Former Nima Flames Small Forward, Ridwan Sako, a.k.a Romario, says the gradual developments of the game of basketball in Ghana is a recipe for greater things to come in the foreseeable future.
In an exclusive interview with basketballghana.com, the New York based athlete touched on various issues bordering on his experiences, his perspective of the current Ghanaian game, challenges among other issues.
Romario who is currently on holiday in the Mother land believe there are many young, ambitious and talented players who have the insatiable desire to play the game at the highest level with the famous NBA league as their ultimate goal.
The 6/5 small forward who currently plays for Clinton High School in New York was one of Ghana’s finest basketball players in the early nineties.
He won many accolades in the country including the MVP and the best slam dunker over a four year- dominance between 1995-1999.
He played the Ghana National Basketball team and featured in series of high profile African qualifying matches against giants like Angola, Nigeria, Libya, Togo, and Burkina Faso amongst many others.
He was full of praise for Rite Multimedia who has been at the forefront of projecting the game from the grassroots to the pinnacle in the county.
‘If you look at what this great guy (Yaw Sakyi) and his people from Rite Multimedia are doing for the game, it is phenomenal and needs all the help from the stakeholders involved to project the game to the top’
‘I was monitoring him while in the US and since I came down a few weeks ago, I have seen a tremendous improvement in terms of the desire and the enthusiasm of the players to exhibits their talents’
‘The numerous basketball games developed in the schools and the communities are very good and in the right direction and will yield positive results for the country.’ he added.
He touched on his experiences while playing for the Nima Flames some seventeen years ago.
‘It was a great feeling those days because I played for the love of it and we played with all our hearts and looking back right now, it was amazing.’
‘ Nima is where the game was played and the game took many people of the street and that kind of thought makes me happy today that some of our friends are also playing well in the US.
The Small forward also bemoaned the lack of basketball facilities in the country but reckons Ghanaians should not throw their hands in despair.
‘It is a shame that the whole Accra has only seven or less basketball courts, so i think the government needs to augment the effort of Rite Multimedia by building more court in parts of the country particularly the north.’
‘But despite the fact that there are limited facilities, the kind of enthusiasm and interest that these young guys from the communities have shown indicate a bright future for the sport.’
‘The government must recognize the efforts of Rite Multimedia in thier quest to make basketball the second biggest sport in Ghana.’
Story by Patrick Kwame Akoto /basketballghana.com/Ghana
