KARACHI: They idolise NBA players, well and truly knowing that reaching that level would be beyond them. Even beyond the future generations of basketball players raised in Karachi.

But they continue to play and during the 16th edition of the weeklong Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup here at the Aram Bagh Court, there was a flurry of action with as many as 148 players across all age groups involved.

Among those were players like the 16-year-old Yash Harwani and 14-year-old Mohammad Hasan Ali. For their youthful exuberances the harsh realities of the state of basketball in the country don’t matter. At least, for now.

“I’m a big fan of [four-time NBA champion] LeBron James and I want to be like him one day,” Yash, who’s being touted as a future prospect for Pakistan basketball, told Dawn during the sidelines of the tournament. “Playing at the highest level is possible and you just have to show willingness to achieve that.”

Hasan, who caught the eye during the tournament with his three-point shooting, echoes similar views.

“Stephen Curry is my favourite player and I’ve modeled my game on his,” he said about the three-time NBA winner.

For both Yash and Hasan, tournaments like the Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup are an opportunity “to get better and learn new things”.

But are they a pathway to a professional basketball career?

“There aren’t any facilities to groom top players,” Kenneth Johnson, who’s played for Sindh at the National Games, told Dawn. “It’s far easier to become a minister in Pakistan than a NBA player.”

Askari Alpha captain Shahmeer Zaheer, whose side beat Omega in the final on Saturday, agrees.

“The biggest requirement in basketball is facilities,” he told Dawn. “You need a proper hoop, a smooth surface to play and they are rare to find in Pakistan.”

That somewhat resonates with Pakistan’s standing in international basketball.

Pakistan remains unranked among 213 members of global basketball body FIBA. Despite having won three silver medals at the South Asian Games and a silver at the South Asian Basketball Association Championship in 2013, it did not enter the qualifying for the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup, which was rescheduled to next year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Syed Adnan Ali played basketball for 21 years and is now a referee at the Pakistan Basketball Federation. He believes the PBF is doing little to enhance Pakistan’s standing.

“The sponsors aren’t attracted to the sport because it isn’t being promoted enough by the PBF,” Adnan, who is the coach of the Nixor College basketball team, told Dawn. “There isn’t any support for those who want to play.”

As far as the Karachi Basketball Association is concerned, it says it’s doing its part in promoting the game and providing facilities to play.

“We are doing everything we can which is in our capacity, we have no funding yet we have some of the modern technologies here,” KBBA president Ghulam Mohammad Khan, who is also a PBF vice-president, told Dawn. “We renovated the Aram Bagh court and made it an international level court, installed LED flood lights, baskets and a digital clock.”

He informed that Karachi would hold the PBF Inter-provincial Tournament in March but added that there should be more such events so players across the country can pit themselves against each other.

But like many other organisers of sport in the country, in the end, he questioned the players’ motivation.

“Basketball is mostly being played by the elite class of the society for recreational purposes,” he said. “They don’t participate in trials because they don’t want travel out of Karachi. Then, of course, there isn’t much money involved in the sport so the motivation dies.”

That, though, doesn’t hold true in the case of Yash or Hasan. They want to achieve more but the future doesn’t hold much hope.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2021