The Jamaica Basketball Association (JaBA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Stella Azzurra Academy of Italy that will facilitate exchange programmes and activities for players, administrators and support personnel between both entities.

Speaking at the signing at Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Thursday morning, JaBA President Paulton Gordon said the agreement was born out of visits by Stella Azzurra Academy coaches who attended the Star Search Basketball Camp at GC Foster last summer.

According to Gordon, the purpose of the agreement is to establish a framework for cooperation in areas of basketball development which can ultimately lead to improvement in all facets of the basketball ecosystem in Jamaica.

“It is long in coming and we are happy that we have finally signed the deal,” said Gordon. “We have been having discussions over the last four to five months about getting this done. We think that it is another platform that we can use to develop basketball in Jamaica because there are… things that are needed from the grassroots level right up to the very elite, and partnerships such as this and the one that we have with Phase One Academy with only expedite and expand that capacity,” he said.

He shared that their MOU with Stella Azzurra will see two members of the Jamaica’s Under-17 team travelling to Italy next month to be a part of their academy.

“We have two youngsters who played on the national Under-17 team that will be in Italy on February 10 as part of this academy and so we are looking forward to them going there and doing well,” he said.

Avsdhalom Filler, technical director of Stella Azzurra Basketball Academy, said that they are very delighted to be partnering with JaBA.

“We are definitely super excited to have this partnership being forged because we deeply believe in the huge potential that the Jamaica Basketball Association has,” said Filler.

“We think that with this partnership Jamaica could strive a lot in the near future,” he said. “I think that it helps to raise the exposure of young Jamaican basketball talents overseas and the development of coaches’ databases and also assisting the management side of basketball,” Filler stated. Christopher Samuda, president of the Jamaica Olympic Association, says the JaBA’s partnership with Stella Azzurra Basketball Academy is a step in the right direction for the development of basketball in Jamaica.

“It is the first strategic partnership for the Jamaica Basketball Association within our membership and what we will do is to encourage them not only to build on this partnership, but also to establish other partnerships that will be down to the benefit of their athletes and coaches,” said Samuda.

“The fact of the matter is that we are interested in building capacity and the coaches are of course the cornerstone of sports development so therefore any initiative that involves our coaches and youth in particular, which is our primary assets in sport, we will support and we will continue to invest in basketball and other sports,” he added.

— Robert Bailey