Steph Curry’s 3-Point Feat and the Importance of Basketball as a Sport in Zimbabwe.

By Takura Zhangazha*

Being a basketball fan, a predominantly American but now universally recognised sport, I am completely impressed by the accomplishments of USA All Star player and Golden States Warriors point guard, Stephen Curry’s recent record breaking accomplishments.  He is the highest three-point scorer in National Basketball Association (NBA) history.  Its an amazing feat given the fact that he has done it in a shorter period of time and with less games than his legendary predecessors Ray Allen and Reggie Miller. 

Some of you may ask what would this have to do with Zimbabwe or even my own aficionado proclivities to the sport?  The key issue is that basketball has had a great influence on Zimbabwean sporting culture.  Not as much as football, athletics, netball or volleyball but all the same it helped shape a lot of  mind-sets and approaches to contextual lives when we were growing up in the 1990s. 

 While mainly regarded it as an elitist sport, because it was considered relatively expensive and difficult to play.  

One needed not only an actual basketball but also sneakers, a decent court and colleagues who were more interested in using both hands and feet in playing sports. 

Personally I was drawn to it mainly by my brothers.  One (my elder cousin) who played for the then Prince Edward team and then a bit of Harare league basketball, my elder brother who admired the latter and hanging about with friends at the Lord Malvern high school basketball courts in Waterfalls, Harare. Especially if the television was not working or after church service on Sundays when the then Zimbabwe Television (ZTV) Channel 1 would show weekly NBA highlights.  We would hang about with what was then called the Waterfalls Trail Blazers and its amazing manager (sadly now late) Lynos Mushonga and an able player manager, Don Westerfall.  

Without a doubt our appreciation of the sport also came with mid 1990s expansion of African American hip hop culture, with the Sounds on Saturday music show that we would watch as and when the black and white television was functional.  So it was not just a sport but what we would now call a trend. Until you learnt how to play the sport beyond its fashionability.

Short as we were and comparatively still are (we knew we would never make the NBA let alone any other more organised leagues.)  But it gave us decent enough dreams of playing like Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler and above all else it helped us occupy youthful idle time (especially with my friend Terrence.)

But this is not where this ends for me at a personal level. I played for and captained at the end of my high school tenure the basketball team of St Ignatius College, Chishawasha (we once defeated basketball powerhouse Peterhouse Group of Schools in 1996). Again playing the game helped us to learn teamwork, practice and shared responsibilities for wins or losses. It also taught us how to learn to collectively lead and to be reflective upon defeat.   

Having moved from Waterfalls to Dzivaresekwa, I was taught how to understand the even greater community importance of basketball as a sport beyond mimicry of celebrity statuses.  My brother and I joined the amazing Dzivaresekwa Raiders Basketball team where the famous baller Vitalis Chikoko once played.  It was then led by Ngoni Mkukula who now runs an amazing local basketball charity called Hoops for Hope. 

My sister, Tsitsi, also played for the first womens' team of Raiders. 

Because I was unemployed I tried out more for the team and eventually made the team with amazing athletes (Coaster Mashati, Maynard Masawi) among many, many others.  We would go on to contend for the Harare Basketball league title though we, in the season I played we were always second/third best to what was then the Harare Cavaliers and Arcadia Bucs. 

Due to my own, by basketball standards, short physical height restrictions I sort of knew that I would need to learn how to shoot the ball from a distance. Not quite like Curry because he is much more taller, but I had a rough idea about strengths and weaknesses.

Sure, driving it into the key would still remain an occasional option but I was too short for this. So I learnt to practise how to shoot the 3-point shot and play from outside the key.  And was ably taught by the teammates and management at Dzivaresekwa Raiders. It also included having to go up the ‘water tank hill’ multiple times for a physical fitness test I know I will never be able to do again in my lifetime.

When I made it to the University of Zimbabwe, I also pursued the sport and played for the UZ Stars under the auspices of coach Kizito.  Again my strategy was to play around the 3 point line and not in the key.  In that first season I had made the team we shared amazing moments with players such as Benson, Taru, Brian, Masimba, Kundai, Welcome, Abel, Percy, Tonde and Mbiru.  We would practice in between lectures and try our best to improve our game.  Until, for me at least, student activism got in the way.  I never improved at the game after that.  And also my eyesight couldn’t handle the evening game floodlights.

But the key point I insist on making, based on my own personal experiences with the game of basketball, is that it helped develop my own sense of being, belonging to a collective of like minded individuals as inseparable.  The teamwork, the practice, the competitiveness and the respect for the game as a game that helps young Zimbabweans become better people will never be lost to me. Including the fact that, as is the case of Stephen Curry, if you practise hard enough, commit yourself to it, in the right enabling environment, you can become an unexpected legend. Almost as others would view their youthful football or other sport playing days. I hope the Zimbabwe Ministry of Sports and the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) are cognizant of and recognise this. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his own personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)