Newly elected BFPNG president ambitious on establishing a semi-pro basketball competition

Papua New Guinea Basketball Federation’s newly elected president David Peter is ruthless on setting up a semi professional basketball competition in the country.

Mr Peter told NBC News in an exclusive interview that he wants to see basketball progressing to a semi-pro level and establishing a proficient basketball league would set the standard.

“That's basically going to put a bit of new energy into basketball and give a bit of motivation to our players and create a pathway for our players from the village levels coming up to the provincial and regional levels and then feeding into the national level,” he said of the initiative.

“At the moment, there is a disconnection between what's happening here in Port Moresby and what's happening at the rural areas. So I want to link those through such initiatives like semi-professional basketball competition.”

Peter said there is a lot of work that needs to be done at the federation to make this dream a reality under his term.

He was recently voted into office two weeks ago following the departure of former president Emma Waiwai, who is now the Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee chair.

The new BFPNG president said although there are numerous underlying issues faced by the federation, he wants to ensure all these matters are cordially addressed to advance the code to new heights.

“One of those things that I want to do now is to fully understand where the Federation is, what are the issues, and how we can address those issues,” he said.

“I've told the executives that we cannot fix all the problems. We can have a good consultation with all the stakeholders and understand the issues and what their needs and aspirations are and try to work with them to make a plan as to how we can address and to come up with ways of addressing those issues.”

There are only 7 associations currently registered to BFPNG after 27 affiliates were deregistered from the initial 34 that were indicated early this year.

Peter said his major focus now is to revive basketball at lower levels to ensure there is equal participation at the national stage.

He said by having concrete foundations will determine the success of the aspiring premier basketball league in his 4-year tenure.

“But again, that semi-professional competition will be successful if we have a clear pathway and also if we can develop rural, provincial and regional basketball competitions,” he said.

“I don't know how long I'm going to be in this position, but I really want to do something for basketball for whatever time I'm with basketball.

“The associations gave me overwhelming support. I think from the way they gave me the votes; it was very clear that they wanted change, and they decided I should take the lead.

“Now it's for me to show to everyone that I can deliver some things. But again, those things that I'm going to deliver is going to be really based on what we can do and what we cannot do.

“I really don't want to make promises and put out big ambitions or plans that we're going to save the whole world, but we can do what we can do. And we've started having conversations with different stakeholders and immediately we want to map out a plan as to what we really want to do.”

Peter reiterated his commitment to establishing proper foundations to grow basketball in PNG.

He said forming a semi-pro competition during his stint would be a milestone achievement for the federation.