Basketball in Haiti
Cap-Haitien's All-Star University players and staff members posing for a picture with SportsPower International players and staff members. Photo by Oldjy Francois for The Haitian Times

CAP-HAITIEN — A team of former NBA players defeated the city’s All-Star University 69-64 in an exhibition game at a sold-out Gymnasium Champs de Mars. 

“It felt good to win but I was kind of rooting for you guys,” Jermaine Taylor, SportsPower International shooting guard and ex-Houston Rockets player, told The Haitian Times after the game. “They fought back hard and the crowd was into it. Their players were really good.”

SportsPower International is a non-profit organization based in Baltimore, Maryland with the mission of changing “the lives of people who are hurting” through basketball. During its four-day trip in Cap-Haitien, SportsPower scouted the city for a potential project, hosted a basketball clinic May 28 and played the exhibition game May 29.

SportsPower’s team is made of retired players from the NBA, Europe and college basketball. 

All-Star University’s team consisted of some of the best college and Innovation Basketball Okap (IBO) professional players in Cap-Haitien.

“We were defending our country, especially Cap-Haitien,” said Séjour Cox, from Université Notre Dame D’Haïti (UNDH).

All-Star head coach Wesly Jérôme said he is satisfied with how SportsPower International was welcomed in Cap-Haitien and congratulated his players for putting on a good performance. 

“I’d like for the people to come watch basketball while it’s getting a little better,” Jérôme said. “I want the country to have true basketball camps.”

Email me at onz@haitiantimes.com
Onz Chery is a Haiti correspondent for The Haitian Times. Chery started his journalism career as a City College of New York student with The Campus. He later wrote for First Touch, local soccer leagues in New York and Elite Sports New York before joining The Haitian Times in 2019.

Leave a comment

Leave a Reply