The UK Basketball Hub

Andrew Bridge is a bone-fide BBL legend and on top of that has a Commonwealth Games bronze medal to boot! Playing in the Newcastle Eagles team that swept the board, Bridge moved to Sheffield where he closed out his career by winning a little bit more! In his final season with the Sharks last year, Bridge helped the team to achieve a BBL Trophy victory against the much favoured Leicester Riders. He spoke to us about his career, his future, the future of the BBL and what he believes the Sheffield Sharks can achieve. He said: "When I left Sheffield for the first time [in 2002] it was a big event in my life, it was probably the best thing that could have happened as I had to move away and out of my comfort zone." "The biggest highlight for me was playing for Newcastle in 2005/06 when we won the clean sweep and then to play for England at the Commonwealth Games and win a bronze medal - it was the best year of my career." "At Newcastle there was an expec...

The BIG BBL Preview for the Sheffield Sharks is slightly different to the other posts, with Andrew Bridge - now retired - speaking to us ahead of their new season. The Sharks captured the BBL Trophy much to the surprise of most fans as they were playing the powerful force that is the Leicester Riders, who won everything else! Bridge has spent the majority of his career at the Sheffield Sharks and Newcastle Eagles and has won a bronze medal with the English basketball team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He believes that it was the right time to leave both the Sheffield Sharks and professional basketball behind. He said: "There was a combination of things [that led him to retire] - my family lived in Newcastle and I lived in Sheffield, I also had other work opportunities with the Youth Sports Trust." "The main sporting reason why I decided to retire was to go out as a winner and end my career in a season when we won a trophy." "There was always a te...