british basketball.How poor is it?

[la bomba]

Bit of an over-exaggeration there. ;) It is certainly growing each year. All thanks to Luol Deng

Mods sorry for the 3 posts in a row, just as a Great Britain baller I wish to defend my country hehe.

Great Britain is also my country,as is Scotland.I stand by my words fan base is small.I went to see guildford against DKV just after the Dux accident,from here all the best to him and his family.what I saw although probably affected by that incident was not good,the basketball played by Guildford was very poor.This is the first time great britain are playing together,basically cause for the olympics,the olympic commitee will only accept great britain.Plus this way they have Archibald who is a good inside player with nba and good european experience.
I have to say the biggest problem in this country is the lack of awareness of how global the game is!that match between minesota and celtics was everything that is wrong in this country.look at all the other games in europe played by this teams.they were played against european teams,very competitive,crowd more into it,no showbiz but just biz!I suppose in the uk they were worried that if they billed it as celtics V cska or panathinaikos they wouldn't get more than 5000 people.but I bet it would attract more doubters,than a game between two nba teams playing for nothing and boy did it show!as a basketball game it was awful.This country needs to start getting into european basketball if they want to improve and all credit for Guildford for realising that.

[simasu01]

i agree with this but i think the fan base for football is too strong, but some interest in basketball would be just fine, look at smaller countries like croatia and serbia and they are great at both sports, even though none of these countries qualified for the world cup in 2010 in turkey, they still are at a really high level at both things. and now every country in great britain should be aware that none of these nations ever really did anything in the world cup in football and should take a serious look at other sports. if not for foreigners the premier league would be at a pretty low level, i think la liga passed them and serie a is right there too

[ukballer]

i agree with this but i think the fan base for football is too strong, but some interest in basketball would be just fine, look at smaller countries like croatia and serbia and they are great at both sports, even though none of these countries qualified for the world cup in 2010 in turkey, they still are at a really high level at both things. and now every country in great britain should be aware that none of these nations ever really did anything in the world cup in football and should take a serious look at other sports. if not for foreigners the premier league would be at a pretty low level, i think la liga passed them and serie a is right there too

You've basically made my point right there. If our footballs nations aren't able to qualify for a European tournament, how would seperate nations have a hope in hell of qualifying for any international tournaments in basketball? Even if we wanted to seperate our nations, we wouldn't be allowed to enter the Olympics in 2012, as its Great Britain or nothing. Which I don't mind at all.

[la bomba]

You've basically made my point right there. If our footballs nations aren't able to qualify for a European tournament, how would seperate nations have a hope in hell of qualifying for any international tournaments in basketball? Even if we wanted to seperate our nations, we wouldn't be allowed to enter the Olympics in 2012, as its Great Britain or nothing. Which I don't mind at all.

The football fan base here is too large and to attract them to basketball,basketball needs to be more like football in terms of competitiveness,fans atmosphere,etc.hence why bringing two nba teams to play in the o2 is not going to help.basketball fans in this country will love watching two nba teams but, would- be fans who are into football would put it down as showbiz!If instead they go to see teams with already familiar names to them like barca or madrid,olympiacos,cska,pana etc and see them play with grit,competitiveness and fans that sing and shout like in football matches they would get in to it a lot more.unicaja malaga and madrid beat nba teams in the summer by 1 point the atmosphere and the games where great the type that attracts fans,the game in the o2 was terrible in terms of recruiting fans.

[ukballer]

The football fan base here is too large and to attract them to basketball,basketball needs to be more like football in terms of competitiveness,fans atmosphere,etc.hence why bringing two nba teams to play in the o2 is not going to help.basketball fans in this country will love watching two nba teams but, would- be fans who are into football would put it down as showbiz!If instead they go to see teams with already familiar names to them like barca or madrid,olympiacos,cska,pana etc and see them play with grit,competitiveness and fans that sing and shout like in football matches they would get in to it a lot more.unicaja malaga and madrid beat nba teams in the summer by 1 point the atmosphere and the games where great the type that attracts fans,the game in the o2 was terrible in terms of recruiting fans.

