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."