british basketball.How poor is it?

[la bomba]

I was in Guildford to see DKV Joventud against Guildford Heat.I have never ever seen such a poor team in european competition.Joventud won by well over 30 points without ever getting beyond 2nd gear.Their starters played about 14 mins each,most of the game was played by players who haven't featured atall like Flis and Popovic,Ribas etc.In England they blame the vast gap in the budgets,but DKV is not the richest club in Spain by any means!They play a lot of young players who are probably getting paid less than some of these Guildford players.Pau Ribas is 17 or 18,Ricky Rubio 17 , Rudy Fernandez is only about 22,Jagla 22 or 21,Sonseca is early 20s too.I read their forums and they also claimed that they lost to the best team in the second best league in the world,its this ignorance of european basketball in Britain that is the problem.If DKV where the best team in spain they'd be in th euroleague not the ULEB!Any British fans out there who can comment?I think there is a lot of work to do if they want to save themselves from being ridiculed in the 2012 olympics!if luol Deng gets injured they are screwed!Anyway i have always maintained that the problem is exposure.you can't see a european basketball game in uk tv!they only show occassional nba games and thats why they play one on one basketball,I don't think i remember any guildford player setting a screen!!!!!!

[simasu01]

Britain has work to do, I remember a team called the London Towers and they were like in the Northern European division or NBL or something like that, and they were always, always blown out. Lietuvos Rytas used to win left and right, and they weren't THAT good back then. I don't think Britain would be this bad if they showed some games and actually invested some money into clubs. I think it would be pretty good as a second or third sport in UK. And someone before a while ago had a question if Britain should automatically qualify. I would definetly say NO, without Deng they really would be nothing as mentioned above. And they are lucky enough that Deng even plays for them, maybe if they get Ben Gordon, they will be a little something, probably not top 16 Euro but should be in top 20.

[la bomba]

To automatically qualify for the olympics if you are a european team you need to be in the A division and Great Britain qualified this summer against the likes of holland and albania!! Only because of Deng and Archibald.Earlier in the qualification matches they lost to albania and some other teams like slovakia without Deng!So because they are now in the A division they will automatically qualify as hosts.Siauliai play Guildford Heat at some point,they are in the same group!

[simasu01]

But there still are 2 more EuroBasket's until the London Olympics. And if they get relegated back to B, won't they still have a chance to get back to the Olympics is 2011's EuroBasket?
Siauliai aren't special, but against the Guildfort Heat, I think they might be.

[la bomba]

But there still are 2 more EuroBasket's until the London Olympics. And if they get relegated back to B, won't they still have a chance to get back to the Olympics is 2011's EuroBasket?
Siauliai aren't special, but against the Guildfort Heat, I think they might be.

They will hammer guildford!.I think it is whether they are in DIV A as from now,I think its because all the teams have already been decided for 2008 olympics except a few who have to play a pre-qualification tourny.
2010 is the istanbul world championship i think.2009 and 2011 i think are eurobaskets.Is 2009 in Lithuania?

[simasu01]

2009 is in Poland and 2011 is in Lithuania. For 2008 Olympics, Lithuania has qualified along with Spain, Argentina, USA, Iran, Australia, China, Angola and Russia qualified already. There still are 3 spots remaining and Italy and France have no chance to get them. The candidates from Europe are Greece, Germany, Slovenia, and I think Croatia, and in America, Brazil and Canada and Puerto Rico still have a chance. I don't know about other continents though.

[la bomba]

Siauliai beat Guildford easily.87 72. a better performance from guildford 15 points is the closest they have been.However if you look at the fact that they were 20 points down so early on again it only means that teams are blowing them away to start with and then remaining in second gear as guildford put a bit of make up .If there are any british fans here please discuss,though I doubt it as the fan base for this sport in the uk is equivalent to the afghan netball fan base!

[simasu01]

Well at least Britain has a team, and they're not just sitting there doing ABSOLUTELY nothing, there are many other countries that aren't doing a thing, but Britain is nowhere close to being Great, they are not performing good in any sport.

[berraco]

they still have rugby :)

[simasu01]

england is 4th and scotland and wales are in top 10 as well, but none are at the top. i was also wondering, why do they play as great britain in basketball, but then just about all other sports are scotland, england, wales and northern ireland. either they are united kingdom or not i dont get it. i myself think it should be separate.

[20 Dimes A Game]

British basketball is in fact improving.
I will explain later because i gotta go to school now.

[ukballer]

British baller here, and I have to pretty much agree with every post here unfortunately.

While right now it is still extremely poor in this country, it has a growing popularity, especially with the success of Luol Deng, who basically spends his whole Summer in the UK. He is one of the faces for the London 2012 Olympics and also with the match between Celtics and T'Wolves that was held in London (O2 Arena) in pre-season certainly put basketball in the publics eye, at least for an evening lol. I went to that game by the way, first ever NBA game, and not my last now! Ray Allen went off, think he got 27 or something. Anyway..

Its crucial that now the GB team are in Division A that we stay there for the foreseeable future. We have some players that aren't anywhere near the required standard for Division A Ball, but have some pretty good players who can come in if they decide to.

Obviously we have Luol Deng, and he is in the process of trying to persuade Ben Gordon to play thanks to his British passport, though I won't raise my hopes of that until its confirmed. We could also have Kelenna Azubuike from the Warriors, Joel Freeland from the Blazers, Pops Mensah Bonsu formerly of the Mavs (I think Pops has confirmed this) and a few college players (can't remember names). Now I know they are hardly world beaters, but this time just 2-3 years ago we couldn't scrape a team like this at all, so I think it has really come on. During this summer I think only 2 of the players in the GB squad were based in the British Basketball League, which shows how important it is to get our guys good enough to play in America and the big Euro clubs.

Also talking of Guildford Heat, although they would still lose badly anyway, their star player PG Brian Dux has been in a coma since near the beginning of the month after a car crash, and is now semi conscious. Like I said its obvious they would lose anyway but still it has affected them.

[ukballer]

england is 4th and scotland and wales are in top 10 as well, but none are at the top. i was also wondering, why do they play as great britain in basketball, but then just about all other sports are scotland, england, wales and northern ireland. either they are united kingdom or not i dont get it. i myself think it should be separate.

It will be a bit silly then if we seperate them. It would mean none of the teams would have any hope of qualifying. But we will be seperated at the Commonwealth games whenever they are. We can't enter as England in the Olympics, it's Great Britain or nothing. There is a big difference in standards between our football (soccer) and basketball National teams. We just don't have the players to be able to make a solid England team.

Also if we have the BRITISH Basketball League, why would we have to seperate out?

[ukballer]

I doubt it as the fan base for this sport in the uk is equivalent to the afghan netball fan base!

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.

[simasu01]

It will be a bit silly then if we seperate them. It would mean none of the teams would have any hope of qualifying. But we will be seperated at the Commonwealth games whenever they are. We can't enter as England in the Olympics, it's Great Britain or nothing. There is a big difference in standards between our football (soccer) and basketball National teams. We just don't have the players to be able to make a solid England team.

Also if we have the BRITISH Basketball League, why would we have to seperate out?

i think if they play separate football they should play separately but as of right now maybe they are better off playing together. about the british league there is a baltic league formed of 3 countries and then there are the 3 nations separate leagues as well. but its a different story since those countries are independent