The British Basketball League (BBL) is a men's
professional basketball league
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
Sports
* Sports league
* Rugby league, full contact footba ...
in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...
and represents the highest level of play in the countries. The league is contested by 10 teams from
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
and
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. There are no clubs however from
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
or
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...
. The BBL runs three additional knockout competitions alongside the
BBL Championship which are the
BBL Cup
The British Basketball League Cup, often shortened to the BBL Cup, is an annual cup competition for British basketball teams organised by the United Kingdom's top professional league, the British Basketball League. It is one of two peripheral co ...
, the
BBL Trophy and the end-of-season BBL Play-offs.
The BBL sits above the
National Basketball League and the
Scottish Basketball Championship
The Scottish Basketball Championship (SBC, former: ''Scottish National Basketball League'', SNBL) is the national basketball league of Scotland. The league forms the second and third tiers of British basketball (inline with the English Basketb ...
which effectively form the second tier of British basketball. There is currently no automatic
promotion or relegation between the English and Scottish leagues and the BBL because of the franchise system in use in the BBL although several clubs have been successful in making the step up from the EBL in recent years.
The 10 member franchises of the BBL jointly own the league
and a chairman is elected by the teams to oversee league operations. The head offices are located in
Leicester where the country's oldest team the
Leicester Riders
Leicester Riders are a British professional basketball team and the oldest club in the British Basketball League (BBL). Established in 1967, the club have played in various locations around Leicestershire before moving to their current purpose- ...
are also based.
In partnership with
Basketball England the BBL launched a women's league in 2014 branded as the
Women's British Basketball League (WBBL).
History
:''See:
List of British Basketball League seasons''
Establishment (1987–1992)
The British Basketball League was formed in 1987, with leading clubs from the
National Basketball League of England and
Scottish National Basketball League. In 1988,
Portsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is a professional football club based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, which compete in . They are also known as ''Pompey'', a local nickname used by both HMNB Portsmouth and the city of Portsmouth; the ''Pompey'' nick ...
won the inaugural BBL Championship title; the following year saw
Kingston win the first of three back-to-back league crowns.
Early growth (1992–2002)
The 1990s also saw a growth in popularity and commercialism within the league. Games were televised and the league picked up sponsors such as
Peugeot
Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...
,
Lego,
Playboy and
Budweiser, while attendances at games also increased. The
Manchester Giants opened the
1995–96 season in front of a record 14,251 fans at the
Nynex Arena
Manchester Arena, currently referred to as the AO Arena for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights space. The arena has the ...
against the
London Leopards
The Essex & Herts Leopards were an English semi-professional basketball club, based in Brentwood, Essex and St Albans, Hertfordshire. The Leopards competed in Division 1 of the English Basketball League. The team was established in 1997 as W ...
, a record crowd for a basketball game in Great Britain. It stood until 2006, when the
NBA started staging games at the
O2 Arena O2 Arena may refer to:
*The O2 Arena (London)
*O2 Arena (Prague)
*The 3Arena
The 3Arena (originally The O2) is an indoor amphitheatre located at North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Ireland. The venue opened as The O2 on 16 Decemb ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
London clubs dominated the league, with
London Towers
London Towers were a professional basketball team based in London, England. They enjoyed considerable success in the 1990s and early 2000s, collecting 3 titles in the British Basketball League (BBL) as well as regularly competing in European c ...
,
Crystal Palace and the
Greater London Leopards
Greater may refer to:
* Greatness, the state of being great
*Greater than, in inequality
Inequality may refer to:
Economics
* Attention inequality, unequal distribution of attention across users, groups of people, issues in etc. in attention e ...
all sharing success in the mid-1990s. In 1999, a Conference format similar to the NBA was introduced, with clubs split North and South. The two Conference champions met in a Championship series to decide the champions for the next three years.
Tougher times (2002–2012)
A single division format returned in 2002 and five different franchises won the Championship title in the five years after that. The new millennium, however, also saw a series of setbacks for the BBL. The collapse of
ITV Digital cost the league financially, with many franchises struggling to recover from the lost revenue that the £21 million contract was providing. Long established franchises such as the
Manchester Giants,
Essex Leopards
The Essex & Herts Leopards were an English semi-professional basketball club, based in Brentwood, Essex and St Albans, Hertfordshire. The Leopards competed in Division 1 of the English Basketball League. The team was established in 1997 as War ...
,
Derby Storm
Derby Storm was a former British Basketball League (BBL) franchise from the city of Derby, Derbyshire. The team took the decision to sit out the 2002–03 season after failing to find a suitable venue for home games. Despite early efforts for a ...
,
Thames Valley Tigers
Thames Valley Tigers was a British professional basketball team that competed in the British Basketball League (BBL) until 2005, when funding was ceased and the franchise folded. Based in Bracknell, Berkshire, the team's fans set up a new team to ...
and
Birmingham Bullets
The Birmingham Bullets were a British professional basketball team from Birmingham, England who competed in the British Basketball League (BBL). The club was founded in 1974 as Coventry Granwood before moving to Birmingham in 1980 as part of the ...
withdrew from the league, though new teams have been formed under the
Giants and
Leopards names. The membership crisis brought about the addition of new franchises such as
Guildford Heat
The Surrey Scorchers are an English professional basketball team based in Guildford, Surrey, that compete in the British Basketball League.
The team was established in 2005 as the Guildford Heat by fans of former British Basketball League team ...
(formed by supporters of the defunct Thames Valley Tigers), and elected teams from the lower-tier
English Basketball League, including the
Plymouth Raiders
The Plymouth Raiders was a professional basketball team based in Plymouth, England. The team competed in the British Basketball League, the country's premier basketball competition.
The club was founded in 1983 through a merger between two l ...
