Rwanda goes NBA-style with All-Star Game

After the successful conclusion of the regular and playoff season, the Rwanda Basketball Federation has come up with the American NBA-style All-star game scheduled for this weekend at the Amahoro indoor stadium court.According to the federation Secretary General Richard Mutabazi, 24 best performing players from the just-concluded season will be selected from nine registered clubs to form the two teams. The game will be a curtain-raiser for Game Three of the women’s playoff final between APR and Ubumwe.Each of the two opposing teams for the All-star game will be made up of 12 best players with one side coached by Espoir’s Jean Bahufite and the other by APR’s Cliff Owour. Bahufite led Espoir to the league and playoff titles with an unbeaten record, while Espoir whitewashed APR 3-0 in the best-of-five playoff final series. “We don’t want players to sit idle for a long period, that’s why we came up with this idea to keep them busy after the league,”, Mutabazi told Times Sport on Tuesday.The officials also noted that the federation plans to come up with more competitions to keep the players busy throughout the season, since the national league runs for only four months.Mutabazi explained the idea of the All-star game, saying that, much as it is for keeping the players busy it was also to attract more fans at the stadium for ladies’ Game Three of the playoff final as a way of promoting the women’s game.However, there will be no trophies for the All-star game, since there are no sponsors on board, according to the federation.“There are no sponsors for this event, therefore the way to go about it is to give to individual players and coaches an envelope for their participation,” Mutabazi revealed.APR lead the series 2-0 after beating Ubumwe 54-41 and 58-47 in Game One, and Two, respectively a fortnight ago.Meanwhile, the basketball federation awarded individuals, who played a tremendous role in the 2012/2013 season. These included; team president of the year award to Venuste Nsabimana of league debutants 30 plus.irene.nayebare@newtimes.co.rwReferee of the year: Jean Sauveur Ruhumuliza, Coach of the year: Alexandre Ahishakiye (RAPP), Journalist of the year: Peter Kamasa (The New Times), Fan of the year: Francois Habiyakare and Volunteer of the year: Mohammed Tuyisenge.Young player of the year Espoir Placide UWITONZE, born in 1995, while Best scorer player was Mike Buzangu from KBC, and the Most Valuable Player was Aristide Mugabe (Espoir).

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Rwanda goes NBA-style with All-Star Game