A number of participants from high schools across Jamaica were in action as the two-day 2019 Digicel NBA Jumpstart basketball series started yesterday at the National Arena.

The series, featuring top coaches from the National basketball Association (NBA) in the USA, tipped off yesterday as over 70 local pro basketball hopefuls received valuable training tips and drills from mainly assistant coach of Westchester Knicks Derrick Alston and Nathaniel Mitchell, assistajnt coach at NBA franchise, the Charlotte Hornets.

The local players were given the opportunity to vie for a spot in the Top Ten that will go on to the second phase of the try outs in Trinidad and Tobago.

There, the Jamaicans — six boys and four girls — will need to impress the NBA coaches in order to earn a coveted pick to join the Digicel NBA Experience in New York later this year.

They will then train at a state-of-the-art basketball facility, attend a professional NBA game, go up against other high school teams and meet top NBA executives.

Elon Parkinson, Digicel’s head of public relations, told the Jamaica Observer that they are committed to nurturing and developing sporting talent in the Caribbean.

“Now in its fifth year, Digicel is once again helping Jamaica’s aspiring basketballers to unleash their full potential while improving the popularity of the sport in the region through grass roots initiatives like Jumpstart,” said Parkinson.

The Digicel JumpStart clinic was started in 2015 and involved countries Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The programme will once again feature coaching development opportunities for local coaches who participate in the Jumpstart clinics in each country.

— Howard Walker