A game between Austria and South Africa team showed that being in a wheelchair doesn’t limit the skill and excitement
BASKETBALL:Julian Drew
WHEN I set out last Friday evening to watch my first ever wheelchair basketball game I must admit I was a little doubtful about how much excitement there could be in such a game. It’s not that I had any reservations about disabled sport, I have long been a convert to this underexposed area of sport, but I just couldn’t imagine how the fast-dribbling, high- leaping, slamdunking attributes on show in the NBA could manifest themselves in a game where the participants are restricted by something as cumbersome as a wheelchair.
I should have known better. Having experienced first hand the tenacity and dedication displayed by disabled sportsmen and women in the athletics arena I should have expected the thrills and spills which will always be present where there is such extraordinary commitment. No, there were no high leaping or slamdunking wheelchairs. But that was more than compensated for by unbelievably dexterous ball skills and wheelchair manoeuvres.
The occasion was the first Test series for the South African wheelchair basketball team since this country was readmitted to international sport for the physically disabled. More importantly, this third game of the five-Test series against Austria celebrated the opening of the new multi-million-rand indoor sports centre at the headquarters of the South African Sports Association for Physically Disabled (SASAPD) at the Mandeville Club in Bez Valley, Johannesburg.
While the Sport and Recreation Ministry, along with National Olympic Council of South Africa (Nocsa) and the National Sports Council (NSC), have certainly supported the SASAPD, the fact that such a magnificent facility now exists for the disabled is due mainly to the irrepressible enthusiasm of Andy Scott, CEO of SASAPD.
A former world record holder and multiple medallist as a disabled sportsman in swimming and basketball, Scott is the public voice of disabled sport who more than anyone has raised its profile in recent years and brought corporate sponsors to the table. At the opening of the sports centre he said quite honestly, “welcome to my dream”, but it’s a lot more than just his dream. It’s a dream all physically disabled people can share in.
The game which opened this centre was a little bit one-sided due to South Africa’s inexperience, but it was a thrilling encounter which served to highlight the skills of two of the world’s best players in the Austrian team.
Wheelchair basketball players are graded with respect to the degree of their physical disability on a scale of 1 to 4,5. The lower the handicap rating the greater the degree of disability and to try and make the game as fair as possible a team may field a maximum of 14 handicap points for the five players on court at any given moment. Walter Pfaller is seeded number one in the world in the 3,5 disability category and Gazi Karaman is seeded number two in the 3 category.
They will both play in a world all stars team against the world champions, Team USA, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta next April. The occasion will be the World Challenge event which is part of the lead up to the Paralympics that take place in Atlanta 12 days after the Olympic Games next August.
Pfaller, with his long blond hair and athletic physique,was the standout player in Austria’s victory over South Africa. He has played 214 times for Austria and made his debut in 1977, coincidentally against South Africa.
Wheelchair basketball has the same rules as ordinary basketball except that a player is allowed to hold the ball in his lap while taking two pulls on his wheelchair to propel himself along. Most players, however, have managed to adapt to bouncing the ball alongside or in front of themselves while pulling the wheelchair along in between bounces but so strong and powerful is Pfaller that on breakaways he sends the ball ahead in great loping bounces and hurtles after it to catch it on the second or third bounce with nobody able to match his speed.
Pfaller’s disability was caused by polio but his upper body is as big and well-muscled as any that has graced the Springbok front row and it is this strength that makes him such an exceptional player. He can dribble the ball with one hand while effortlessly swinging and twisting his wheelchair around to change direction or shield the ball and often bounces the ball from one hand to the other around the back of this wheelchair while on the move with opponents in pursuit.
He combines this skill with a fiercely competitive instinct which often sees him tumbling out of his wheelchair or in trouble with the referee for animatedly disputing his decisions. But that is in the heat of competition and Pfaller is a fair and dedicated sportsman who at halftime spent the break coaching a group of young disabled South Africans who crowded around him eager to learn.
At half time the score was 42-14 and as a contest the match was already over, but it was certainly not lacking excitement. Although, according to Pfaller and South African national convener Vic Sierra, many wheelchair basketball players are disabled in motorcycle or car accidents, also skiing accidents in Austria, it didn’t seem to dampen their enthusiasm for high- speed collisions in wheelchairs.
The wheelchairs used in disabled sport are about as close to the robust, sturdy models you see in hospitals as Chris Boardman’s revolutionary bicycle is to the black, heavy- framed variety now doing service as movie props. They are light and fast with the wheels splayed out at an angle and when they reach full speed the players are moving quicker than I’ve ever seen the likes of Michael Jordan move on court. When all 10 players converge on the area in pursuit of a loose ball the only way to describe it is like stock car racing in wheelchairs.
South Africa eventually lost the game 88-39 and went down 5-0 in the series against an Austrian side which is ranked around 12th in the world. At the European championships in Paris this year they narrowly lost their last round-robin game which would have seen them contest the fifth and sixth place play-off game and guaranteed them a place at the Paralympics in Atlanta.
Most of the Austrian team come from Salzburg where Pfaller and a group of disabled friends started playing together 20 years ago. They practise together regularly and play in club and national team competitions around Europe many times during the year. It is this which Karl Felix, who also plays for Salzburg, believes is the difference between Austria and South Africa. “Disabled sportsmen in South Africa are very good but in a sport like basketball you need frequent high-level competition to reach the top and here in South Africa it is difflcult to find that kind of competition without travelling to Europe or America,”says Felix.
Kelebone Mosuoe of the Freegold team from Welkom takes the argument one step further: “There are not many wheelchair basketball teams in South Africa and we are all so spread out in places like Cape Town, Welkom and Johannesburg that we don’t even play against each other very often.”
South Africa last played a wheelchair basketball Test match four years ago, also against Austria, but in March they have been invited to play in a triangular tournament in Cairo against Egypt and Algeria. Like all South African sportsmen and women our absence from the international arena led to a drop in standards and for wheelchair basketball the long haul back has started later than for