Winners of the 2024 edition of the Red Bull Half Court tournament set to represent the country in the World Finals to be held in New York on October 19, 2024.
The 2024 edition of the Red Bull Half Court is set to kick off on the 6th of April in Mombasa setting the ground for one of the most competitive and prolific 3 on 3 basketball tournaments in the country. The tournament, which is making a comeback for the fourth season, will see teams compete for a slot to represent the country in the World Finals that will be held in New York, US.
The annual tournament is organized by Red Bull Kenya in partnership with the Kenya Basketball Federation and aims to identify and grow the pool of basketball talent in the country.
National Finals in Nairobi
The competition will see regional qualifiers staged in 4 major cities where both men’s and ladies’ teams will fight for slots in the National Finals that will be staged in Nairobi on the 1st of June.
Soon after the first round of qualifiers that will be played in Mombasa on the 6th of April, the competition will make a comeback to the city of champions, Eldoret on the 20th of April. This will be the second time that Eldoret will be hosting the tournament; after successfully hosting the debut round of the qualifiers in 2023. Kisumu will host the lakeside qualifiers on the 27th April at the Jomo Kenyatta Sports Ground while Nairobi regional qualifiers will be held on the 4th of May at the USIU grounds.
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The Red Bull Half Court tournament follows the FIBA guidebook of 3 on 3 basketball where a team is composed of four players. The teams then play for a 10 min for a total score of 21 points. Just like in previous editions of the competition the format of the tournament will involve a pool play followed by a knockout stage to select the regional winners.
New Changes in Competition Structure
This year’s edition of the tournament is set to experience some changes made in the structure of the competition that will improve the level of play and competitiveness.
According to the new changes the 2024 edition will allow the 3-point rule which will be awarded if the player makes a shot and scores when one of his feet is 2 metres behind the 3-point line.
Another interesting component that will be introduced in this year’s edition will be a basketball clinic that will be conducted by legendary shooting coach Chris Matthews who is popularly known as Lethal shooter. The coach boasts a profile of coaching some of the big names both in the NBA andWNBA. The prolific coach will be in the country to conduct a clinic with some of the participants of the tournament on the 30th of May.
In the 2023 edition of the competition that was held in Belgrade, Serbia. Kenya was represented by RBK and NOGA who had secured the slots after beating tough competition in the National Finals.
Reflecting on his participation in the world finals RBK Kenya player Marcus Olang commended the competition as a good platform to promote 3-on-3 basketball because of the opportunity that it provided to athletes to improve their skills.
“Participating in the world finals gave us exposure to the game and different styles of play which I believe will be important not only to us not only as individuals but as a team especially in this year’s edition of the tournament”
On her part Agnetta Kambua from NOGA lauded the tournament for the experience that it gave to upcoming athletes to sharpen and improve their skills.
“Playing at the world finals was a very good experience, we got to meet new people played on world class basketball courts which felt really good to us. Most of our opponents had better ball movement compared to us, which was a challenge for us but by watching how they were playing we picked something which we hope to improve on in this year’s competition.”
She further emphasized the need to support similar initiatives because of the potential it had in nurturing and supporting female talent in the basketball space in Kenya.
“I would want to appreciate Red Bull and everyone who has taken time to support 3-on-3 tournament in the country. We hope to see more of such initiatives to ensure the growth and development of Basketball in the country”.
