KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two local teams are celebrating winning the first-ever Jr. NBA World Championships.
Drive5 Power Elite, the boys' team, and KC Prodigy, the girls' team, spent the weekend competing in Orlando, Florida after winning a regional competition. From there, both teams played in a tournament to win it all.
Taj Manning remembers, "We just started looking at each other like, we just won this whole tournament and we're the first people to ever win the Jr. NBA Championship."
S'Mya Nichols said, "It was emotional because we're the first ones."
ShotTracker used its technology for the whole tournament, but the local company told 41 Action News they couldn't start cheering until both teams from the central area were representing the United States. This week, hosting a small celebration for the kids at its headquarters in Merriam. Founder Dayveon Ross said, "We just wanted to host you guys and say we're really proud of you guys."
When asked if the metro is special when it comes to grooming basketball talent, Manning said, "There's something that we're doing right over here that's working."
Nichols is happy her team is bringing attention to the sport, especially when it comes to girls. "They really sleep on us you could say but I guess we woke them up from that and hopefully we're waking more people up."
