SEVERAL coaches have called for a restructure of the basketball landscape in Malaysia.
The sport has garnered a lot of local interest but it has always been hampered by a lack of long term goals, and the fact it has always been viewed as a Chinese-majority sport.
After training sessions and competitions have been scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the KL Dragons, Malaysia's only professional basketball club, hosted an online session featuring several prominent coaches to exchange ideas and opinions.
Titled the "Dragons' Den", the first episode of the session was broadcast on Facebook on Tuesday. It featured the Dragons' head coach Jamie Pearlman and his assistant coaches, Adrian Wong and Izran Edika Kamarudin.
The other guest coaches in the session included former national head coach Goh Cheng Huat, national junior coach Ramesh Chandra, Johor's junior development coach Lawrence Yek and the prominent coaches in the non-Chinese community — Idham Khalid and Mislan El'Azzam.
Among the topics discussed were the development of basketball players at grassroots level, coaching development and the need to ramp up basketball among the non-Chinese community for a bigger talent pool in the country.
Pearlman, who spent many years as a player and coach in Australia and New Zealand before making the switch to Malaysia two years ago, pointed out that Malaysians are certainly not lacking in talent.
"When I first came to Malaysia, I could see there are very passionate players who are eager to improve and that's a core to building success," said Pearlman.
"But there is a need to invest in the grassroots and to build up the right sporting culture so that kids can see basketball, or just sports, as a career pathway."
Ramesh, a former national player, added that the revamp has to start all the way from the bottom.
"If the Malaysia Basketball Association (Maba) and all their state affiliates can work together, then I'm sure there is a lot more potential to be uncovered," he said.
Idham who is also a former national player, pointed out that race and language had nothing to do with basketball.
"Basketball is not a Chinese community sport. It is in fact a Malaysian sport and it is all about determination and how much you want to succeed.
"But I do agree we need to restructure. I've been to Indonesia to see their development and we're probably 10 years behind them, so it is definitely time to change."