Waafrika Kuongoza NBA Wakiwemo Hasheem Thabiti!

GO HASHEEM!!!! ,  MaTall WaBongo mnasikia lakini?

********************************************


(CNN) -- As an NBA executive, I'm always looking for untapped potential. As a proud native of Nigeria, I believe that Africa is one of the world's greatest resources in that area.

From Angola and Tunisia to Senegal and South Sudan, there is so much size and athletic ability across the continent.

Some tribes in Sudan and Senegal have an average height of 6-foot-6, which also happens to be the size of the average NBA player. People in Nigeria, Mali and Congo tend to be very big and physical. We need to build a strategy to go into these regions and cultivate the talent through infrastructure and instruction.

Not long ago, soccer in Africa was almost the same way. It was untapped.

Masai Ujiri, general manager of the Denver Nuggets.Kids in Africa start kicking a ball when they are six or seven years old, if not younger. It's like baseball, basketball and football in America. If you're talented, people will find you. That's what happened with soccer. The number of academies has grown rapidly, and people are really into it. As a result, nearly every major soccer team has a lot of African players.

Through my experience as a Nigerian player, coach and now NBA executive, I believe basketball can follow a similar path. It starts with building facilities. We need to start investing in outdoor courts and indoor gyms for kids to play.

Most kids in Africa don't start playing basketball until they are 13 or 14 years old. This puts them at a disadvantage because they lack the instincts and must work harder to develop the skills and habits formed at an early age.

With a tremendous assist from the NBA, Nike and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), we have been trying to provide opportunities for the next generation of African basketball players.

African NBA boss on meteoric rise Every year, we conduct the Giants of Africa camp, sponsored by Nestlé Milo and Nike, as well as the NBA Basketball Without Borders Africa elite camp. Nearly 100 campers have gone on to play college basketball in the United States, including Luc Mbah a Moute, who now plays for the Milwaukee Bucks.

Africa's athletic ambassador Mbah a Moute (Cameroon) is one of several African success stories. Serge Ibaka (Democratic Republic of Congo) is a rising star for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Luol Deng (born in Sudan) was an All-Star last year for the Chicago Bulls. These guys are great examples for young people in Africa. Kids are beginning to see the possibilities because of the exposure of the NBA.

Basketball boss scouts global talent It was unfortunate that Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria), Dikembe Mutombo (Congo) and Manute Bol (Sudan) -- three African giants -- came in an era before the internet, cable and satellite television. A lot of African kids have heard of these guys, but they don't know the scope of their accomplishments. Deng, Ibaka and Mbah a Moute are trying to become giants themselves, but they can't do it alone.

I grew up there. I played there. I know how much talent there is.

Masai Ujiri, general manager of the Denver NuggetsThrough the Sprite clinics and Basketball Without Borders, we've been to Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. On a continent with more than a billion people, we still have a lot more ground to cover, and we need help from sponsors in Africa.

We need more companies to help build courts and gymnasiums for kids to play. Nestle Milo paid for a world-class floor made in the United States. That's what we use for my Giants of Africa camp. For years, Nike has generously provided shoes and equipment for the players. That is the kind of support we need from influential investors in Africa.

As you can probably tell, the push to develop talent in Africa is personal.

I grew up there. I played there. I know how much talent there is. We have to concentrate on building facilities, establishing successful leagues and finding investors to help young players.

America gave me the opportunity, but I truly believe Africa is going to be the next big thing. It is going to be prominent in tapping basketball talent. I really hope I'm alive to see it happen.

This much is certain: I will die trying.

Rais Obama Auumia - Ashonwa nyuzi 12 Mdomoni

Rais Barack Obama wa Marekani aliumia jana akiwa anacheza mpira wa kikapu (Basketball). Habari zinasema kuwa ilibidi ashonwe nyuzi 12 mdomoni. Alikuwa anacheza na timu ambayo ilikuwa na marafiki na ndugu. Alipigwa na kiko (elbow) cha mtu. Hawajasema ni nani aliyemwumiza.

