“Walk like LeBron, dance like LeBron, it’s Baby LeBron!” Exclaims an entertainer to introduce one of the players from the American street basketball team ‘Court Kingz’, visiting Venezuela to entertain and motivate the poorest.
On a field on January 23, a neighborhood in the west of Caracas, hip hop is blaring at full volume as these ball artists enter one by one. They jump. They make faces. They flirt with the public. The euphoria is total.
“There’s a game at 23!”, Launches one of the giants who introduces himself as ‘Big Mike’, in a pun on the classic salsero ‘Fuego at 23’.
But there will be no match. The floor is smooth due to deterioration of the paint and is not suitable for the planned contest between local athletes and the ‘Court Kingz’, who on their second visit to Venezuela took their show to other capital neighborhoods hit by poverty and crime.
“It is my responsibility, we are going to do a show in the midfield,” apologizes the Vice Minister of Sports, Alexander Vargas, former basketball player and host of the activity that commemorated the anniversary of its founding.
Children and adults then form a semicircle in the field, flanked by a mountain with humble multicolored houses, banners of the ‘Court Kingz’ and Simón Bolívar, and allusive graffiti to the late former president Hugo Chávez.
The inhabitants of January 23 watch in wonder the stunts of Zig Zag, Remix, Miller Streetball, Coolio, Crazy Legs, Big Mike, Mr. Kabaya, Jet Blue, Baby Lebron, King Hinch, Guy Dupuy and Madness. Artistic names of the cast that include a French, a Chilean and a Venezuelan.
The American street basketball team delighted the children of Venezuela.
– Tearing down walls –
The performance helps the neighbors to forget for a while the lack of food and medicine and the high cost of living that mark the economic crisis of the oil country, also affected by an overwhelming criminality.
Before the show, seven-year-old Jhoswel Meléndez demonstrated his incredible prowess on the ball. NBA fan Stephen Curry was awarded with applause.
His parents proudly count that he has 28 champion medals in dribbling. They want to prevent him from falling into “bad steps”, so he and his three brothers play sports.
“I had friends who were in a bad life, and thank God, for having my mind occupied and studying I did not fall for that,” José Meléndez, a 33-year-old former amateur baseball player, told AFP.
‘Court Kingz’ offers fundraising events for schools and non-profit organizations in the United States, and tours South America and Asia “using basketball to tear down cultural walls and give children a reason to smile,” according to his website.
Champion of the FIBA Americas 2015, baseball Venezuela has a long tradition in basketball.
“The culture of peace is what we want, for the chamos (boys) to dance and for the best basketball players in Venezuela to measure themselves against the best in the world,” said Vargas, promoter of a government plan that seeks to combat the high rates of criminality.
– Cure for violence –
According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, the country registered some 26,000 homicides in 2017, which represents a rate of 89 per 100,000 inhabitants, 15 times higher than the world average.
Vargas, a close collaborator of President Nicolás Maduro, assures that leisure is responsible for “violence and crime” and hopes that with the massification of sports and dancing in impoverished neighborhoods, the situation will improve.
So do Keka, Rox and Walcot, who enlivened the show with an energetic performance of African dance.
“We are in the urban scene in a healthy way through basketball and dance,” said 19-year-old Walcot.
Chilean Diego Moya ‘Madness’, 29, is convinced that promoting basketball in children “is taking them off the streets.” AFP