The NBA is headed to Cuba to host basketball clinic
By Troy Foster
NBA hosting is a basketball clinic in Havana, Cuba
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Grab a bottle of SPF 50, because the NBA is slated to be the First U.S. professional sports organization to start open relations with Cuba since December, when President Obama stated that U.S. and Cuba diplomatic relations are to be restored.
The NBA is hosting a four-day clinic in Havana, Cuba under the Basketball without Borders program. The NBA will be bringing in Spanish-speaking basketball players and basketball executives. Notable former players participating will be Dikembe Mutombo, Steve Nash and retired WNBA All-Star Tricha Penicheiro.
The NBA has had two players from Cuba play in the League previously in Lazaro Borrell (Supersonics 1999-2000) and Andres Guilbert (Timberwolves 1994-1995). Cuba has been playing the sport for decades and recent success was had with the Women’s team coming in 1st in the Americas Competition in 2013.
The Basketball without Borders program has been around 14 years now and has held 41 camps in 23 cities in 20 countries on 5 continents.
The work done has given us a better pool of basketball players for the league as we see the number of international players rise each year in the NBA. The number of stars coming into the league from other countries is happening with such frequency that the Sophomore vs Rookie All-Star game was converted to the U.S. vs The World game for 1st and 2nd-year players. Also something notable about that game, the international born players (the world) won .This comes as no surprise as the last two No. 1 picks for the draft were both international players, and arguably one of the hottest coach hires this year was David Blatt, the previous head-coach of Tel-Aviv Israel.
At the start of the 2014-2015 season, international players counted for 22.6 percent of roster spots.
The BWB Clinic in Cuba will be held from April 23 – 26.
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