**********************************************************************
Battle under the boards leaves Obama bloody

Saturday, November 27, 2010

By Helene Cooper
THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama had to get 12 stitches in his lip after taking an elbow during a basketball game yesterday morning, White House officials said.

"After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player's elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the president received 12 stitches today," press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "They were done in the doctor's office located on the ground floor of the White House."

That statement did not say whose elbow was involved, but one denial already had come in: Reggie Love, the former Duke University basketball player who is an Obama aide, was on the court but said it was not him.

Maybe Michelle Obama's brother, Craig Robinson, the basketball coach at Oregon State University, was the culprit? Obama was, after all, playing with "members of his family" at Fort McNair in Washington.

Kwa habari zaidi someni:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2010/11/27/battle-under-the-boards-leaves-obama-bloody.html?sid=101

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5852187

Mcheza Basketball Manute Bol Afariki Dunia

Aliyewahi kuwa mcheza Basketball wa NBA Manute Bol amefariki dunia leo kutokana na ugonjwa wa figo. Alikuwa na miaka 47. Manute alikuwa na urefu futi 7'7! Alicheza kwenye timu ya NBA ya Bullets miaka 10.

Marehemu Manute alishawishiwa kuja Marekani kucheza basketball kutokana na urefu wake. Alikuwa kabilia la Dinka. Kuna vita kali huko Sudan kati ya waDinka na waarabu. Kutokana na urfeu wake, hakuwa na haja ya kuruka ili kufika kwenye kikapu! Hakusahau kwao na alianzisha miradi ya kusaidia Sudan, na pia alitumia karibu hela yake yote kwa ajili ya miradi huko Sudan.

Mungu ailaze roho yake mahala pema mbinguni. Amen.

Manute Bol aliwafungulia mlango wachezaji wengine kutoka Afrika kama Dikembe Mutombo na kijana wetu Hasheem Thabit.

********************************************************************************



Manute Bol, the 7-foot-7 inch basketball star and Sudanese humanitarian, who once called the University of Bridgeport his home, died Saturday morning at age 47.

His death at University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville.was confirmed by friend and Sudan Sunrise director Tom Prichard via email to the Associated Press.

Prichard said Sudan "and the world have lost a hero."

Bol was hospitalized last month for an acute kidney failure and skin disease he had contracted while trying to help his native Sudan.

Bol, a 10-year NBA veteran, was returning to the United States last month from his native Sudan after helping fight corrupt practices in the country's recent elections. He was hospitalized during a stopover in Washington in May.

Hailing from Sudan, Bol was enticed to play college basketball in the United States and was drafted by the San Diego Clippers in the fifth round of the 1983 NBA Draft. The NBA, however, ruled Bol ineligible and an attempt to get him to play at Cleveland State failed. He enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, where he played during the 1984-85 season.

In 1985, Bol was drafted in the second round by the Washington Bullets. He played in the NBA for 10 years, from 1985-1995, with the Bullets, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat. Bol averaged 2.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, 0.3 assists and 3.3 blocks per game.

He spent the rest of his life as a humanitarian working closely with Sudan Sunrise, a group based in Lenexa, Kan., that promotes reconciliation in war-torn Sudan. He survived a serious car accident in 2004.

Kwa habari zaidi someni:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/sports/basketball/20bol.html

Asante Hasheem Watoto 3,000 Bongo Kupata Fulana za Grizzlies

Grizzlies to send jerseys to Tanzania

Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol (left) of Spain shoots with a skyhook against the Phoenix Suns in the first quarter of their NBA basketball game in Phoenix, Arizona on Wednesday.
Memphis

Memphis Grizzlies plan to send to Tanzania the Allen Iverson promotional jerseys that they had planned to distribute on December 4.

Greg Campbell, Grizzlies President of Business Operations said yesterday the offer is on behalf of Grizzlies centre Hasheem Thabeet to impoverished children in his home country of Tanzania.

