Legends jazz up basketball in Indonesia
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As part of the United States Sports Envoy Program, veterans from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) Sam "Big Smooth" Perkins and Sue Wicks gathered with Indonesian basketball figures in a Monday coaching clinic session for some 50 teenagers from around the capital, the Jakarta Post reported in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Perkins, 48, played for the Dallas Mavericks, LA Lakers, Seattle Supersonics and the Indiana Pacers during his 17-year career in the NBA in the 1980s, while the New York WNBA legend Wicks, 43, played professionally for 15 years in Italy, Japan, Spain and Israel.
The two basketball veterans will also host a coaching clinic in Medan of North Sumatra, on Wednesday.
It is their first visit to Indonesia under the US-sponsored program, which last year also brought Danny Granger, the Indiana Pacers' small forward, who was named as the most improved player for the 2008-2009 NBA's season.
"(Basketball) is a uniquely American game, which is also popular here. So, there is a shared value of commonality between the US and Indonesia in this game," public diplomacy officer at the US Embassy Tristram Perry said on the sideline of the coaching session, which was participated in by five Jakarta orphanages.
"I believe this kind of coaching clinic program is a good thing to raise basketball's popularity," said a top player of the Pelita Jaya Esia basketball club, Andi Poedjakesuma who participated in the coaching clinic session at the US Embassy on Monday.
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