It's All About Britain

For basketball to prosper there are many challenge within the sport as stated in this series, but it needs to move up in the eyes of the British people.

When you think of the biggest sports in Britain basketball doesn’t spring to mind. You think of football cricket and rugby. Why isn’t Basketball in the same category?

In the fourth article of the investigation into British Basketball - it's all about breaking traditions.

Basketball in this country is often derided and spoken of in a derogatory way. It’s known as something “we're not very good at," as said by Gary Maitland.

Surprisingly to British sports fans basketball is the world’s second favourite sport but in England it seems to fall by the wayside.

British people need local heroes to look up to, In America they’ve got basketball heroes aplenty, professional skills coach Gary Maitland said: “Basketball is a global game, but most young players will see the NBA as the only professional league. As the U.S is so big, it doesn't feel 'local' and doesn't have a history of home-grown players playing within it, the NBA feels unreachable.

“Thousands of young players will dream about one day playing in the NBA but subconsciously, I'm not convinced they genuinely think it's realistic.  We need more British players 'making it' so thousands more start to believe that they can too.

“Most people in this country view basketball as something 'we're not very good at'.

“Basketball is so far off the radar of the general public in this country it's bizarre. Lots of people are interested in playing, being coached etc; but that doesn't transform to a professional sporting environment. It's amazing how many people express an interest in basketball, but then do very little to support it. They just expect it to be there.”

In this country basketball is played by minorities - 58% of adult basketball players are from ethnic minority backgrounds, the most for any major sport in the UK – a remarkable stat and shows the inclusivity of basketball.

The great pressure in this country is to beat tradition and be in the same conversation as rugby, football and cricket – it’s a lot easier said than done as journalist and former Business manager at Manchester Giants Basketball James Gordon explained: “I think typically basketball is popular in urban, less privileged areas. Cricket for example, is popular among the middle and upper classes, and as such they may have greater opportunities to carry on playing. Don't forget too that cricket does have a good tradition, they have clear clubs and clear paths to generate revenue etc, which basketball doesn't.

“You can drive past your local cricket club any time - can you do the same with a basketball club? In very few places. There are also more opportunities in cricket - there are 18 counties, who all have second teams and academy set ups. There isn't much of that in basketball, especially as players have to go abroad if they really want to make it pro."

Former professional basketball player Martin Henlan, who has played several teams in the BBL as well as in France and Greece, said: “There is no obvious model for becoming competitive against the major sports in the UK.  Those sports have infinitely better facilities, performance pathways, coaching and investment.  It would require capital investment upwards of £100m and a 10- or 20-year plan to improve the situation.  As things stand, basketball in this country is destined to be a small-scale niche sport.

Basketball is a sport where there are no draws, it’s fast paced, it can’t be rained off (like in cricket) and is incredibly popular with young people. Surely there should be a niche in the market.

Countries such as Spain, Italy and Turkey have big basketball programmes and are hugely successful significantly, these are also countries that’s number one sport is also Football. James Gordon said: “I think it's very difficult to compare due to the difference in culture. The UK, or England specifically, is spread thinly across a number of sports. You mentioned cricket, which isn't in any of those countries, rugby isn't in Spain/Turkey etc, so I think the issue basketball has in the UK is that it has so many more sports to compete with.

“Another interesting point is that in Spain, for instance, the clubs are all operated together (look at Barcelona, who operate football, handball and basketball from the same base), and that is also true of clubs lower down the tiers. Part of the issue is that football/rugby/cricket are so ingrained in tradition and culture that it's difficult for anything else to wrestle in to that.

Former Basketball player Brian Calder who played for Sunderland's basketball team before the change to Newcastle Eagles. This was done to link all the Newcastle sports teams together and copy from the likes of Barcelona. Calder said: “You can see the benefit and the facilities that the Europeans have at the top level. Sir John Hall had a vision of trying to do that (with the Newcastle Eagles). If it had taken off, we possibly would have seen Manchester United supporting a Manchester basketball team.

"I think if you look at the revenue of what the top European teams take at places like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Paok Salonika – it was maybe a little ahead of its time. (It would take a) huge financial commitment to take on the football, rugby, ice hockey and the basketball. The football team was doing very well and Mr (Kevin) Keegan was worried that some of the money was going to the sporting club and he perhaps would have preferred a new centre-forward.”

Martin Henlan said “It is highly unlikely that the UK can replicate the models of other European nations.  In order to become competitive at that level there would be a need for a 10 or even 20 year plan to develop the sport at its foundation which requires a level of investment that I cannot see being forthcoming."

Calder added: “I do genuinely feel that it has to be with the people at the top and how they promote the sport and drive the sport. There always seems to be too many conflicting egos within the sport. Just recently while trying to bring GB squad together there’s frictions within the Scottish League, British League and Welsh governing bodies resulting in Mark Clark resigning. I think his heart was in the right place. The personalities are holding the sport back.”

Football, cricket and Rugby are the headline sports in Britain. Basketball is considered as a lesser sport played by minorities. It doesn't fit the remit of your typical British sport. We've seen the participation grow above the likes of cricket with youngsters - it's now up to the people at the top to make the most of that participation to ensure the sport thrives.

The fifth and final part of the series it looks into the how the sport needs to progress across Europe.