The Grizzlies are also paying tribute to Gasol�s impressive start with an exclusive jersey T-shirt that will duplicate his name and number as they appear on his Grizzlies home uniform.

The Grizzlies second-year centre is currently one of only three players in the NBA to rank in the top 10 in rebounds (10.7, 7th in NBA) and field goal percentage (.626, 2nd in NBA) and recently broke a franchise record with 15 consecutive field goals over the course of two games from Nov. 14-18.

The Grizzlies worked with the NBA's Basketball without Borders program to facilitate the shipment of jersey's that will be distributed to those in need in Thabeet's native African country. Approximately 3,000 jerseys will be distributed to impoverished children in Tanzania.

Basketball without Borders is the NBA�s global basketball development program that uses the values of the game to create positive social change in the areas of education, health and wellness.

"We are thrilled to partner with Hasheem Thabeet and the NBA�s international program Basketball without Borders to put the Allen Iverson promotional jerseys in the hands of children in need," said Campbell.

"This also gives us the opportunity to recognize Marc Gasol for his inspiring start to the season with a unique jersey t-shirt, courtesy of Sonic Drive-Ins."

http://thecitizen.co.tz/newe.php?id=15870

Hashim Awaponda Wanaotaka Kumgeuza Ngazi!

Na Mpoki Bukuku

NYOTA wa mchezo wa kikapu wa Tanzania, anayecheza katika ligi ya NBA ya Marekani Hasheem Thabeet amesema viongozi wa mchezo huo nchini wasimtumie kama ngazi kwani mafanikio aliyoyapata ni juhudi zake binafsi.

Akizungumza jijini Dar es Salaam juzi usiku katika hafla iliyoandaliwa na Kaimu Balozi wa Marekani nchini, Larry Andre, Hashim alisema ameshangazwa na viongozi wengi kumtumia yeye kama daraja kwa kujidai kuwa ndio waliomsaidia hadi hapo alipofikia wakati si kweli.

''Nadhani kuna watu wanataka kujinufaisha kwa kusema wamenisaidia kwa ajili ya uchaguzi wa chama chao, lakini si kweli. Nashangaa baadae wengine wamenifuata hadi Marekani na kudai kuwa wametumwa kunipongeza alisema."

Hashim alikuwa akimaanisha baadhi ya viongozi waliomfuata huko kwa madai wametumwa na Rais Kikwete kwa kuwa amekuwa akimtembelea mara nyingi na kumpa moyo.

Akizungumzia kuhusu mchezo huo nchini, Hashim alisema mpira wa kikapu utachukua miaka mingi kufikia mafanikio kwa kuwa viongozi hawana nia ya kusaidia wachezaji.

''Watu wanaohusika ndio wanafanya mchezo huu ushindwe kuendelea kwani tangu niondoke nchini hadi sasa, hali ni ileile hakuna maendeleo, hata viwanja viko katika hali ileile,'' alisema.

Alitahadharisha kuwa kutokana na hali hiyo itakuwa vigumu kwa Mtanzania mwingine kupata nafasi kama yake kwa hapa nchini bila ya kujipeleka mwenyewe kwa juhudi zake, ìlabda mmoja katika milioni moja sijui kama itatokea.''

Chanzo: Gazeti la Mwananchi 08-18-2009

Hasheem Thabit Aingia NBA Draft!!!!

Hasheem Thabit ameamua kutokumaliza masomo yake katika Chuo Kikuu ch Connecticut. Badala yake ataingia NBA Draft! Ni hatua kubwa sana. Namtakia mafanikio mema. Tuone timu gani itamchukua, Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics au....?

Hasheem, Hongera kwa kuwa Pro Basketball player!

GOOD LUCK HASHEEM!

PRESS RELEASE

STORRS, Conn. - University of Connecticut junior men’s basketball player Hasheem Thabeet (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania) has chosen to give up his final season of eligibility and enter his name into the 2009 NBA Draft, it was announced Tuesday.

