Two Brits Set to Represent Europe at First Jr. NBA World Championship

The NBA has announced that two UK teenagers, Marc Mendoza (male, 14) and Tinu Fakunle (female, 14), will represent Europe at the first Jr. NBA World Championships in Orlando, Florida on Aug. 7-12, 2018.

Marc and Tinu are both from East London and both play for Newham Youngbloods basketball team.

The two were selected after participating in the Jr. NBA WC Europe Camp in Slovenia earlier this year.

The two teams, comprised of 10 players each, feature boys and girls from 12 countries across Europe, including four from Spain, three from Lithuania and two from England, Finland, and Sweden, respectively. The boys team will be coached by Alessandro Nocera (Italy) and Eero Levä (Finland), while the girls team will be coached by Uros Dragicevic (Spain) and Lina Brazdeikyte (Lithuania).

The teams were selected by a committee of coaches and NBA staff following the Jr. NBA World Championship Europe Camp, a week-long selection camp in Rogla, Slovenia from April 30 – May 4. The camp, which included basketball skill development drills and five-on-five competition, featured the top 47 13- and 14-year-old players from Jr. NBA leagues in 17 countries across Europe.

“The Jr. NBA World Championship represents another exciting step in the NBA’s current youth basketball programming and development efforts in Europe,” said NBA Associate Vice President of Basketball Operations, Europe and Middle East, Neal Meyer. “These 20 Jr. NBA participants will have the opportunity to represent their country and unite as one European team to showcase their skills on a global stage.”

The Jr. NBA World Championship will have boys and girls divisions, each comprised of 16 regional teams (eight U.S. and eight international teams) that will receive all-expenses-paid trips to compete in the inaugural event. The Jr. NBA World Championship will include round-robin competition followed by single-elimination tournaments. Winners of the U.S. and international brackets will play in the World Championship game on Aug. 12.

In addition to the on-court competition at the Jr. NBA World Championship, boys and girls from dozens of countries from around the world will participate in off-court activities – often alongside current and former NBA and WNBA players – including life skills education, physical and mental wellness programming and NBA Cares community service projects.

The Jr. NBA World Championship will align with the NBA and USA Basketball Youth Guidelines, which promote player health and wellness and age- and stage-appropriate rules and standards. All coaches participating in the Jr. NBA World Championship will also be required to be trained and licensed.

Do you like our work?

We have a tiny favour to ask. In 2018 we set out to make Hoopsfix sustainable by building our relationship directly with our readers. Up until now, Hoopsfix has been creating editorials, videos and podcasts to provide sorely missing coverage of the British game and its distinct culture and community.

We have funded Hoopsfix with our freelance work creating basketball media, but sadly that means not only does it fall behind our client’s priorities, but some of those clients are the same organisations we need to report objectively on putting us in a conflicted position.

We want to devote more time to our mission of helping British basketball reach its potential, and produce even more content for the basketball community by making Hoopsfix a sustainable 100% independent business funded directly by our readers through Patreon.

If everyone who enjoys our content chose to support us, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $3 per month, you can support Hoopsfix – and it only takes a minute.

We are tremendously honoured and humbled to have a community of people who value what we do, and we look forward to being at the forefront of the British game as it continues to evolve.

Support Hoopsfix