The Engineer Musa Kida led board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation is planning to introduce the bubble format for the 2021 domestic basketball season.
This is in light of the recent successes of the bubble format initiated by the National Basketball Association (NBA) as well as FIBA Africa during its last Afrobasket qualification series in Kigali, Rwanda.
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The option is being considered owing to the harsh reality of the covid-19 pandemic and the new normal, there is a need to quickly adapt to the situation.
The board said, “What we are trying to do most especially in basketball is to learn from the experience that we have had from the organisation of the NBA where they set up bubbles and people played as long as they were kept in one place with very limited contact with the outside world.”
The board also said the best decisions will be taken after due consultation with stakeholders and club owners ahead of the 2021 Zenith Women Premier League and the Total sponsored Men’s Division One and Two leagues.
Referencing the FIBA Afrobasket qualifiers held in November, 2020, the federation said, “The same thing happened in Kigali at the end of November with FIBA Africa showing it could organise the bubble also for the 2021 Afrobasket qualifiers. That was successful and we have another outing in February which will be held in similar fashion.”
The NBBF board which said it is currently in talks with Total Nigeria and Zenith Banks assured that the 2021 calendar would be released soon as clubs have already been placed on alert.
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