“After spending time with my family and friends and speaking with Coach Calhoun, I have decided to give up my final year at UConn and enter my name in the 2009 NBA Draft,” said Thabeet. “I have had a great experience at Connecticut and cannot thank my coaches and teammates enough. I look forward to the challenge of playing professionally and know that my time here at UConn has prepared me to be successful in the future. I also want to thank all of the fans in Husky Nation that have followed my career, especially those from my homeland of Tanzania, and hope they will all be as supportive of me at the professional level as they have been to this point.”“Hasheem is more than ready to make the move to the next level,” said head coach Jim Calhoun. “He has been one of the most dominant defensive players in the history of college basketball and I am certain that where ever he ends up in the NBA, he is ready to be equally successful. He is a special player and even more special as a person. He will truly be remembered as one of the great players in UConn history, not only for his accomplishments, but also because of the type of person he is.”

Thabeet was named First Team All-American in 2008-09 by the NABC and the John R. Wooden Award. He was the NABC National Defensive Player of the Year and BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year in each of the past two seasons and was the 2008-09 BIG EAST Co-Player of the Year. He averaged 13.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 4.2 blocked shots per game (No. 2 nationally) in 2008-09 and helped lead the Huskies the 2009 NCAA Final Four and a 31-5 final record.Thabeet is the 11th player at UConn to declare early for the NBA Draft and nine of the previous ten were drafted in the first round. Eight of the ten were taken in the lottery portion of the first round

I’m not surprised at this. Thabeet is definitely a lottery pick and could be one of the top three picks. I’d expect Blake Griffin from Oklahoma to go No. 1 overall.
It could now be a long season for the Huskies as they will now need to replace Thabeet as well as A.J. Price, Craig Austrie and Jeff Adrien. Kemba Walker should fill-in nicely at the point and will need Stanley Robinson to play consistently like he did throughout the NCAA Tournament - soxanddawgs.com/2009-04-14 Thabeet is heading to the NBA.

Asante Da Subi kwa kuniletea Press Release.

Kwa habari zaidi soma:

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/local/basketball/scoop/blog/2009/04/its_official_hasheem_thabeet_i.html

Sasa Aninitwa ' Hasheem the Dream'

Wadau, kijana wetu Hasheem anapanda kwenye charts za Basketball hapa Marekani. Naona karibu tutamsikia kwenye NBA!

*************************************

Kutoka Sports Illustrated.com


Hasheem The Dream

The odyssey of Hasheem Thabeet began in one of the most remote hoops hinterlands. Soon, perhaps, it will take the UConn 7-footer to an unimaginably big stage -- bigger even than the first round of the NBA draft.

Living up to a name that means "destroyer of evil" in Arabic, Thabeet is a record-breaking shot blocker.

Thabit Manka is up on the back step of his house in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for good reason: If he posed on level ground with his eldest son, their height difference would be accentuated to the point of absurdity. Even like this, in the last photo they would ever take together, the top of Thabit's kufi only meets the giant boy's shoulders. It's April 2004, and the son, 17-year-old Hashim Thabit Manka, as his name was written then, is seven feet of limbs drowning in baggy jeans and a retro Philadelphia 76ers shirt, staring straight into the camera with only the faintest hint of a smile. The father's billowy kanzu and the gray edges of his facial hair give him a regal air at the age of 56; he is grinning, with his gaze fixed slightly off to the left.

Thabit was an architect, educated in England at the University of Bath and Oxford. He was a lover of soccer, world geography and English Scrabble, all of which he taught to Hashim. Thabit was also a diabetic, and when he fell ill in the days after the photo was taken, complications led him to be hospitalized and, in a week's time, took his life.

Hashim kept the picture in a scrapbook under his bed during his freshman year at Connecticut but has since returned it to his mother, Rukia, for safekeeping in Tanzania. He remembers his father now for his wisdom. Thabit had showed him maps of his travels through Africa, Europe and Australia, and said that their family identity -- being Tanzanian, Swahili-speaking, Muslim -- should never be a limitation. "You can live anywhere as long as you can get along with anybody," he told the boy. "You just have to adapt and overcome."

