The 2009 edition of the annual Rookie Basketball Tournament organized by the Rookie Basketball Academy received a big boost recently with the support got from Medik-55 a product of Kalbe of Indonesia.
These cheering news was broken by the country manager of the pain relief product, Didik Novandi who declared that his company support for the youth basketball tourney is because of it believe in helping to harness the abundant talents in Nigeria.
Novandi says Medik-55 is throwing its weight on the tourney this year with a view of giving it full sponsorship support next year if it is satisfied with the 2009 edition which is the eleventh edition of the tourney that has produce great talent for clubs and the Nigerian national team, the latest of such talent nurtured at the Rookie Academy and who sharpened his basketball teeth at the Rookie annual tourney is Peter Odia of Ebun Comets basketball club point guard and Nigeria U-16 national team that finished third at the FIBA Africa Championship for U-16 Men in Mozambique this year.
Tournament coordinator, Mark Balogun an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) thanked Kalbe and Orange Drugs for supporting the number one youth basketball competition in Nigeria .
He therefore promised that the 2009 edition will be a success as the organizers have set up a strong organizing committee to handle the organization of the tournament this year.
The tournament will be in various categories of U-18 Men and Women, U-16 Men and Women and U-12 boys.
Balogun however, urged the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF to send its age group national team handlers to make the basketball court of the Police College , Ikeja, Lagos their one-stop place for the December 14 through 19 tournaments.