 17 points. Joaquim Gomes added 15 points and Eduardo Mingas posted 14.

Elhadji Ndoye scored 15 points for Senegal helping to defeat Mali last night in their opening Afrobasket game played in Angola. Senegal, the defending Afrobasket silver medalists, will play Egypt next.

Games will be continue until the 25 of August. (Originally published (08/18/2007)

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