Williams ... president of the JBA. - File

Ajani Williams, president of the National Basketball League (NBL), has said that his administration is looking to develop the local competition and make it the best in the region.

"If we put in our development programmes, which I hope we will deploy by the end of this season, I think that we are going to have something special by season two," said Williams.

"I think that we will be able to compare ourselves with countries like the Dominican Republic, the Venezuelan leagues, the Philippine leagues and hopefully by year three of four, it would be better than some of those professional leagues," said an optimistic Williams.

Williams, who is in the first year of his four-year term as head of the Jamaica Basketball Association, said he was impressed by the high level of skill and maturity displayed by the players around the league. This, he said, has helped to increase the fan base around the competition.

"I am superbly excited and impressed by the level of play that a lot of the guys in the league display," said Williams, who had short stints with the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic in the National Basketball Association. "It definitely shows me that there is very solid, fundamental talent here in Jamaica, much more advanced than what I thought it was."

challenge

The NBL season began with a new format, which saw the competition divided into four conferences; Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern. The Southern Conference consists of 12 teams, while each of the other conferences has five teams. The top five teams in the Southern Conference, along with the other three conference winners, will enter into the national play-off, to challenge for the national title.

"I think that the new format has certainly helped to grow basketball this season from all corners of Jamaica because we have seen a number of persons at the games who we have never seen before and we are very happy for this, and everywhere I go people are talking about basketball," he said.

"We have also got more fans in places such as Nain, St Elizabeth, because there were probably more fans out there for a couple of the games than we have seen at the National Stadium," Williams boasted.

The tournament, which usually begins in April, began in August this year, but despite the setback, Williams noted that the competition has been running smoothly.

"I am beyond pleased with the way things have been going so far, but I don't think that we have reached our goals as yet. I think we are closer where I would want basketball to be and we have definitely met our expectations for this year," Williams said.

The fans attending this season's games have been provided with entertainment, courtesy of first-year title sponsors Flow, who have pumped $8 million into the competition, along with associate sponsors SportsMax. The entertain-ment package includes performances by top local artistes, dancing contests and cheerleading competitions.

"We are also hoping to develop our entertainment product a lot more, so that we can deploy in each region, and I think it will help to create a real buzz in each of these conferences, and this will get people to come and watch these games, not just for basketball, but for entertainment," Williams reasoned.

The president stated that 90 per cent of the sponsorship money has been put back into the league, which is being used to help the teams with their daily expenses and for prize money.

sponsorship issues

"I think that we did an excellent job in terms of crafting a budget with the money that we have received from the sponsors," he said. "We have managed to stay within our budget and we have not managed to blow it. We would love a surplus but it has been very tough. Hopefully, next year we won't have any sponsorship issues."

The winners of this year's competition will receive $300,000, the runners-up will take home $125,000, the third-place side gets $65,000 and fourth place, $40,000.