Basketball league fails to boost local talent

Basketball league fails to boost local talent

JAKARTA (JP): An NBA-look-alike basketball league has fueled
the fast-growing basketball fever among youngsters in the past
two years, but it has yet to prove its nationalist credentials.

A fully packed Senayan Basketball Hall witnessed the league
final drama which was decided by a last-gasp three-pointer from
Mohammad Rifky last October. He sank the winning throw for Aspac
over Hadtex as the final second ticked.

Both finalists claimed that their locals played a more pivotal
role in the nail-biting final, although their foreign signings
dominated the ring.

Two months later, Rifky and company lined up a team for the
18th Southeast Asian Games with their sights set on the silver.
The pressure at the Games denied them the coveted honor. They
even failed to go through into the medals race.

Budi Rustanto, the Indonesian Basketball Association's
official in charge of the league, said at a sports seminar
yesterday that the association should be held responsible for the
flop.

"We lack a solid support system to develop local talent," he
said. "The arrival of foreign players in our league serves to
boost basketball fever, but not our players' skills."

The government opened the door to foreign players in national
basketball and soccer leagues late in 1993 in a bid to raise the
standard of local play.

Budi, himself a graduate of the School of Computers at the
Bandung Institute of Technology, said that the existing league
does not have enough back-up from competitions on lower levels.

"We don't have the continual age group competitions which
could serve as the ground for talent scouting," he said. "Our
youth need some certainty in their careers as professional
players once they start playing basketball."

Budi criticized officials who are too busy to share ideas
about how to develop the sport. "Let say they are that busy to do
so. It's okay for them to just provide the money," he said.

"Ideally we would have officials who do both but one or the
other is good enough," he added.

When it came to Indonesian players' attitude Budi complained
that national cagers failed to stay fit during off-seasons.

"They lack professionalism," Budi said. "I remember when we
were playing in the SEA Games, some players were hanging around
until midnight despite there being a match in the morning."

Another speaker, Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar, suggested that
Indonesia make early preparations, if it is to win top honors at
the 1997 SEA Games here.

"We have to gather our players in a centralized training camp
for 18 months," Siregar said. He said coaches should drill more
physical training sessions before zeroing in on technical
aspects.

Siregar said this rigorous training should end three months
before the SEA Games, to prevent any injuries. "The coach's only
job that time is to keep his players in their best shape both
physically and mentally," he said.

"Last but not least, the coach and players need to watch
videos of their opponents," he said, "Our coaches never do this."