Four years ago Thabit couldn't have foreseen the odyssey in store for Hashim, who was in just his third year of organized basketball in soccer-mad Tanzania, which had never sent a soul to the NBA, much less the NCAA. Who could concoct a narrative that begins with a boy doing runway modeling in Dar es Salaam to earn money for his fatherless family, continues with him trying to get a basketball scholarship by e-mailing U.S. colleges he randomly Googled in an Internet café and ends with him in Storrs, Conn., as the starting center on a Top 5 team?

E-mail was not the solution; it wasn't until Hashim left Makongo High in Dar es Salaam to take a scholarship at Laiser Hill Academy in Nairobi, Kenya, that he was noticed by someone with international basketball connections. French businessman Oliver Noah, who organized the NOGA African All-Stars AAU team, saw Hashim play and offered to take him to the U.S., and, with Rukia's blessing, handled the paperwork for an I-20 visa.

Seven-foot-three Hasheem Thabeet -- the new, Americanized name on his passport -- arrived wide-eyed in Los Angeles in January 2005 and was placed at Stoneridge Prep, where neither the housing conditions (four players were packed into coach Ron Slater's home) nor the transcript situation (they designated him as an 11th-grader, rather than a 12th-) was ideal. By April he was on the move again, to Picayune, Miss., to live with a host family and attend a public high school. Transcript issues arose once again, prompting a move in June to Houston, where Mark McClanahan, a coach Thabeet had met at the Kingwood (AAU) Classic in Houston that spring, found him another host family and a spot as a senior on the Cypress Christian School team for the '05-06 season. By the following summer Thabeet was at UConn, where he is now a junior majoring in geography. The bedroom walls of his campus apartment are decorated with SpongeBob SquarePants dolls, and his dresser doubles as a trophy stand for being last season's Big East Defensive Player of the Year and NABC Defensive Player of the Year.

In Arabic, Hashim means "destroyer of evil," and the shot blocking that earned those awards (147 swats as a sophomore, breaking Alonzo Mourning's Big East single-season blocks record) is an instinctual talent. The crash course in post offense that Thabeet received at UConn has helped him grow from a comedic liability to someone who, says Huskies graduate assistant Justin Evanovich, "is conscious of his ability to dunk everything." Huskies coach Jim Calhoun laughs at his first memory of Thabeet ("He would get a rebound in Houston, throw it and then watch nine guys run") and beams with pride when he says that "no player I've ever had at UConn has improved to the level that Hasheem has improved."

Since his father's passing, all Thabeet has done is change cities five times, countries twice and his name once. He basically learned how to play offense from scratch while establishing himself as the nation's premier defensive game-changer. Thabeet has adapted, and he has overcome.

If Uconn, which finished 24-9 last season, were to win a national championship in April, it would be the first basketball team to visit the White House under Barack Obama, whose absentee father was an economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance -- only nine miles from the Nairobi school where Thabeet was discovered. The gravity of this African connection is not lost on Thabeet, but it wouldn't be his first presidential encounter, either.

On Sept. 21 he arrived at the Intercontinental Hotel in New York City wearing a Euro-cut suit, and he joined Tanzania's president, Jakaya Kikwete -- who was in town for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly -- in breaking Ramadan fast. This was their third meeting, and it came with a reminder from Kikwete "to keep representing the country well." At their first meeting, in Boston when Thabeet was a freshman, he showed up in a fitted New York Yankees hat, brown sweater and jeans. ("I wasn't grown up yet," he says sheepishly.) When a photo of him appeared on Michuzi, the highest-trafficked Tanzanian blog, he was lambasted by some Swahili-speaking commenters for being disrespectful and undeserving of such attention.

Kusoma story nzima BOFYA HAPA: