HEAT Kings emerged as the champion of the inaugural edition of the Musa Kida Basketball Cup on December 30, 2023 after winning their two games at the Giants of Africa Court inside the mini stadium in Abesan Estate,Ipaja, Lagos state.
They beat Estate Kings in game one 49-31 to register their first win before beating Diamond Academy 43-19 in game 2 .
In another game played,Estate Kings defeated Diamond 29-06.
Estate Kings ended the three team format in second position while Diamond came third .
All the top three three teams got medals with the newly crowned winner,Heat Kings carting home the champions trophy.
Players who received individual honors includes Heat’s Moses Egbufor emerging as Most Valuable Player of the competition while Muiz Salami of Estate Kings won the best defensive player.
Also Tomisin Alatishe of Diamond Academy picked the best three point shooter award.
In his remarks, the sponsor of the event, Engineer Musa Kida said the competition is aimed at producing talents from the grassroots.
Kida who doubles as President of Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF commended the participating teams for gallant performance and assured that the competition will continue in 2024 .
“Am impressed with the turn out and especially the talents on ground,we will continue to do more for grassroots players,this is how the legend among us started. They all have humble beginnings before turning global superstars.
“The next edition will be greater and involve more teams ,don’t forget that this is the festive season. Kudos to the organisers as well for putting this together,” he said.
The coordinator of the event ,Tayo Adeyemo of Wonderland Sports said that lots of talents abound in the grassroots, urging clubs to take advantage of the Musa Kida basketball competition to discover talents for their teams.
He assured that the next edition will be held in April 2024.