Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Jack Warn­er will ex­e­cute the tra­di­tion­al sea­son open­ing jump-ball when the $1.7 mil­lion "Hoop of Life" bas­ket­ball project takes off this evening, when host team Mal­oney Is Wee and Ari­ma Oil­ers meet at the new­ly ren­o­vat­ed Mal­oney Out­door Courts from 7.30 pm.

The two teams, which are among the strongest in the tour­na­ment, will fea­ture a host of na­tion­al and first di­vi­sion play­ers, as well as for­mer Span­ish-based pro­fes­sion­al, Gimel Lewis.

The sev­en-foot Lewis, who spent five years com­pet­ing in the LED pro­fes­sion­al league, fol­low­ing an im­pres­sive stint at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mo­bile, in Al­aba­ma, USA, will be in the Oil­ers line-up.

Mal­oney is Wee, mean­while, boasts a more than ca­pa­ble ros­ter, in­clud­ing Cale­do­nia Clip­per's Shawn Lawrence and De­fence Force cen­tre Nigel Joseph.

Both teams are of East­ern Re­gion 2 and are among the 60 com­mu­ni­ties which will vie for the top purse over a four-month pe­ri­od. The project is ex­pect­ed to reach as many as 720 par­tic­i­pants.

The evening will start with a warm-up of both teams from 7 pm. Then, pri­or to the 7.30 pm jump-off, Min­is­ter Warn­er and MP for Arou­ca/Mal­oney Ali­cia Hospedales will meet and greet the play­ers.

The "Hoop of Life" com­mu­ni­ty-build­ing pro­gramme is an ini­tia­tive of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, whose pri­ma­ry ob­jec­tive is to ad­dress and put a dent in crime in some of the more high-risk dis­tricts in the coun­try. With play­ers rep­re­sent­ing the com­mu­ni­ties in which they re­side, the project is al­so geared to rein­tro­duce "vil­lage life" and a sense of pride.

In part­ner­ship with the pro­gramme are the Min­istries of Sports, Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Hous­ing and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment.

The project was launched of­fi­cial­ly in June this year with a vis­it from bas­ket­ball icon and for­mer NBA all-star Dr Shaquille O'Neil at the Beetham Gar­dens Bas­ket­ball Court, Laven­tille, and the Bayshore Bas­ket­ball Court in Mara­bel­la.

At the launch, "Shaq" en­cour­aged the na­tion's youth to utilise their tal­ents, in­clud­ing that in bas­ket­ball as a step­ping stone for their de­vel­op­ment.