SPORTS DESK

gm­sports@guardian.co.tt

The Mal­oney Bas­ket­ball Out­door court got a much-ap­pre­ci­at­ed facelift un­der the “In the Paint” ini­tia­tive which is a part­ner­ship be­tween the NBA pro­fes­sion­al bas­ket­ball league in North Amer­i­ca and Hen­nessy, the world’s most fa­mous co­gnac. The project aims to in­spire com­mu­ni­ties around the world through art and bas­ket­ball.

The un­veil­ing of the re­fur­bished bas­ket­ball court on Wednes­day was wit­nessed by the Min­is­ter in Par­lia­ment for Mal­oney/Arou­ca, the Min­is­ter of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, the coun­cil­lor for Mal­oney Stephan Wat­t­ley to­geth­er with His Ex­cel­len­cy Di­di­er Chabert, French Am­bas­sador, Lau­rent Boil­lot, the chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer (CEO) of Hen­nessy; Richard Pan­do­hie, the CEO of Se­prod & Bry­dens and Er­ic Gill­abert, the in­ter­na­tion­al di­rec­tor of Hen­nessy dur­ing the rib­bon cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny.

Hen­nessy en­list­ed lo­cal artists, Fitzroy Hoyte and Safiya Hoyte, a fa­ther-daugh­ter artist team to help re­design the pub­lic out­door bas­ket­ball court fa­cil­i­ty that serves an es­ti­mat­ed 10,000 res­i­dents.

The de­sign by the Hoytes brings to life el­e­ments of the lo­cal cul­ture that have come to de­fine Trinidad and To­ba­go. The bas­ket­ball court fea­tures a map of the coun­try and a paint­ing that cap­tures the Car­ni­val, cul­ture and fes­ti­val in the form of two moko jumbie and dancers. The ren­o­vat­ed court al­so show­cas­es im­ages of bas­ket­ball play­ers in­ter­act­ing and high­lights T&T’s trop­i­cal land­scape, its na­tion­al bird (the Scar­let Ibis), and unique plant and an­i­mal life.

“The red, white and black na­tion­al colours of the twin-is­land coun­try are com­ple­ment­ed by oth­er hints of colours that rep­re­sent the coun­try’s cos­mopoli­tan so­ci­ety make-up and en­cour­age, a dis­play of uni­ty and re­spect on the court.

“Each pock­et of colour serves to em­pha­sise the in­ter­con­nect­ed­ness, di­ver­si­ty and har­mo­ny which are the build­ing blocks of our coun­try and I be­lieve are al­so im­por­tant in the field of sport,” said Safiya Hoyte.

The “In the Paint” project was tipped off in 2021 in Mon­tre­al, Cana­da, and has since ex­pand­ed to coun­tries around the world in­clud­ing Ghana, South Africa, Bar­ba­dos, Hong Kong and Nige­ria. Build­ing on Hen­nessy’s glob­al se­ries of artis­tic col­lab­o­ra­tions, the ini­tia­tive fo­cus­es on pro­mot­ing the true spir­it of com­mu­ni­ty and in­spir­ing the next gen­er­a­tion.