It all goes back to acessibility to particular sports at school age. I mean you can find a park to play football anywhere, but I know where I live I would have to drive 10 miles to get to my nearest outdoor basketball court. Football will always be our national sport, no doubt about that. To be honest even though we messed up the Euro qualifying, we are still one of the better football nations in the world so the fan base for football won't be taken by any other sport, never mind basketball. Basketball is really played at secondary school level and isn't on the school curriculum, while netball is .

I have to agree with you that the Celtics-T'wolves match wasn't particularly good. I went to the match and I can only remember a couple of fairly memorable plays. I think it was Telfair made a good drive, Ray got a few 3s (whats new?) and Ryan Gomes hitting a 3. That was about it. KG and Pierce weren't great, and it wasn't the best advertisement for basketball in general.

Television coverage is another problem. We used to have a match shown on Saturday mornings on our biggest sports channel Sky Sports, but now they only show NFL, and the only basketball on our terrestrial TV is a match in the middle of the night on Channel 5 (which for people not in the UK, is like our least viewed free channel). This is NBA of course. As for BBL coverage, its non existent except for the big final which is shown on our 2nd choice BBC channel.

[simasu01]

How about EuroLeague? Do they show that or the ULEB cup at all? They show NFL??? Haha do they show baseball too? That's really bad does anyone even watch nfl there? England and Scotland are good n football as is N Ireland and Wales is there too, i like Scotland they most out of them and i cannot stand English football, and honestly I dont think the English are that good they never really did anything in football to show that they are in the elite level, i think those teams would be france italy and spain. no doubt that they are one of the better teams, but people claiming it to be elite are wrong. the english league is made up of all foreigners, i read that there are 15-16 foreigners average on each premier team. thats starting 11 and 5 subs. none of them could be english

[ukballer]

How about EuroLeague? Do they show that or the ULEB cup at all? They show NFL??? Haha do they show baseball too? That's really bad does anyone even watch nfl there? England and Scotland are good n football as is N Ireland and Wales is there too, i like Scotland they most out of them and i cannot stand English football, and honestly I dont think the English are that good they never really did anything in football to show that they are in the elite level, i think those teams would be france italy and spain. no doubt that they are one of the better teams, but people claiming it to be elite are wrong. the english league is made up of all foreigners, i read that there are 15-16 foreigners average on each premier team. thats starting 11 and 5 subs. none of them could be english

Well England have beaten some big teams in the World Cup and regularly get to the quarters finals, and are far more successful than the other home nations. You say Spain are elite, but England have been more succesful in International tournaments the last few years. You seem to over exaggerate on the foreigners problem though lol. We have some fantastic young players who will be coming into the England team, and they are world class already and have youth on their side. I could name many right now, but I won't as this is a british basketball topic! :

No Euroleague is shown anywhere, but ULEB Cup is on Eurosport a digital channel every tuesday, but not many watch Eurosport anyway, especially basketball. NFL is given a lot of coverage on Sky Sports. I think its 2 live matches, with highlights of the other matches and 2 roundup shows, all in 1 week. I think baseball is on Channel 5 once a week like basketball.

[simasu01]

I never thoughtthey would show AMERICAN football in UK. About the team foreigners, I'm serious I read it in a magazine in the library a couple days ago. I think it was called World Soccer, since it is american. Oh yeah I know England has good young players, Wayne Rooney is one of my favorites. I'm sure they will be back in a few years, sooner rather than later. Back to basketball, is Guildfort the only team that's actually participating in out of Britain tournaments? And what do you think needs to be done to populatize basketball? I think Joel Freeland will be a great player, and if you get Ben Gordon on the team, I believe we will see some basketball from Britain.

[la bomba]

I never thoughtthey would show AMERICAN football in UK. About the team foreigners, I'm serious I read it in a magazine in the library a couple days ago. I think it was called World Soccer, since it is american. Oh yeah I know England has good young players, Wayne Rooney is one of my favorites. I'm sure they will be back in a few years, sooner rather than later. Back to basketball, is Guildfort the only team that's actually participating in out of Britain tournaments? And what do you think needs to be done to populatize basketball? I think Joel Freeland will be a great player, and if you get Ben Gordon on the team, I believe we will see some basketball from Britain.

