The FIBA Hall of Fame was inaugurated last week. This prestigious Hall of Fame, situated in Alcobendas, Madrid in Spain, was opened to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of FIBA.
The official inauguration of the FIBA Hall of Fame was done by the Mayor of Alcobendas in the presence of the Spanish Secretary of State for Sports, FIBA’s President, Mr Bob Elphinston from Australia, FIBA’s Secretary General, Patrick Baumann, FIBA’s Secretary General Emeritus, Borislav Stankovic as well as the complete FIBA Central Board.
The FIBA Hall of Fame was built with the help of the city of Alcobendas and upon the initiative of Pedro Ferrándiz, the legendary coach of Real Madrid and also the founder and president of the Foundation that carries his name containing the first basketball museum found outside the USA.
The Hall of Fame is a five-floor building that covers 2,000 square metres and is an extension of the FIBA Pedro Ferrándiz Foundation, a museum with the objective to preserve the heritage of international basketball.
The primary goal of the FIBA Hall of Fame is to reflect the history of the sport and its protagonists.
The key criterion for selection into the FIBA Hall of Fame is outstanding achievement, at the international level, to the development and status of the sport of basketball.
The inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame will be divided into four categories: Players (who must have been retired from international competition for five years), Coaches, Technical Officials (referees and commissioners) and Contributors.
The International Basketball Federation decided to pay tribute to a selection of internationally-renowned figures who made outstanding contributions to the sport of basketball and who, unfortunately, are no longer with us.
During the opening press conference, FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann mentioned: “There are a number of basketball hall of fames in many countries throughout the world and all of them deserve our utmost respect. The culture and history of basketball going beyond the borders of one country, the FIBA Hall of Fame has been created to honor all those who greatly contributed to our game in all corners of the planet and made basketball one of the most popular sports in the world.”
In his speech, FIBA Secretary General Emeritus Borislav Stankovic remembered the early days of FIBA: “A FIBA Hall of Fame would be incomplete without paying tribute to those who invented the game of basketball and those who founded FIBA in 1932. Not many people of the younger generation know that some brave men on 18th June 1932 were able to gain independence from the then governing body of amateur handball, who at that time controlled basketball.”
Here follows the complete list of the initial posthumous inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame:
PLAYERS (Nine players inducted in total, seven male and two female players:
Alexander Belov(Russia), Krešimir Cosic (Croatia), Teófilo Cruz (Puerto Rico), Mirza Delibasic (Bosnia), Radivoj Korac (Serbia), Fernando Maretin (Spain), Dražen Petrovic (Croatia), Liliana Ronchetti (Italy), Vanya Voynova (Bulgaria).
COACHES (six in total):
Antonio Diaz Miguel (Spain), Alexander Gomelsky (Russia), Henry “Hank” Iba (USA), Vladimir Kondrashin (Russia), Aleksandar Nikolic (Serbia), Giancarlo Primo (Italy).
REFEREES (four in total):
Obrad Belosevic (Serbia), Vladimir Kostin (Russia), Pietro Reverberi (Italy), Renato Righetto (Brazil).
CONTRIBUTORS “GOLD” (four in total including the inventor of basketball, Canadian James Naismith and the long serving FIBA secretary general William Jones):
Léon Bouffard (Switzerland), Robert William Jones (England), James Naismith (Canada) and the eight founding federations of FIBA back on 18th June 1932 in Geneva, i.e. Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland.
There were also 21 other inductees as contributors amongst whom one finds Spanish Raimundo Saporta, Frenchman Robert Busnel and Serbs Nebojsa Popovic and Professor Radomir Shaper. I had the great opportunity to meet on a number of occasions with the latter as Dr Shaper was the president of the technical commission right up to his sudden death on the 6th of December 1998 and was always present for the Promotion Cups, including those held in our islands.
In the coming summer, in a date yet to be determined, the intake of the 2007 Class of Inductees (composed by a maximum number of 20 persons) will take place in order to mark the 75th Anniversary of FIBA.
Following that date, the enshrinement ceremonies into the FIBA Hall of Fame will take place every two years and will be limited to a maximum of six inductees per year.
Malta to compete in two Junior Division C Championships in Summer
Malta will take part in both the male and female Junior European Division C Basketball Championships next Summer.
In fact the male Junior national team will fly to Wales next July as the Under 19 championships will be held in Cardiff between the 16 and the 21 July.
Nine countries will compete with Andorra, Azerbaijan, Gibraltar, Moldova, Monaco, San Marino, Scotland and hosts Wales joining our Maltese squad.
The female Junior European Division c Championships will be the held in Malta between the 28th of August and the 1st of September. Five countries will take part, Andorra, Gibraltar, Luxembourg, Monaco and Malta.