LBA Highlights Plans to Rebrand Basketball on the National Scene

By: Roland James

The Liberia Basketball Association (LBA) has disclosed plans to decentralize and rebrand basketball activities in Liberia.

The sport in recent years was down the show on the national scene due to a leadership crisis that engulfed the association.

The crisis resulting from an election dispute that loomed over the association from 2019 till late 2023 before resuming active activities has left the sport to struggle in maintaining its momentum from enthusiasts across the country.

Guest appearing on a radio program Talking Sports over the weekend on Kool FM (91.9), the National Security General of the Liberia Basketball Association (LBA) said the association's new leadership has fast-tracked plans intended to erect standard courts for national basketball in other counties outside the capital.

Based on the lower number of courts to host first-division basketball competitions in the country, the game on the national scene is most often and widely played in Montserrado County (The Host Capital) and a few other surroundings.

The LBA Secretary General, Calvin Diggs, disclosed that based on funds accumulated from the game, the new leadership will gradually work to erect standard courts in other counties to help decentralize the sport and reawaken the dying spirit of enthusiasts.

"We want to improve Basketball, and to improve Basketball we need a facility. We cannot continue in the same way as usual. The sports commission needs a complete overall. We need a whole new renovation. So, we are going to decentralize Basketball, we are going to take it all around the country.

We want that teams from their counties will be able to host their home games in their counties. So that teams in Monrovia do not always be the privileged ones that people come here to play them; they should also go there out there and experience. And that helps the game to grow, so the decentralization process is going to take its steps. So now we have Nimba, Bong, and Margibi. We started that just this year and we hope to grow as the years go on". He said.

Meanwhile, Diggs emphasized that it is going to be a tough venture to underwrite the cause due to low budgetary allocation for the sport this year.

He stressed that the current budget of the sport this year from the national government is One Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty-eight United States Dollars (US$1258) something he stressed is far below previous budgetary support towards the sport in the country.

"If you look at the current budget that is allotted for Basketball, we get One Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty Eight Dollars support in the national budget. Basketball is very impactful in getting the talented youths out of the streets. So I think the government needs to see the need. The last time this government was a ruling party in Liberia, Basketball received a Hundred Thousand Dollar a year. So can you imagine from a hundred to one thousand, the disparity is a wide gap but we are going to manage and do our best to improve the sport", the LBA SG noted.