The Enabu brothers could decide playoff

Dec 03, 2011

AS the ever growing rivalry between Power and the Kyambogo Warriors enters new territory today at the YMCA, a potentially delicious show of sibling rivalry waits in the wings.

By Charles Mutebi                                                                                                                   

AS the ever growing rivalry between Power and the Kyambogo Warriors enters new territory today at the YMCA, a potentially delicious show of sibling rivalry waits in the wings.

Power and Kyambogo have added great colour to local basketball in the last two years with their back-to-back contests in the finals of the FUBA men’s top division and there is every indication the two rivals will not disappoint as they open the 2011 best-of-seven finals in Wandegeya.

The level of competitive dislike between the two rivals has never been higher and no contest in the league currently evokes stronger emotions among basketball fans than a Power - Warriors game.

If that was all to this finals, it would be enough. But it’s not all because this series has the potential to be shaped by sibling wars as much as anything else.

The battle this year is between the Enabu brothers. Ivan, the eldest and most prominent, leads the Warriors straight into a Power team with two of his own kind, brothers Jimmy and Emmanuel Enabu.

“I am not going to attach any emotions to facing my brothers,” vowed Ivan. “I have to do everything to help my team win the championship.”

Family comes first, not this time.

“I don’t look at it like a family thing,” Emma revealed. “It’s basketball so we are just going to play. It’s only a game.”

It’s a game indeed, a fact that was confirmed last season when Emma, the youngest, won the championship before Ivan and Jimmy. The two joined the league years before Emma but could only watch as the family’s last born played a crucial role in Power’s 2010 conquest.

So does Emma think he is a finals veteran? “I am still the underdog,” he joked, before revealing whose side the parents will be on. “I am the last born so all I have to do is woo them to my side.”

The Enabu affair is in keeping with a long tradition of sibling dominance in local basketball, stretching to the Kabohas in the late 90s, then the Blicks and Malingas, who are now a key part of Kyambogo team.

 Henry and Eric Malinga and Norman and Donna Blick have won four championships each, something they would have never done if they were on opposite sides like the Enabus.

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