The UK Basketball Hub

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it I’m Daniel  Routledge and for as long as I can remember I’ve been watching British basketball .  I’m n ot quite as old as the league, but its close enough we could be siblings . We pretty much grew up together,  I’ve seen the highs and the lows, the false dawns and the unnoticed successes.  Much has been made in recent days about the future of the game in this country, so much so it’s  got  me think ing  about the past. Whatever your views about the road from here, allow me ten minutes of your time to re-live how we got here. In the beginning The first national league of basketball was formed in 1972, in those early days it was a largely amateur pursuit, played out in small sports halls. It was before I was born, but I’ve seen minutes of AGMs where players were reprimanded for not  personally  selling enough tickets! By the end of the decade, the  s...

A statement by Basketball England has shocked the sport to it's core with the revelation that the current professional league the BBL could be stripped of that right as a review takes place. Basketball England said: " A licence review committee has been set up to consider all options including but not limited to a competitive tender process and negotiation with the existing licensee of the professional basketball league, with a view to renewing existing arrangements." Add onto the fact we've seen a MASSIVE drop in participation and we've got a bit of a crisis on our hands. It seems bad news and basketball go hand in hand recently with the funding removal (although kind of in a better place), men's Eurobasket qualification failure and now this! But what therefore are the options for Basketball England? Well to be frank they seem quite limited; while the NBA mentioned potentially setting up a European league while they were over here earlier i...