Their Southern California itinerary is a 10-year-old boy’s dream: Disneyland, a Los Angeles Lakers game and a visit to Santa Monica Beach, yet most of the players from a basketball academy in the mountains of southern Mexico have not heard of Mickey Mouse. Having grown up in isolated villages, basketball is a ticket to a better life for them.
At home in Oaxaca, Mexico, the youngsters are so poor that they play without shoes, but they were all wearing sneakers on Friday as they got to slap hands with Lakers players. After winning an international tournament in Argentina, they have been dubbed the “barefoot giants of the mountains.”
“Despite having everything against them, these children have shown their strength on the basketball court and won,” said Gerardo Vasquez, president of a federation of Oaxacan immigrant groups in Southern California. “They’ve shown the world that despite their circumstances, they are a light of hope for Oaxacans and Mexicans.”
While many Mexicans are soccer fans, in the rugged hills of Oaxaca State there are more ball courts than soccer pitches. Some say that the modern game echoes the traditional ceremonial game of ulama, which was played to the death in stone courts that now stand in ruins.
At home in southern Mexico, the seven to 11-year-old team members live at a boarding school, study Spanish and their native language of Triqui, and attend daily three-hour-long basketball practices.
The 17 players come from some of Mexico’s poorest areas, where “it looks like they’re stuck in the 18th century,” said Sergio Zuniga, chief coach and founder of the Mexican Academy of Indigenous Basketball in Oaxaca.
“To see children who only have one meal a day, sharing a plate of beans and one tortilla between three people, isn’t rare,” he said.
Zuniga said his program uses basketball to teach discipline and pride, to help children graduate high school and perhaps even attend a university.
On their first US tour, the boys are playing teams from Los Angeles-area Catholic schools, recreation leagues and even an ad-hoc team of reporters from Spanish-language media. They arrived on Tuesday last week and will leave after Christmas
The children are usually shorter than their opponents. Zuniga and his team of coaches, teachers and social workers cannot do anything about their genes, and even the 11-year-olds look like they are ages away from a teenage growth spurt.
On Wednesday night last week, while Zuniga shouted from the sidelines in Spanish and Triqui, the boys played a scrappy game and kept the score tight against their taller rivals in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles to ultimately claim victory.
Team member Tobias de Jesus Bautista, 11, said he was undaunted by his opponents’ size.
“We have to give double, triple the effort, but I think we can compensate for our height by concentrating on our free-throws, by being in better physical condition and by being more sure of what we’re doing. We can reach our dreams,” Bautista said.
DOMINATION: McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris took the first two spots as Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen followed them Australian Oscar Piastri yesterday roared back from season-opening disappointment in his home race by winning the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two with championship-leading teammate Lando Norris. George Russell finished third for Mercedes, ahead of Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Saturday’s sprint winner Lewis Hamilton fifth and sixth respectively. Piastri’s win denied Norris a third victory in a row, including last year’s Abu Dhabi season-ender, but left champions McLaren unbeaten in two races so far this year. “Mega job guys. The car was very, very lovely,” Piastri said
TO FINAL FOUR: France had 22 chances and scored two goals, while Croatia could not manage a single shot on target in 120 minutes. Les Bleus won 5-4 on penalties France on Sunday overturned a two-goal deficit to qualify for the UEFA Nations League Final Four by eliminating Croatia 5-4 on penalties after a 2-0 victory in their quarter-final second leg at the Stade de France. Dayot Upamecano scored the winning spot kick in a nail-biting shootout in which France keeper Mike Maignan made two saves, sending Les Bleus into the semi-finals against Spain. Michael Olise opened the scoring and Ousmane Dembele doubled their lead 10 minutes from time to send the tie into extra time after their 2-0 loss in Split, Croatia, on Thursday. France had a total of
BRING THE NOISE: Brazil’s Fonseca attracted a boisterous crowd that brought such dominant soccer-style energy the referee switched to Portuguese to ask for quiet Australia’s Alex de Minaur on Monday put an end to Brazilian talent Joao Fonseca’s challenge at the Miami Open, outlasting the 18-year-old 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in an enthralling contest. Attendance on stadium court had been sparse throughout the day, but the Hard Rock Stadium turned into a mini-Maracana Stadium for Fonseca’s match, complete with Brazilian flags and soccer-style chanting. Fonseca brought his energetic brand of ultra-attacking tennis, but De Minaur was up to the challenge, coping with blistering forehands and a partisan crowd. Such was the dominance of Fonseca’s raucous support that the referee switched to Portuguese for his appeals for quiet. However, De
The Chicago Bulls on Saturday stunned the Los Angeles Lakers 146-115, spoiling superstar LeBron James’ return from a two-week absence with a groin injury. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer James delivered 17 points, six rebounds and four assists in 31 minutes on court. Luka Doncic, back in action after resting a sore ankle, drilled eight three-pointers on the way to a team-high 34 points, but he ran out of steam in the second half, and no one else stepped up. Austin Reaves, who had also missed action with ankle trouble, scored 25 points. Rui Hachimura, playing limited minutes after missing
RSS