Some of the country’s top ‘ballers’ will converge on the Burnham Basketball court for two days of what is expected to be exciting basketball, when one of the country’s renowned sports journalist host his ‘Rawle Toney 3X3 Classic’, on November 9-10.
With $300,000 up for grabs to the winner of the Round-Robin/Knockout tournament, Toney will launch the one-of-a-kind tournament on Friday at one of the sponsors, FireSide and Grill, located on Garnett Street, from 13:00h.
The team finishing second will pocket $100,000 and third place $50,000. The player deemed the ‘Most Valuable’ (MVP) in the final will receive one basketball sneakers of his choice.
ANSA McAL, under its Mackeson brand, is the tournament’s main sponsor, and will be joined by the Guyana Lottery Company’s Let’s Bet Sport, ‘STUFF’, Slingerz Family Entertainment, the National Sports Commission (NSC) and Trophy Stall.
“I think when you look around, basketball is the only sport in Guyana that doesn’t offer anything exciting and engaging for their fans. There’s futsal and T20 – both shortened versions of the conventional football and cricket, but while 3×3 exist in basketball, locally, it is not being utilised,” Toney said.
“3×3 is the ‘T20 cricket’ of basketball, meaning, it’s fast (only 10 minutes a game) and simpler rules as compared to the usual format of the game, and the last major tournament, held under the Mackeson brand, was hosted in 2013,” said Toney, who was once a standout basketball player.
Toney explained that after Mackeson stepped away from the sponsoring of 3×3 basketball, the format never found another corporate entity or brand to replace ‘Smooth Moves’ mostly because of the high standard set and players had grown accustom to a quality tournament.
“It is my hope that this tournament will revive the 3×3 format, especially since FIBA had moved to regularize the sport, which sees it being used by the sport’s governing body globally to bring new fans to the sport,” the journalist added.
The tournament has received the blessings of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) and their officials and will be played under FIBA 3×3 rules. Registration, according to Toney, has already started, and limited space is available.
