Saturday 31 May and Sunday June 1 were great days for future of
Lebanese Basketball, the culmination of months of tryouts for 5000
young players in various regions, 200 finalists, 6 regional
selection teams and a wonderful set of promissing players of which
15 were chosen by a panel of experts. Those 15 will be trained
further by an international professional trainer paid for by the
sponsors Pepsi and then players will be available for placement in
prominent Lebanese basketball teams. Outside those Final 15, fifty
other hopefuls will undergo further training as there are huge
potential talents even in the remaining 200.

Clearly Beirut selection was superior and naturally dominated by the
wonderful basketball program of Harlem Basketball School run by the
untiring Nazih Boujy. The show that the Harlem boys and girls put at
half-time highlights the great care and seriousness put into this
program. Their greatly elegant uniforms and colors, the magnificent
skills they showed, the shere numbers and the range of ages
included, even the Harlem parents who were sitting just around me,
were the catalyst of the success of the event.

Regarding the rest of the players, Bekaa played superbly on Saturday
in the low court of Ghazir, where I attended their game, but it was
a completely different story on Sunday on main court as they were
exhausted against Beirut and were never close. In any case not only
Bekaa and Beirut, but most notably Kesrouan-Jbeil team had
impressive players. I can say the same for the North team and Metn-
Baabda-Chouf team and to a lesser extent South.

Choosing 15 finalists though (and majority just from Harlem)
dampened the spirits of the rest of the players, and I know there
were so many of those talents since I attended the better part of
all six games on Saturday afternoon. Somehow there was something
missing on the Sunday game, as it lacked the shere enthusiasm and
hope of the Saturday games and their definitly higher level of
performance and entertainment.

To avoid this disappointing outcome, perhaps rihgt from the start,
picking of not only a final 15, but also an alternative 15 runners-
up. This would give us at least another set of talnets to look for
to make the total 30 out of the 200. This could have been easily
done, to keep the interest of those who felt left out when they soon
realised the final 15 had been firmly set.

Another good idea would be to precede the Beirut-Bekaa matchup which
was to be frank very uninteresting, by a second match between two
teams of "best of the rest" (if not a full match then at least a 20
minute game) thus giving us a second chance to take a look at a
second group of players to showcase their talents in a better
competitive situation. I couldn't help but see the disappointment in
some left-out players (these players could have been equally
impressive under any other circumstance), in addition to notable
absence of some players from the final ceremonies. In the final
playing match, we couldn't help but notice the unnecessary
concentration on just a few players rather than the whole roster.

Now that precedent has been set though, with a very well organized
campaign throughout the country, great sponsorship support,
participation of so many coaches and staff, it would be a shame if
there was not proper follow-up so that we would improve Lebanon's
chances of reaching higher places... and this in sharp contrast need
I say to the dismal 1st division playoffs and the inevitable
bickering that has plagued the finals and that has dampens further
my hopes at least of any meaningful improvement in the performance
of the older generation clubs and players...

My sincere wishes that the new age of players doesn't get
contaminated with the same elements leading surely to the
same sickening ailment hitting s these days...

Now for highlights for me:
-Just watching Tony Khalil put so much relentless time and effort
-Tony Baroud contributing so much of his time despite his many
engagements including a TV interview just the night before and
theatrical performances (in Monologs)
-... and the great company I kept particularly on Saturday afternoon
watching the proceedings and just chatting. For me this was quality
time with a true friend and one of the happiest weekends I had spent
for a long time now.