The UK Basketball Hub

The Copper Box arena was filled with a capacity crowd as Team GB picked up the win against Puerto Rico in Stratford. Without the likes of Luol Deng, Joel Freeland and Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Great Britain has to include some lesser-known faces in their Eurobasket squad. But the team performed admirably at the Box that rocks, to pick up a 61-55 victory in their first game at the Olympic venue. Lawrence, Sullivan, Johnson, Boateng and Achara all started for the team in Joe Prunty's first game in charge of his new squad. Achara made his 50th appearance for the team and performed well to secure the MVP award with 13 points and 11 rebounds. The first quarter was a tight affair with Lawrence hitting an early 3-pointer and Achara getting two free throws. De Jesus and Belardo replied for Puerto Rico who looked ready to give the GB players a real test ahead of their travels. Puerto Rico led at the end of the first quarter with the scoreline 15-14 in their favour, Lawrence top scor...

GB Basketball are back! The Copper Box will be hosting a pre-tournament friendly against Puerto Rico ahead of Eurobasket 2013. It hasn't been a straight forward journey into the fixture with NBA stars Joel Freeland and Luol Deng unavailable, Byron Mullens and Ben Gordon once again failing to show and Pops Mensah-Bonsu also becoming unavailable. This will leave GB's squad heavily reliant on Andrew Sullivan, who is the most experienced member of the squad. New coach Joe Prunty has been thrown into the deep end with many household names not in the squad he must cope with what he has. The likes of Orlan Jackman - who recently departed the London Lions, Liam Potter, Jamell Anderson and Ali Fraser will be looking to impress. There will be a lot riding on the fixture with funding for the sport over the next few years up in the air and based on performance. Puerto Rico has a strong team and are currently ranked 4 places above GB in the FIBA World Rankings. The game takes...

Jackman will be hoping to play here a few times over the years Orlan Jackman, who has recently been called up to the Team GB squad will be departing Britain for Germany next season. Jackman who played for the London Lions last season in the BBL will be moving to NOMA Iserlohn Kangaroos. The forward was called up by Joe Prunty for the GB squad and could feature in the friendly clash with Puerto Rico at the Copper Box. Ironically, Jackman's former club London Lions will play at the venue next season as they move into their new home as part of the Olympic Legacy. Jackman scored on average 16 points for the London side and also averaged 7.5 rebounds per game. He will be hoping the move will secure a place in the GB squad in future years, and will join Myles Hesson as a GB player in Germany. The full story from the Kangaroo's website: http://noma-iserlohn-kangaroos.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1128%3Azwei-hochkaraetige-spieler&catid...

The BBL season has come to a close with the Leicester Riders securing the play-off win to the league and cup victories. On the last day of the league season it was a battle between two clubs, two cities for the right to face the Leicester Riders and clinch the final play-off spot. Manchester Giants hosting the London Lions in a clash for 8th place in the BBL. Two big cities who wanted one spot. The London Lions had moved from Milton Keynes at the start of the season and were hoping to build up a fan-base as in the 2013/14 season they would be using the Olympic Copper Box. The Manchester Giants were back in the BBL after a few years out of the premiere league of British basketball. These two big city franchises have the opportunity to attract a large following and become two of the key players in the future of the BBL. The Lions are of course moving to the biggest arena in the BBL so could feasibly attract large crowds and make more money than any of their BBL opponen...

London Lions Centre and former GB U-23 International Adrien Sturt thinks that the future of British Basketball and the London Lions is bright ahead of their move to the Copper Box next season. Sturt is currently in the BBL's team of the week after an impressive display against Manchester Giants last Sunday. He believes that the move will allow the club to expand and take some of the Olympic spirit He said: "The move to the Copper Box will be great as it will give us an opportunity to use the legacy of the Olympics to build on the team." "If you look at the top teams in Europe they all play in top stadiums and hopefully we can start to be a part of that." "I am looking forward to next season and playing in this world class arena." Speaking about his own performances, Sturt credited his team mates for his good form. He added: "Anything I do can be attributed to my team mates, it is a team game, we win together and we lose together....