6th December, 2010
Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, has postponed the commencement date of the NBBF/DSTV Premier League from this month to the first week of January, 2011.
The postponement became imperative as two of the country’s top clubs will be involved in continental championships from 9-19 of this month.
Basketball Timeout had earlier revealed that the league may not dunk off as scheduled when the NBBF said the league would dunk off this month because of tight schedule in 2011.
According to Segun Ikuesan, Media Officer of NBBF, the dates of the continental engagements clash with the proposed kick-off date of the DSTV League.
The league was also postponed because Kano Pillars Basketball Club of Kano, the league defending champions, and runners up, Royal Hoopers Basketball Club of Port Harcourt will partcipate in the 2010 FIBA-Africa Champions Cup for Men in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
He stated that the league will retain its 16-team format with eight clubs each competing in the Atlantic and Savannah conferences, revealing that the NBBF has consequently extended the deadline of submission of registration for the season to 22 December.
However, Chariot Basketball Club and Nigeria Immigration Basketball Club will be playing in the Premier League this season after gaining promotion to the elite division, while the Nigeria Customs Basketball Club and AHIP Giants Basketball Club were relegated at the end of the 2009/2010 season.
Meanwhile, Pillars and Hoopers, who finished first and second to pick the two tickets available for the FIBA-Africa Zone 1 in the recently concluded FIBA-Africa zone 1 qualifiers, will jet out of the country on Wednesday ahead of the club championships dunking off ths Friday, 10 December.
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