AMW Basketball League chief Will Miabkop is looking to bring together the basketball community of the UAE, with the help of the biggest league in the world.
The third season of the AMW League concluded earlier this week with the American University of Dubai exhibiting some of the best basketball the UAE has to offer, and Miabkop has ambitious goals to ensure that such quailty play doesn’t go unnoticed.
The NBA has aggressively expanded its international market appeal over the last 20 years and Miabkop would like to use the AMW Basketball League as a springboard to bring the greatest players on earth to the UAE, unite the country’s basketball fans and help the game grow across the Middle East.
Miabkop said: “There are three things I would like to do. The first is to have the (international NBA initiative) Basketball Without Borders programme in the Middle East, in Dubai.
“The second would be to organise a big basketball camp with NBA players. I know many of the French players would come over, Nicolas Batum (of Portland Trail Blazers) came here over the summer and Kevin Seraphin (of Washington Wizards) has property here.
“The third step would be to bring the NBA here to the Middle East for a game for the first time, although that wouldn’t realistically happen for three to five years.”
While basketball is actively played across the UAE, particularly in the Filipino community, there is no single event that unites fans in the same way that, for example, the Dubai Sevens does for rugby.
In the short term, Miabkop is hoping to get the AMW Basketball League televised to increase awareness of the league and give basketball a flagship tournament to use as a springboard.
The AMW final on Friday between the American University of Dubai and Fly Society was a game of high quality and intensity but the gravity of the spectacle was diminished slightly by the facilities at Raffles School which could only house around 50 hardcore fans.
“We would like a place we can call home,” added Miabkop, “We use school facilities at the moment because they are the most flexible and we require a lot of flexibility. But we need our own facility and then we can start to develop an academy and train coaches and referees.
“We are in partnership with FIBA and we develop training programmes for referees and coaches. The rugby and football community have major events that bring together the entire community over three days to one place.
“For basketball we don’t have such a thing but we are working on a project where we can bring the entire basketball community in the UAE together, and I would like to get the NBA involved in this project.”
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