THISDAYonline

United States based The Tigers power forward, Obinna Ekezie, is back in the country to run a basketball camp for Nigerian youths.

The one-week summer camp especially designed for players in the nine to sixteen years bracket will hold at the Port Harcourt Civic Centre from Monday to august 7th.

"The basic idea is not only to teach young people, the teenagers the fundamentals of the game, but also motivate and mould their lives positively, on and off the game the court of basketball," a spokesperson explained to THISDAYSports.

Obinna who was similarly in the country in UK march to assist a former colleague run a similar camp was inspired by the lack of quality basketball opportunities for the youths in Rivers State and environs.

"Kids will definitely be motivated when they get a regular work out with a player from the NBA," it was explained.

By the reckoning, the programme will continue as an annual event. We also learnt that the Atlanta Hawks forward would move on from the annual clinic and expand the programme to a massive basketball academy. It is also hoped that in the nearest future, the project will also get corporate participation from across the country.

The player who made his debut for Nigeria at the 1998 World Championship in Greece is currently on the roster of Atlanta Hawks. He actually joined the NBA in 1999 when the Vancouver Grizzles drafted him. He later featured for the Washington Wizards, Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Before he made the American system, the power forward played pick-up games at the Shell Camp in the city of Port Harcourt where he grew up. He was also a regular face at the Officers mess in Forces road in the same city.

He left for the USA from there and made the national team from the University of Maryland, a school enrolled with in 1995 and soon became a regular media featured by the games statistics he posted.