Ben Myburgh: From the backyard to the BAL
The 2022 edition of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) came with a lot of surprises, including the inaugural participation of South Africa’s representative, the Cape Town Tigers. The Western Cape side boasted a star-studded side made up of former NBA players including Billy Preston and Jamel Artis, as well as Congolese and Central African Republican internationals Myc Kabongo and Evans Ganapamo amongst other noteworthy individuals. However, one of the amazing stories that emerged from the Tigers BAL campaign was the coming to prominence of Ben Myburgh, a player who before the tournament, was hardly known outside of Western Cape basketball circles. Myburgh averaged a respectable 14.4 minutes per game (mpg), 4.3 points per game (ppg) and 43.5% field goal percentage during his BAL debut season. The lack of progress and development which has characterised South African basketball over the last decade or so, has prevented the growth of young players during this timeframe. Nevertheless, the 24 year-old Myburgh’s performance at the BAL demonstrated that, despite this unfortunate state of affairs, South Africa still has the capability of producing high quality basketball talents.
The Start of the Journey
Although Myburgh was born in the Cape Winelands locality of Stellenbosch, his basketball journey was moulded in faraway Taiwan, where he had moved to with his family when he was five years old. Like a lot of kids around the world, Myburgh developed his basketball interest through video games and playing in his house’s driveway. However, it wasn’t until he was in the 10th Grade, whilst attending an international school in Taiwan, that he started to take basketball seriously. This led him to attend various camps and feature for his school basketball team. Myburgh felt he had the requisite skill level to take his talents to the US college basketball circuit and solicited several NCAA Division II institutions for basketball scholarships. However, with no offers forthcoming, Myburgh was hit with a reality check and decided that pursuing tertiary studies in South Africa would be the best near-term option to keep his basketball playing dreams alive.
Myburgh noted that his first choice was the University of Cape Town (of course, who doesn’t want to end up at Africa’s best uni), unfortunately, the course he wanted to major in was not offered at UCT and he therefore decided to attend Stellenbosch University. Having partially grown up there and with family residing at Stellenbosch, featuring for Maties seemed like a homecoming of sorts for Myburgh. However, despite basketball having been classified as a high-performance sporting code at the institution upon his arrival, Myburgh admits that his overall experience with the basketball programme was difficult and did not meet his expectations. Carrying the offensive load was one aspect Myburgh had to get used to, to the extent that, at the 2017 University Sports South Africa (USSA) Basketball nationals, he finished second highest scorer. He also stated that whilst playing for Maties, even though there were efforts to develop a basketball culture at the institution, playing with a group of players who were not able to take their skill to the next level made Myburgh felt his game was stagnating. He even contemplated a transfer to UCT, which at the time had emerged as 2018 Varsity Basketball runners-up. To add to the frustration, Myburgh felt that he was regularly overlooked by the USSA Basketball national team selection committee as well as the Western Cape Mountaineers of the Basketball National League (BNL), even though he was registering eye catching performances with Maties.
Getting on board with the Cape Town Tigers
Although Myburgh’s varsity basketball experience did not pan out as smoothly as he had hoped, there were some bright spots which occurred along the way and that would fundamentally change the trajectory of his basketball journey. In 2017, Myburgh says he got in touch with former Cape Town Tigers coach Relton Booysen, who at the time was running the SID basketball programme. Booysen, who subsequently became coach of the Northern Cape Zebras in the BNL, offered him a spot on the team. Unfortunately, Myburgh was not able to take up the position, but the rapport between the two individuals had been consolidated and when the Cape Town Tigers started to recruit players in 2020, Myburgh was one of the first people Booysen turned to. The start of a new decade brought a lot of excitement, however, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing lockdown as well as the complementary restrictive measures imposed by the South African government were development’s nobody could have fathomed would be a lived reality. As was the case with most individuals, the pandemic was an extremely tough mental experience, especially since there was no possibility for organised basketball to be played in the country. Nevertheless, he overcome this situation by continuously working out and staying prepared for a return to some semblance of normalcy. This hard work and determination paid off, as Myburgh was selected to be part of the Tigers squad which participated at the 2021 South African National Basketball Club Championships. Myburgh admits that before he was confirmed on the squad for that competition, Coach Booysen warned him that he might be dropped from the team. Mybrugh is thankful that, despite the longstanding relationship they had, Coach Booysen still took steps to hold him accountable and make sure he improved his game.
The BAL experience and the way forward
For Myburgh, participating at the club championships was an eye opener and the best domestic basketball experience he had been exposed to in South Africa. While he admits, he had hoped to get more playing time, facing highly competitive and well-prepared teams like Jozi Nuggets was extremely edifying. In addition, winning the tournament also set the tone for the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Qualifiers, which saw the Tigers obtain the third and final qualifying spot in their zone, over Burundi’s representatives, New Star. After the qualifiers, Myburgh knew he would have to put in an extra effort to make the final squad. When he was confirmed as one of the 12 players who would participate in the Nile Conference round of BAL fixtures at Cairo, Egypt, there was some outcry across South African social media basketball groups, questioning the overall utility of Myburgh on the Tigers squad. In response to this scenario, Myburgh said that he stayed off during social media during that time frame and was keen on making his mark in the BAL. Myburgh made good on this commitment by hitting two key three pointers in the closing moments of the Tigers 73-70 win over FAP de Yaounde, a result which saved Tigers from a first-round elimination from the competition. When I asked Myburgh how he felt after hitting those two shots, he calmly said “I was just in the right spot at the right time”. Following this game, Myburgh saw his role and playing time significantly increase as he emerged as a regular option in Coach Booysen’s eight-man rotation. For Myburgh, irrespective of the success which he achieved at the 2022 edition of the BAL, he is looking to grow in his nascent professional basketball career. In retrospect, he admits that he was probably not ready to optimally participate for the USSA national side or in the BNL, but he has firmly put the past behind him and wants to grow within the Tigers set up for the foreseeable future. And although South Africa has not participated in a FIBA men’s senior competition since Afrobasket 2017, Mybrugh says that representing the green and gold would be the greatest achievement of as a basketball. All in all, Myburgh wants to relish the experience and make the best of the opportunities currently afforded him.
