NBA season heats up

Pardon the question, but do you enjoy basketball?

I know it's not a popular game in Ghana, but if you are connected to the internet, you can always catch up with the latest games by typing www.youtube.com and searching for “NBA highlights today”.

There is so much basketball there that you have to be careful to select only games that were played a few hours/days ago, as otherwise, you might be taken to a game that was played in “nineteen-Kwadwo-one” (years/months ago!)

Although the NBA is played only in America, it is currently of great interest to Africa, because two of the very best players are of African descent. By that, I don't mean the generally of African-American aces whose excellence in the game is its most notable feature and who are, of course, also of “African descent”.

No – I mean two guys – Joel Embidd, who was born in Yaounde, Cameroon and plays for the Philadelphia 76ers, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was born in Greece but has Nigerian parentage. Giannis was the “Most Valued Player” in the season preceding the current one and has been taking his team, the Milwaukee Bucks, to places again this season.

He could win a second MVP title. They are all going to be on show in the next few days, in the fabulous “All-Star Games” that never ceases to provide unbelievable entertainment.

More about Giannis – so good is he that even American sports commentators, who are notoriously incapable of pronouncing foreign names, have learnt to call him the full “ANTETOKOUNMPO”, instead of simply “Giannis”! He reminds me of the trail blazed by Hakeem Olajuwon – the stupendous Nigerian player who earned respect for African players by dominating the NBA between 1984 and 2002 when he helped win several trophies for the Houston Rockets.

Even in the years when Michael Jordan was king of basketball, Olajuwon was as notable a player as Jordan was (which is saying a lot!) Eventually, the commentators' Americanisation of his name to “Hakeem The Dream” and other easy nicknames invented to evade the pronouncing of “Olajuwon”, were dropped and he became simply, “Olajuwon”. Respect, I tell you.

Joel Embidd plays for the Philadelphia 76ers, who are striving, with him at its helm [of talent], to excel in the NBA Finals this season. He is likely to be a candidate doe the “Most Valuable Player” (MVP) prize if the 76ers emerge victoriously. (Antetokounmpo can win it again, of course).

Why don't we in Ghana take basketball seriously? Well, to begin with, our populace is largely made up of “shortee” people, whereas to be good at basketball, it is an advantage to be at least six feet tall. Many of the greatest players in the USA are seven feet tall (give or take one or two feet)!!

But it isn't enough to be tall if one is to excel in basketball. One also needs to be strongly built, so that one cannot be easily pried away from the “basket” when one is making one's way to place the ball in it. It is in fact a very physical game in other respects too: one must not be easily pushed down; nor must one be unable to steer a clear course on the court just because one's opponents are carrying out all sorts of manoeuvres to try and prevent one from gaining a foothold from which to try to score a “field goal”, or pass the ball to a team-mate who is better placed to score with it.

It is lovely to see how fit the players keep themselves and to observe the miraculous way the human body can be used by them to play this game the way they do. They know they can get injured by falling hard on the floor, slipping, or being deliberately “body-butted” by an opponent who does not care if his side is punished for a foul he commits. Yet the tremendous courage of the players manages to shine through.

Above all, the game is enjoyable on TV because it is easy for the viewer to identify with the players: if you see a true devotee scoring “three-pointers” (goals that bring in three points) from his arm-chair, you might commit the irreverence of laughing at him. For yes, practically everyone can carry himself/herself onto the basketball court through their imagination, and carry out feats that the actual players can never achieve on the court!

The game of basketball reminds me of a very funny story told to me about the early years of Ghana's independence. We had been admitted to the United Nations, and our diplomats were out there, using photo opportunities to publicise the arrival of Ghana as one of the very few black nations involved in solving the world's problems.

Now, our diplomats at the UN came by the brilliant idea that to emphasise the fact that there was gender “equality” in Ghana, it would be nice to include women in our delegations to the UN. But, of course, it was costly to send people to New York, so what our diplomats did was to keep an ear on the ground, and whenever they heard that some Ghanaians had come to New York on their own, they would invite the ladies among them to come and occupy some of Ghana's seats at the UN.

This went on for some time, and as the photographers were appreciative of the ladies' presence, the practice gained Ghana quite a lot of plaudits. As it happened, a dance troupe with some very beautiful women in it went to New York, on their own, to dance at the famous Alvin Alley dance theatre.

No sooner than the Ghana delegation at the UN saw them than they enrolled them into the delegation (as usual).

The dancers, of course, became quite popular in black celebrity circles in New York, and they got loads of invitations to parties and dinners. On one occasion, the most beautiful woman among the Ghanaian dancers was taken “on a date” by a very popular basketball player. She didn't inform anyone about this.

Meanwhile, the Ghana delegates at the UN had arranged an event for the dancers. Yet when the time arrived, the prima donna amongst them was nowhere to be found! They decided to go to the function without her anyway.

But shortly after the function had begun, the doorbell of the location rang.

One of the diplomats left to go and see who it was.

When he opened the door, he saw the prima donna standing there.

In her company stood – a seven-foot-tall star basketball player!

The diplomat was so taken aback that all he could find to say, in a fit of jealousy, was to stammer at the basketball star, “B-b-but you c-c-c-c-can't j-j-just take our g-girls out like that?”

As it happened, the diplomat was just above five feet tall. So when the seven-foot-tall basketball star looked down at him, it looked as if the star could throw the diplomat halfway across Manhattan!

The prima donna, fearing that a “diplomatic incident” might occur, quickly made her way to stand between the two men! That scene could have been captured to great effect by a cartoonist, had one been at hand. Oh, Yaw Ghanatta, where are you?

When the prima donna recounted this story to me years later, we laughed and laughed and laughed. I joked that I would write an article, advising our government to think carefully about sending diplomats who are somewhat challenged in the height stakes, to places where they might be tempted to defend the virtue of their female guests, against seven-foot-tall “giants” specially bred for the basketball court!