Trials to select 8 youth ballers to meet Kobe Bryant in Singapore

Nike Singapore will conduct a trial this Sunday, July 19, at 2pm, to select eight youth ballers to meet Kobe Bryant at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on July 22nd.

Kobe will meet 20 youth ballers in total and eight slots in the coaching clinic are still available.

Youths aged 16 to 20 years old can head down to the Singapore Basketball Centre and the trial is limited to the first 500 participants.

Selectors from the Singapore Slingers and the Basketball Association of Singapore (BAS) will look for players with the necessary offensive, defensive, shooting and dribbling skills.

4,000 tickets have been given out via a Nike store and SISTIC outlets. The remaining 4,000 tickets are being distributed to youth organisations and Nike partners.

More than 1,000 people lined up outside the Nike store at Wisma Atria on Thursday, July 16, with the queue forming at 9pm the night before.

Kobe, the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP), is on a tour of six cities in Asia – Manila, Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Chengdu.

Said Calvin Chiam, 28, a basketball player and passionate Kobe fan who was first in line and got a pair of early bird front row seats after queuing since 9pm: "Getting the chance to see Kobe Bryant in Singapore is really a dream come true for me. Not many people in Singapore can afford to fly to the US to watch Kobe and I am really excited that Nike has brought Kobe to Singapore to give fans like me this once-in-a-lifetime experience."

"I think it's great that Nike is offering us this opportunity free of charge as this really helps to promote basketball in Singapore," added Calvin, who spent the night outside the store watching movies on his portable DVD player with two friends.

By midnight of July 16, close to 100 people had set up camp. Among them was student Desmond Sim, 25, who started queuing at 10pm with three other friends.

"This is the first time that I'm getting to see an NBA star in action, and I'm really excited! Spending the night here queuing is a small price to pay for the experience I'll be enjoying," said Desmond, who plans to watch the coaching clinic with his basketball teammate.

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