A League of Their Own

It;s July 30th.  Do you know where your assistant coach is?

NBA AND DETEKSI BASKETBALL LEAGUE LAUNCH FIRST-EVER BASKETBALL DEVELOPMENT CAMP IN INDONESIA

 

-- Sacramento Kings Star Kevin Martin to Highlight the Coaching Lineup in Surabaya-

 

SURABAYA, Indonesia, JULY 30, 2009 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the DetEksi Basketball League (DBL) today announced that their first-ever joint basketball development camp in Indonesia will tip off on Aug. 16. The camp will help to continue developing the sport and young basketball talent in Indonesia.

The three-day camp, which will consist of basketball training and off-court personal development, will take place at the DBL Arena in Surabaya from Aug. 16 to 18.  Sacramento Kings star Kevin Martin, the runner-up for the 2006-07 NBA Most Improved Player Award, will headline the coaching staff.  The camp will feature the top 48 basketball players, 24 boys and 24 girls, from across Indonesia. The players will be selected by the DBL based on their basketball skills, leadership ability, and the attitude they demonstrated during their most recent high school seasons.

Martin, who averaged 24.6 points per game during the 2008-09 NBA season, will be joined by NBA assistant coach Joe Prunty of the Portland Trail Blazers and former Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Neal Meyer to coach the camp. Following the daily clinics, campers will compete in games to showcase what they have learned.  Motivational life-skills seminars will also be conducted for the campers on various topics, including leadership, character development, and teamwork. The camp MVP and All-Star Team will be announced on the final day of the camp.

"The Indonesia Development Camp is an ambitious program that will help raise the skill level of our young basketball players," said DBL Director Azrul Ananda. "Learning from NBA players and coaches is like a dream come true for our players and they are excited for this opportunity." 

"When we hosted our first clinic in Indonesia last year we realized that there are already a lot of talented young players," said Scott Levy, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of NBA Asia. "The Indonesia Development Camp is designed to further develop their skills and knowledge of the game."

The Indonesia Development Camp will also feature an NBA Coaches Clinic. The clinic will be conducted on the camp's second day, at which the NBA coaches will share their basketball knowledge with 40 DBL coaches.

Official partners of the camp are Honda, Jawa Pos, Relaxa, BNI and Flexi. Official suppliers of the camp are Prima-Fruit Tea and Spalding.

During the 2008-09 NBA season, NBA programming was televised in Indonesia on Jak TV and Indovision, reachinga total of 29 million households. In 2008, the NBA hosted its first-ever event in Indonesia in conjunction with the DBL, which saw Indiana Pacers Forward Danny Granger host a basketball clinic at the DBL Finals in Surabaya. In June 2009, the NBA launched the inaugural NBA Madness Indonesia presented by Jawa Pos in Surabaya. The league's interactive basketball touring festival visited four shopping malls on four consecutive weekends. The Memphis Grizzlies' mascot Grizz highlighted the tour's tip-off while David Lee of the New York Knicks and the Miami Heat Dancers attended the Grand Finals.

For more information, please log onto to NBA.com and Deteksibasketball.com.

Who knows?  Maybe the Blazers' first-rounder in the 2015 NBA Draft will be Agung Suparmanputra.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)