MONROVIA (Liberia) - Liberia is back on the international scene for good after years in the doldrums, and the return has been met with a lot of excitement from the country's followers of the orange ball.
The country's first official outing was at the 2024 FIBA U18 Women's AfroBasket Zone 3 Qualifiers in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, and they followed up with Mighty Barroll at the Road to BAL in Libya and then at the BAL Elite 16.
To crown their efforts, the Liberia Basketball Association hosted the Women's Basketball League Africa Zone 3 Qualifiers in Monrovia with two teams - Commissioners Basketball Club and Invincible Eleven - participating.
The Samuel Kopamo Doe Arena, the venue for the qualifiers, showed the level of basketball displayed by the teams in attendance.
And for the Liberia Basketball Association, under the leadership of Abraham Samukai, there is still a lot of work to be done in order to reach the desired goal.
Samuka spoke to FIBA.basketball about his dreams and aspirations for the development of basketball in Liberia. Below are excerpts from the interview with Samukai.
Driving force
The driving force behind the Liberia Basketball Association is its stakeholders. They have done a lot for the development of basketball.
They invest so much and support their teams. Secondly, commendation goes to the parents who do their best to encourage their children who play in the third division of the Liberia Basketball League. These children are between the ages of 10 and 18.
Development Basketball
What we have started is to first make sure that all schools up to high school have a basketball team so that it becomes a lever for us and the High Schools Basketball Association (HISA) is accommodated and we provide technical training for them.
We also have a third-division junior team that acts as a feeder for the senior teams, but to be honest we haven't been able to do much because during the suspension the kids were kind of discouraged from playing basketball because there was nothing to look up to.
But with our participation in the FIBA Africa U18 Women's Basketball in Abidjan, they saw the WBLA here and they saw Mighty Barroll go to Libya and also to the Elite 16, the interest is slowly coming back.
Major leagues
We have a first division for men (14 teams) and women (10 teams). There is a second division with 20 teams and the third division I mentioned earlier has 58 teams.
The men's league is in phases where the 14 teams play on a home and away format, after which there is an evaluation where two teams are dropped and a new pairing is done to get the best 8 teams, giving the teams a total of 25 games on average in a season.
Youth Development
Last year we had a camp run by a former Liberian basketball international and we have also been running local clinics in conjunction with the YMCA. These trainings are very expensive and we're looking for support from FIBA Africa to run camps that will further increase the interest of the youth. We also have plans to take basketball to more counties outside of Monrovia, but the funding is not there yet.
Training referees and other technical officials
At the moment, we have about 30 referees and we're trying to train more because most of them are getting older, so we had a training with younger referees immediately after the WBLA qualifiers, courtesy of FIBA. It's sad to say that Liberia does not have a FIBA-certified referee at the moment. So while many consider Liberia old in the game of basketball, we're actually new in many ways that need to be developed. As far as other technical officials are concerned, such as scorekeepers
National teams
In fact, we have already started the process. This year we recruited a trial men's national team from our league and had two trial matches.
They are supposed to camp and train for two weeks every month, but due to logistics this has not been possible.
We did not do the same for the women. However, the U-18 women who took part in Abidjan will form the core of our women's national team. We're hopeful that in the not too distant future we'll be able to put our act together and build formidable national teams.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship has been very scarce. The season we just finished was done without any sponsorship. We had to go around to get the funding, but to talk about real sponsorship for the leagues, we don't have it yet. The government gives us what little they can, just like in all other sports. In the past, when the telecom companies sponsored events, we approached them but they didn't come out. As a board and with the cooperation of basketball stakeholders, we're not giving up. We will continue to work hard to gain the confidence of sponsors to support the game of basketball.
The future of basketball in Liberia
I can tell you that the way I see the young kids now, especially in the third division, they are willing to play and eager to learn. With the right technicians working with them, I can clearly say that the future is bright for Liberia and we will be competitive in the zone.
We have also reached out to some players of Liberian descent and asked them to come together so that we can mix them with the players in the local league.
The reason for this is that we don't want to have 100% players from America or Europe representing Liberia because it will not help the development of the game at home.
But we're grateful to the Friends in Support of Liberian Basketball for their support. The group is made up of old Liberian basketball players and they have done a lot for us. They even donated the electronic scoreboard that we're currently using and they also send us balls.
Facilities
Most of the sports facilities are owned and managed by the Ministry of Sports. We have a court on Broad Street and the government pays the rent, as they do with the SKD arena, but we're hoping to get some concessions to improve it through private funding. As the country improves, so does the economy and we're confident that we can reach out to people to help.
Lessons Learned from Hosting the WBLA Qualifiers
First of all, I would like to thank FIBA and the leadership of the zone for allowing us to host this qualifier, it was a challenge, but it was a challenge that exposed us and a great opportunity for us to see what we did right or wrong. There is room for improvement.
*Editor's note* - As part of FIBA Africa's development program, the Liberian Basketball Association has benefited from the donation of balls for youth, women's and mini-basketball, and as part of the training of technical staff and players, the FIBA National YC Liberia took place from December 9 to 14. This support from FIBA Africa will enable the association to organise mass basketball activities through mini-basketball, talent identification and training.
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