THE LINDEN Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) belatedly handed out gifts after the Christmas holidays. The sharing mood got started when the LABA suspended national centre/forward Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts for six months, and also imposed a one-year bond to keep the peace, after he would have served that penalty.

Roberts, who has represented Guyana at both the junior and senior levels, was slapped with this suspension by the LABA Technical Commission for throwing the basketball at Referee Lloyd Ross with such force, Ross was hit in the head and suffered injury.
This occurred while he was officiating in the 2012 BOSAI Minerals Group Open Challenge basketball competition game between Retrieve Raiders and the Kashif and Shanghai Kings at the Mackenzie Sports Club hard court in November last year.
The suspension commences from the day of the incident on November 13, 2012 and runs until May 13 of this year. Roberts was also fined $15 000 and in addition he is suspended from attending all basketball-related activities sanctioned by the LABA.
Added to his fine and suspension Roberts will also appear in front of the LABA Executive Committee tomorrow morning at 10:00hrs to answer the charges made out against him where he is reported to have threatened an official of the LABA and to ‘crush’ the LABA, at the semifinals of the Malta Supreme basketball championship which will conclude tomorrow with the final.
It was decided that the Retrieve Raiders and Block 22 Flames basketball clubs will be fined $5 000 for their failure to attend the march past of the clubs at the Malta Supreme basketball championship opening ceremony.
Two other players have been given five-game suspensions for fighting during the preliminary round matches in the said tournament, between Amelia’s Ward Jets and Half Mile Bulls.
Those players are Lawrence Da Costa of Jets and Sean Easton of Half Mile Bulls who were both fined $10 000 for their fracas and Victory Valley Royals power forward Alwyn ‘Shaq’ Wilson has been slapped with a $10 000 fine and a three-match suspension for cuffing national centre Shane Webster in the preliminary round.