Tuface, Ice Prince, others light up ‘Mark D Ball’ 2013

The opening ceremony of the 2013 edition of the tournament was held on Thursday night at the Otukpo club with high dignitaries and thousands of fans in attendance.Tuface performed several of his hit tracks to add a unique dimension to the occasion, so did Ice Prince.Other top stars who set the court ablaze were MI, […]

The opening ceremony of the 2013 edition of the tournament was held on Thursday night at the Otukpo club with high dignitaries and thousands of fans in attendance.
Tuface performed several of his hit tracks to add a unique dimension to the occasion, so did Ice Prince.
Other top stars who set the court ablaze were MI, Kcee, Fred Bright, Victor Osuagwu, Vector, Sound Sultan, Style Plus, Black face and Ikechukwu.
Declaring the competition open, the Senate President, David Mark who commended the organisers for a job well done, expressed optimism that the competition will help uplift the youths of the country.
In their separate goodwill messages, the Director General of the National Sports Commission, Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye and the representative of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ezekiel Adaji commended the initiative.
“The National Sports Commission is appreciative of your efforts…as you are doing now, I’m sure in the next few years, we will see youngsters coming out of this programme becoming national basketball players, becoming future stars of basketball,” Elegbeleye noted.
Speaking earlier, President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Umar Tijani said the competition will help foster the Federation’s grassroots sports development programme.
“With over 500 kids who are going through the basic fundamentals of basketball and out of these kids, we get some of them who have exceptional talents that we will need.”
He added that: “the Federation is going to keep an eye on every emerging stars from the tournament so that we can all work together to make it a very successful investment.
As part of the opening ceremony, an exhibition match was thereafter played between Nigeria’s celebrities and Veterans of the game with the former running out 17:14 winners.