Twenty local basketball players were drafted into the P.H.A.S.E.1 Academy Elite 1 Caribbean Basketball Summer League (E1CBL) on Saturday during a draft party held at Ribbiz Ultra Lounge in Barbican.

The local draft also included players based overseas but who are of Jamaican heritage and possess a Jamaican passport.

The list of players that submitted their names to the draft includes former national players Joel Bailey, Adrian Mike, Stefan Whittingham, and Romaine Thomas.

Players drafted will compete with others from Canada, United States, UK, Africa, and other Caribbean countries in the much-anticipated E1CBL summer season. The league runs from August 10-20 at National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, and will inaugurate the fall pro season, which will run for 6-8 weeks from October to December 2022.

Nicholai Brown, David Gordon, Lushane Wilson, and Nadjrick Peat were the first picks for the four teams in the league, the Red, Blue, White, and Black teams, respectively.

“It felt great being the first draft pick, I was elated and the atmosphere made it exciting. Being there with fellow ball players made the whole experience remarkable,” 28-year-old Nicholai Brown said.

The second picks for the teams were Dave Black, Nick-caro Golding, Joel Bailey, and O’Wayne Lawrence.

D’Andre Forbes, Daniel Martillier, Anthony White, and Jaedon Lawe were the respective third picks for the teams, with Derjean Royal, Kasheef Clarke, Patrick Robinson, and Roman Parkers being the fourth picks. The fifth picks for each team were Antjuan McFarlane, Adeeb Vernon, Alex Levy, and Calvin Malcolm.

“It’s a wonderful feeling, words cannot explain knowing that all your hard work is finally bearing some fruit, and to be able to be a ambassador for the first E1CBL and to make a change for basketball in Jamaica and the Caribbean on a whole, it’s a wonderful feeling,” 21-year-old first pick of the Blue team Gordon said.

White, a national player, said he thoroughly enjoyed his first draft experience.

“It was a great experience and all round great vibe. My team got the steal of the draft with me. I am just super excited to get started,” he said.

White will be playing for the Red team.

It is the E1CBL’s mission to create a competitive pro basketball league in the Caribbean to increase the opportunity for consistent high-level competition, professional growth, and paid opportunities.

CEO of P.H.A.S.E.1 Academy Wayne Dawkins said the drafted players represent the future of Caribbean basketball.

“We are excited about the group of players who were selected. These are players with national team and professional experience, and people with strong resumes and strong playing experience is exactly what we need to get the E1CBL started off. These players will set a very high bar for where we want to take the E1CBL,” said Dawkins.

He explained that hosting a draft party for the athletes was very strategic as it helps to boost the players’ confidence and cement their professionalism.

“This draft experience for local players means everything. They give so much to the game and then sit back and watch on TV as other leagues around the world have their draft and players are being rewarded for all their time and effort and they finally get a chance to experience that,” he said.

Dawkins said the E1CBL will allow for Jamaica and the Caribbean, by extension, to start benefiting fully from its pool of talented basketball players.

Meanwhile, President of the Jamaica Basketball Association Paulton Gordon hailed the inaugural draft party experience as the first step in the evolution of Caribbean basketball.

“Most of them have not experienced this before and so it sets the stage for them to see what transitioning into a professional league looks like. This is just the first step in creating the framework for them to evolve to the next level,” Gordon said.

The E1CBL is the Caribbean’s biggest basketball entertainment event of the season and is being executed in partnership with the Jamaica Basketball Association (JaBA) and Ribbiz Ultra Lounge.

P.H.A.S.E.1 Academy was founded by Dawkins, a Jamaican-Canadian former basketball player. For the past 25 years, P.H.A.S.E.1 Academy has been organising and hosting basketball leagues and tournaments in Canada, the US, and Africa. These events have contributed substantially to the growth of the youth sports industry.

P.H.A.S.E.1 academies are located in Canada, Jamaica, the United States, and Africa, providing student athletes with access to expert staff, elite training methods, top competition, and exposure to greater opportunities. Over the years, more than 500 athletes have received scholarships to study and play post-secondary sports.