Guildford's best player,point guard Brian Dux(american) was involved in a serious car accident of which it is doubtful whether he will fully recover,his playing career is probably over as he is fighting for his life at moment.So they are struggling without him.Unfortunately yes Guildford are the only british team in europe,however, they are the first team in over a decade!!so good on them.what happens is their budjets are small and teams are afraid of going into europe and getting bankrupt because of all the expenses.I always feel the problem here is the lack of awarenes about european basketball,everyone thinks its all nba or ncaa.You tell anyone in the uk that basketball in europe,especially in the baltics and mediterrenean ,is huge and they kind of look at you in bewilderment.Eurosport show lots of ULEB games which is good,but they need to show loads of euroleague where all the big clubs play!
It is played in schools but it is coached poorly in many.Football is huge in spain,greece,the balkans,and pretty much everywhere,yet that doesn't stop basketball from being huge!In Lithuania and Slovenia I think its the number 1 sport.

[simasu01]

Latvia's number one sport is also basketball, and they have a team growing up. Give them time, they will be in top 8 of Europe. Slovenia is a tiny country, even smaller then Lithuania, and they are very good at both sports, my favorite Slovenes are Jaka Lakovic, Rasho Nesterovic and Beno Udrih. Basketball is getting a little more popular in Portugal and Poland, and both participated in EuroBasket. Sweden applied to join the Baltic League, that's another country, and if Sweden joins, then I think Finland, Denmark and Norway will want to join as well.

[simasu01]

And they had an article on Brian Dux before on Yahoo sports, I think that's horrible that the one of the brightest spots in British basketball goes down like this, it's a shame and hopefully he will recover and be able to walk and do things he could do before.

[la bomba]

Latvia's number one sport is also basketball, and they have a team growing up. Give them time, they will be in top 8 of Europe. Slovenia is a tiny country, even smaller then Lithuania, and they are very good at both sports, my favorite Slovenes are Jaka Lakovic, Rasho Nesterovic and Beno Udrih. Basketball is getting a little more popular in Portugal and Poland, and both participated in EuroBasket. Sweden applied to join the Baltic League, that's another country, and if Sweden joins, then I think Finland, Denmark and Norway will want to join as well.

Of course Jaka is one of my favourites as he plays for the team i support,amazing 3pt shooter!but I think the best slovene basketball player is matiaz smodis.and of course they have uros slokar,bostjan nachbar,primoz brezec,sani becirovic,marko milic ,goran dragic,ozsbalt etc etc amazing country,its a factory of good players.

[simasu01]

And probably there is a lot more good Slovenes that we wouldnt even think of. It's amazing how small countries are really good at sports, being so much better than countries that are at least 10million but usually a lot more like UK or France.

[la bomba]

And probably there is a lot more good Slovenes that we wouldnt even think of. It's amazing how small countries are really good at sports, being so much better than countries that are at least 10million but usually a lot more like UK or France.

It has to do with culture,facilities and coaching.The U.K is a wealthy country but for all its wealth the facilities are awful!especially for sports that don't have a big support.I play basketball in schools and the courts haven't changed since they were built in the 70s most of them.coaching in schools is done by P.E teacher that have a basic understanding of the game etc.Too many kids stay at home and play playstations and get fat,there is a lot of armchair sports fans.

[dnyk1337]

It has to do with culture,facilities and coaching.The U.K is a wealthy country but for all its wealth the facilities are awful!especially for sports that don't have a big support.I play basketball in schools and the courts haven't changed since they were built in the 70s most of them.coaching in schools is done by P.E teacher that have a basic understanding of the game etc.Too many kids stay at home and play playstations and get fat,there is a lot of armchair sports fans.

I hate armchair sports fans. You might know the game, but you don't KNOW the game 'cause you never played it. That's how I look at it.