Three months after traveling to Trinidad and Tobago to play basketball, Ronaldinho Esajas returned to Suriname on Wednesday as club champion. He won the title with Lead Leads Maloney Pacers in the National Basketball Federation of Trinidad & Tobago (NBFTT) Club Championship on Sunday evening. “I am very happy,” he responds by telephone the True Time. “It is also a motivation for others who get opportunities.”
Text Terence Oosterwolde
Image private collection
In the Maloney Indoor Sports Arena, the Surinamese basketball player, 24 years old, was not just a bench filler. On the contrary. He scored in the back to back games of the weekend against T&T Police Service a total of 35 points: twenty points on Saturday in the second final match and 24 hours later fifteen points in the all-deciding game 3.
“Ronaldinho is a Surinamese who became champion in the senior class all the way from Trinidad and Tobago. He is the first Surinamese to achieve this in the past forty years.”
Humphrey Eendragt
Latinbasket wrote, among other things: ‘Maloney delivered a statement on Saturday night, overwhelming Police 106-61 to even the best-of-three series. Shakiel Bertrand led the charge with 33 points, while Ahkeel Boyd added 27 and Ronaldinho Esajas chipped in 20 in a relentless offensive display.’
In total, Esajas played seven games in the regular season, after which he played five in the play-off, including the three final games. “We lost Game 1 because we didn’t big man “, he looks back on the only defeat in the postseason. “He (Shakiel Bertrand, … ed.) went to Guatemala for a while and the other one didn’t play due to some problem – I don’t exactly understand it either. We lost that game by five points. But at the next training we came together and said: ‘We are not going to let this championship escape us’.“The action was put into words and the title was won on Sunday. “I called my father to tell him and he was very happy.”
Esajas, who started at Rialto and was subsequently brought to Koi Carper by Humphrey Eendragt before joining SCVU, has achieved “something beautiful” with Maloney Pacers, according to the coach: “He has become champion in the first division in a beautiful series with Police Service. I was able to watch a very nice match and a piece of history of course, because Ronaldinho is a Surinamese who became champion in the senior class all the way from Trinidad and Tobago. He is the first Surinamese to compete in the men’s first division has achieved in the past forty years,” Eendragt praises him.
Confident
Esajas appears not to have been the first choice to play in Trinidad and Tobago for Leads Lead Maloney Pacers. Humphrey Eendragt, coach of the men’s main division team of De Arend, responds the True Time revealed that he had initially approached two other players. “A trainer from Trinidad and Tobago asked me for help. He was looking for reinforcement for his team in an attempt to become champion,” he explains how it all came about.
Eendragt continues: “I first asked Gylan Watamaleo, but he was inactive. Then I asked Xavero Struiken, but he had to go (back) to the Netherlands. Ronaldinho was listening when I asked Struiken and he said: ‘Trainer, I want to go!’ I asked him: ‘Are you going to like your team?’ He asked his coach and he immediately said yes. I also reported his coach afterwards.”
On January 14, Esajas then confidently boarded the plane to the island. “No, no, no… I had no doubts at all,” the basketball player emphasizes when asked. “I told Mr. Humphrey right away that I was going.”
He was the only foreigner on the team. The rest were local players, some of whom had scholarships. Esajas says he has had nothing to complain about in Trinidad and Tobago. “I was well received and I stayed in a good neighborhood.”
This is confirmed by Eendragt: “He was received perfectly. He was placed in an apartment with three bedrooms. He received food allowance, food, drinks.” His former pupil stayed there alone.
Difference with Suriname
Esajas calls the basketball level on the island “better” than Suriname. “They play really physically, strong basketball and the players are very athletic.” He had no trouble adapting. “My teammates told me: ‘do your thing, because we saw how you played during the play-off (of 2025, … ed.)’.”
“They play really physical, strong basketball and the players are very athletic“
Ronaldinho Esajas
Within the champion team, Esajas played as ‘2’, shooting guard. He also had no problems with the game system. On the island he trained five days a week. “Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Tuesday and Wednesday we were free. We worked with me individually; my shooting and defense.”
Despite the high training intensity, he was also able to enjoy the island. “They told me they are going to send for me again.” According to him, other Surinamese could also play in Trinidad and Tobago if they get the opportunity to do so.
In Paramaribo, the intention is for Esajas to rejoin the Social Cultural Association Uitvlugt, which is so far undefeated in the men’s main division of the Surinamese Basketball Association. “SCVU is going to get a lot out of me,” he promises. The guard wants to go to the Ismay van Wilgen Sports Hall on Thursday to watch De Arend against Koi Carper and hopes to make his debut for SCVU on Sunday, which will then play against De Arend.
Loaded finale
Eendragt traveled to the island especially to experience games 2 and 3. “I was like, ‘Let me come and see what the situation is in Trinidad and Tobago,’ since we sent someone’s child here.”
He enjoyed the two games. “Game 2 was a great match, with Ronaldinho scoring twenty points. The better players were Ahkeel ‘Smally’ Boyd and Shakiel Bertrand. He is a professional player in Guatemala, who came back especially to play the final. He scored 31 points, including a lot of dunks,” says Eendragt.
The coach describes the decisive third match on Sunday evening in the Maloney Indoor Sports Arena as a charged match. “The police were very keen to win. They were there with a brass band. It was a bit of a tense atmosphere. The boys from Maloney Pacers are from the people, from the working-class neighborhood. The police were of course with police officers who know the boys in a different capacity,” he outlines.
A notable detail that added fuel to the fire, according to Eendracht, was that Maloney Pacers player Peter Alexis was locked up by the police prior to game 1. “I heard that after the final. The police locked the boy up for no reason, the players thought, so they could win. After game 2 it was a bit grim. That motivated ‘Smally’, because that man has 48 points (11). three pointers… ed.) scored in game 3. I really got to see a great match.”
Clinton Wilson, President of the National Basketball Federation of Trinidad & Tobago, presented Lead Leads Maloney Pacers with a symbolic check for TT$15,000 (US$2,197.50) as champions. The shirts of Peter Alexis and Jyle Lewis were shown at the awards ceremony. Wayne Cunningham from TTT Sports noted that Alexis “was unavailable due to an unfortunate matter”.
Also coach Christopher Jackson Charles, who praised his young squad – most of the players are under 23; according to him, the future of T&T basketball – briefly reflected on Alexis’ absence. “We played for Peter Alexis because he couldn’t play because of an unfortunate circumstance.” Southside Elite captured third place with a 90-84 win over Straker Nets.
