By BRENT STUBBS

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas can now prepare to watch two Bahamians play at the same time in the National Basketball Association with Deandre Ayton getting drafted last night with the first pick of the 2018 Draft by the Phoenix Suns to join Grand Bahamian Chavano “Buddy” Hield of the Sacramento Kings.

It’s great news and obviously sets the stage for greater things to come in the future,

While there were other Bahamians who played in the league, this is the first time that two will be playing against each other. So there will be a lot of excitement brewing whenever the Suns and the Kings clash, should Ayton and Hield remain on their rosters. As you know, there is expected to be a lot of wheeling and dealing before the season resumes in October.

It’s still early because Ayton still have to get his feet wet and Hied is starting to hold its own.

But wouldn’t it be good to see the two of them collaborate their efforts in bringing the NBA to The Bahamas, either through a training camp or a camp for youngsters like the Jeff Rodgers Summer Basketball Camp that Ayton got acclimated to the game before he went to the United States as a raw teenager?

The Rodgers Basketball Camp replaced the Mychal “Sweet Bells” Thompson and Osbourne “Goose” Lockhart Summer Basketball Camp that the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture hosted in honor of the former NBA number one draft pick and Harlem Globetrotters star respectively.

Michael Pintard, the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, is attending the draft and is expected to have a series of meetings with the NBA with the view of facilitating some activities in the future, So is Mario Bowleg, the first vice president of the Bahamas Basketball Federation and a former national team coach of Ayton.

We just have to wait and see what come out of the meeting, but The Bahamas has and continue to be an ideal sporting mecca so why not bring on the NBA.

This is indeed a good day because it represents another significant accomplishment for our sporting athletes as they continue to prove that they have the natural ability to achieve anything that they put their mind too. However, who would have thought that 40 years later after Thompson made the breakthrough that we would have another number one first round foreign-born pick in the NBA?

Congrats Ayton and welcome to the NBA and we look forward to a long and fruitful journey along with Hield.

BBA Nationals

After the dismantlement of the Bahamas Baseball Federation, the Bahamas Baseball Association has taken over the staging of the National Baseball Championships. It’s scheduled for this weekend at the Emera Baseball Complex in Grand Bahama and will bring all of the leagues in the country together under umbrella, including Freedom Farm.

The BBA is the governing body for the sport and will get to re orchestrate the national programme as they prior to the split that formed the BBF about two decades ago. Hopefully the nationals this weekend will provide one happy atmosphere for the sport moving forward.

BAAA Nationals

The Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations made a decision to combine the youth and junior national championships over the weekend at the original Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium. The event produced a number of outstanding performances with athletes attaining the qualifying standards for various meets this summer.

However, there were some notable athletes missing in action because of injuries, due to what they called a long season. But when they were in their training sessions, it should have been pointed out by their coaches that there are events that will be extended for a significant period of time.

That’s what training sessions are all about.

This weekend, the BAAA will switch its attention to the senior nationals at the new Thomas A Robinson National Stadium and already there are some talk that some of the elite athletes will be missing, for one reason or the other, one of which is that this is an off year with no major international competition.

That should be no excuse not to participate in the nationals because the athletes owe it to the federation, sponsors and spectators to come home and compete and compete in their specialties to provide the much anticipated match-ups that they won’t get to see anywhere else.

Hopefully the BAAA will stick to their guns that unless the athletes compete in the nationals, they won’t be eligible to make the national teams that year and not allow the athletes to get away with their absence because they would have already qualified in previous meets elsewhere.

BSF Nationals

The Bahamas Swimming Federation and the BAAA normally clash with their nationals held around the same weekend, which poise some problems for the spectators who want to view the two. This year, the BSF’s nationals came a week ahead of the BAAA’s senior nationals.

And the BSF decided to spread it out to compete from Saturday to Tuesday, which would not have interfered with the BAAA’s Youth and Junior Nationals. As it turned out, The BSF’s nationals worked in their favor as they hosted one of the most successful championships to date.

Despite the fact that one of the marquee competitors, Olympian Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, was not in action at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex as she announced her retirement before the event started, there were a number of outstanding swimmers who rose to the occasion and performed exceptionally well.

It showed that the federation is still in good hands with a number of swimmers to continue to perform for The Bahamas on the international scene.

And while the reigning Barracuda Swim Club slipped all the way to fourth place in the standings, the newly formed Mako Aquatic Club emerged as the new champion and all indication are that there could be a rivalry between them and second place Alpha Aquatic as there was in the past with the Barrucuda and Swift Swimming Clubs.

So hats off to the BSF and its executive team, led by Algernon Cargill, on another successful and competitive nationals.