Ghana young star Julian Morgan delighted with Chris Bosh visit, expects basketball to explode

Former Mfantsipim small forward Julian Morgan expects the arrival of Chris Bosh to boost the game in Ghana.

The Miami Heat star will touch base in the West African country on Thursday July 10 for the second edition of the Sprite Ball Clinic.

The 30-year-old will interact with players and officials in the continuation of the promotional drive.

The former Toronto Raptors great who will be joined by a delegation from NBA Africa, will have discussions with the Ghana Basketball Association, participate in player clinics and familiarize themselves with the current status of the growing sport in the country.

Morgan, who is the reigning MVP at the High School level in Ghana after winning the Sprite Ball Championship title with Mfantsipim on three occasions, is thrilled with the idea after participating in the first edition.

“It was a wonderful experience for me. It was an eye opener and things that happen in basketball on a professional level that we don’t see and sometimes overlook,” he told BASKETBALLghana.com

“I was excited to be part of the basketball clinic because it was a learning curve for me. It helped me to develop as a basketball player.

“First of all, basketball is all about details and the little things we do in practice have great impact in the game and having them teach about shooting opened my eye that even if you’re 7ft, and you can shoot the basketball, it’s a huge plus for you as a player and it helps you to have many options when playing.

He shared some of the drills he learnt during the 2013 edition in Accra with Luol Deng and Pops Mensah-Bonsu

“Bouncing drills as in going through cones and blowing by people in order to do that you need a good first step and reading your opponents’ movement in order to blow by them. Other thing they though us was how to take a defensive stands. In fact they thought as many things that I can say all here.

Having failed to get selected to represent the country at the 2013 Basketball Without Borders programme, the youngster picked the positives from the training exercise.

“I was very disappointed because I thought I gave my all. But you know I always look at the bright side of life. I was able to learnt different basketball skills, that’s expanding my basketball knowledge,” he added

“I am very excited. How many times do you hear of NBA champion coming to Africa, let alone Ghana? He’s been a prominent player in the NBA, unfortunately the Heat could not win their third successive title but he’s one of the finest players on the planet.” he concluded

The first session will take place on Friday July 11 at the Aviation Social Centre in Accra from 1pm where players drawn from the Greater Accra region will be exposed to some new basketball knowledge by Chris Bosh and the NBA Africa team.

The team will then move to Cape Coast on Saturday for a similar exercise at Adisadel College to assess the level and shared knowledge.

The two-day event forms part of a screening exercise to select a player to represent the country at the 2014 Basketball Without Borders programme in South Africa in August this year.  Talented Ghanaian youngster Philip Osafo, who attended Kings College in Kumasi, participated in the annual event last year after impressing during the maiden edition of the Sprite Ball Clinic in Ghana.

Chris Bosh visit follows last year’s edition with Chicago Bulls Luol Deng and former Toronto Raptors player Pops Mensah-Bonsu.