Teamwork is the most important aspect in all progressing organisations where team members work together to achieve a common goal or vision.
This is illustrated in the way a basketball team practices, plays and works together to reach a goal. And at the game of basketball, teamwork being demonstrated also teaches great lessons in life, especially in organisations where teamwork is vital.
EMTV Online had the opportunity to cover Day One of 2017 FIBA Melanesia Basketball Cup (2017 FIBA MBC ) being played between Papua New Guinea, Fiji, New Caledonia and Solomon Islands.
It was quite an overwhelming experience for the online aspect of EMTV to actually witness the great representatives of basketball represent their country in the 2017 FIBA MBC.
Whilst 2017 FIBA Melanesia Basketball Cup serves as the qualifiers for the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa with three berths allocated for the top three teams in this tournament, only top two teams will again qualify for the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup pre-qualification tournament in 2023, thanks to teamwork.
Politically and at the larger scale, the Pacific Island nations which include the countries of Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia are a team and in many aspects can collectively achieve much when working together with a common vision.
In a basketball team, everyone is important and everyone’s participation counts. It is a body collectively working together to achieve results.
For example, an expert basketball player will unselfishly pass the ball to a teammate so both players can feel the success of making a basket. Giving to others so everyone can come out on top is a huge life lesson the Pacific leaders can take from basketball.
2017 FIBA MBC is held at a time when many things regarding the welfare of the people of the Pacific had been discussed by leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum with new United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Antonio Guterres last week at the United Nations HQ in New York.
Fighting for the welfare of the Pacific people whilst embracing one another’s strengths and weaknesses is a teamwork and a lot can be learnt from a game of basketball alone.
Meanwhile, Pacific Forum leaders embraced the importance of including women and youth in peace-building efforts. The game of Basketball does have a beautiful story of peacemaking. This happens in the book, ‘The Crossover’.
Twin brothers, Josh and Jordan Bell, play on the same basketball team for their middle school. They support each other in practice, at home, on the basketball court, and in life. They soon learn that like life, the game of basketball depends on players getting along.
A disagreement between them causes the brothers to stop speaking to one another. This upsets their family life and the members of their basketball team. The parents try to get their sons to patch things up. What brings the twins back together is their love for their dad and their love for basketball.
The emotion felt during a game and the important strategy behind each play makes basketball, like other sports, a powerful teacher of life.
