All is now set for this year’s Mark D Ball Basketball Championship, the Men’s version comprising of 24 teams will dunk off on Sunday, February 6, 2022 at the Indoor Sports Hall, located inside Package B of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja.
The event was pushed forward by a few days, due to the usage of the venue for a Table Tennis tournament.
It eventually got the go ahead to start, after the conclusion of the event on Saturday.
The teams have been pooled into three groups – A, B, and C as they will take turns to play each other in a round robbin format, weekly – starting with Group A.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s jumpball, the President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation NBBF and Initiator of Mark D Ball Basketball Championship, Igoche Mark, said the championship was part of his pet project geared towards the development of the game, and not that of the NBBF.
He said the federation will soon roll out developmental programmes.
“For 10 years and counting, Mark D Ball Basketball Championship has been my pet project even before I emerged as the President of NBBF. The championship is geared towards the development of the game (Basketball). It is a mixture of sport, entertainment and rewards. As stated in the press release I issued few days ago, the NBBF under my watch is committed to develop and expand the scope of Basketball in Nigeria. All stakeholders in Basketball including the media will benefit from our programmes,” Mark started.
Mark had promised to revive the dead domestic league, following the dearth of games suffered in the last four years.
The Mark D Ball teams in Group A consist of Gombe Bulls, Police Batons, Apa Flames, Hot Coal Ballers, Nile University Spartans, AHIP Giants, Mo Heat and Safety Knights.