. Both teams made a refreshing impact on the old boys, with the Heat qualifying for the Play-offs in their rookie season.
During the same season
Newcastle won 30 of their 40 regular season league fixtures to clinch the Championship crown – the previous season saw the Eagles win 31 matches but lose out to
Chester Jets
The Cheshire Phoenix are a professional basketball team based in Ellesmere Port, England. Founded in 1984, they are members of the British Basketball League and play their home games at the Cheshire Oaks Arena. From 1993 until 2015 the team was ...
in the final week, by just two points. That title was one of four pieces of silverware won during the dubbed "clean-sweep" season of
2005–06, the Eagles marching on to claim the BBL Cup, BBL Trophy and Playoff's – the complete set.
Current setup (2012–present)
The intervening years saw the perennial success of the
Newcastle Eagles, the reemergence of the
Leicester Riders
Leicester Riders are a British professional basketball team and the oldest club in the British Basketball League (BBL). Established in 1967, the club have played in various locations around Leicestershire before moving to their current purpose- ...
as a dominant force in the domestic game, and the rise and fall of teams based in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...
,
Durham and
Worthing. Long term franchise
Milton Keynes relocated to London, to become a
2012 Olympics legacy tenant at the
Copper Box Arena, and a new incarnation of the famous
Manchester Giants name re-entered the league in the same year.
The 2015 Playoffs Final took place at
The O2 Arena
The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the ...
, London, following a string of sell-out attendances at
Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500- ...
between 2012 and 2014. The event saw a record breaking crowd of 14,700.
The past decade has seen sustained growth across the league, with the biggest advances in facilities. Some clubs have now built their own venues, including
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
,
Newcastle and
Leicester.
Cheshire,
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...
and
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
have moved into much improved facilities, while
Plymouth,
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
and the most recent election from the EBL, the
Bristol Flyers
The Bristol Flyers are a British professional basketball team based in the city of Bristol, England. The Flyers compete in the British Basketball League, after promotion from the English Basketball League in 2014. The team play their home ga ...
, have all announced plans for their own arenas. The 2018–19 season saw, for the first time in 11 years, British participation in European competition when Leicester competed in the
Basketball Champions League
The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the top-level competition organised by FIBA Europe, therefore the champion participates in the FIBA Interconti ...
and
FIBA Europe Cup
The FIBA Europe Cup (FEC) is an annual professional club basketball competition organised by FIBA for eligible European clubs. It is FIBA's European-wide second level. Clubs mainly qualify for the competition based on their performance in natio ...
.
On December 2, 2021, the
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
-based investment firm 777 Partners bought 45.5% of the shares of the league. The company invested £7 million in the league, that also saw an organisational reform which included the appointment of a CEO.
Rules
The BBL had a salary cap in place, named the "Team Payments Cap", which limited teams to spend no more than £250,000 on player salaries. The aim was to keep overall costs down for the teams while also ensuring competitive balance. The salary cap was dropped starting from the 2022-23 season, as it was stated to hamper the growth of BBL teams playing in European competitions.
Teams
Current teams
; Notes
# ''An asterisk (*) denotes a franchise move. See the respective team articles for more information.''
# ''The
Hemel & Watford Royals,
Leicester City Riders
Leicester Riders are a British professional basketball team and the oldest club in the British Basketball League (BBL). Established in 1967, the club have played in various locations around Leicestershire before moving to their current purpose- ...
and
Sunderland 76ers were all participants in the previous top-flight league, the
NBL, when it changed administration to the BBL in 1987.''
# ''The
Cheshire Jets
The Cheshire Phoenix are a professional basketball team based in Ellesmere Port, England. Founded in 1984, they are members of the British Basketball League and play their home games at the Cheshire Oaks Arena. From 1993 until 2015 the team was ...
and
Sheffield Sharks
The Sheffield Sharks, currently known as "B.Braun Sheffield Sharks" for sponsorship reasons, are a professional basketball team from the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The Sharks play in the British Basketball League and play thei ...
were both promoted from the
NBL in 1991 and 1994 respectively.''
# ''
Bristol Flyers
The Bristol Flyers are a British professional basketball team based in the city of Bristol, England. The Flyers compete in the British Basketball League, after promotion from the English Basketball League in 2014. The team play their home ga ...
(2014) have acquired a franchise licence to compete in the BBL, having previously competed in the
EBL.''
Proposed new teams
Former teams
Apparel
As of the
2016/17 BBL season Italian sportswear manufacturer
Kappa was the kit supplier for all teams.
Corporate structure
Board members
The league is an independent company owned by its member clubs. Each club, or franchise, has an equal shareholding in the BBL and a representative on the board of directors,
thus is part of all decision-making regarding league policy, issues, and rules.
Sir Rodney Walker is the current elected chairperson.
Chairs
* John Deacon (1987 to 1988)
* Kevin Routledge (1988 to 2002)
*
Vince Macaulay (2002 to 2006)
*
Paul Blake (2006 to 2013)
* Ed Percival (2013 to 2015)
*
Sir Rodney Walker (2016 to present)
Competitions
BBL Championship
The
BBL Championship is the flagship competition of the British Basketball League and features all member teams playing a double
round robin (home and away) league season,
from September through to April. Matches are played according to
FIBA
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...
rules and games consist of four-quarters of 10 minutes each. Two points are awarded for a win,
with
overtime used if the score is tied at the final buzzer – unlimited numbers of 5-minute overtime periods are played until one team is ahead when a period ends. At the end of the regular season, the team with the most points is crowned as winners of the BBL Championship, and thus British Champions. If points are equal between two or more teams then head-to-head results between said teams are used to determine the winners. In the case of a tie between multiple teams where this does not break the tie, the winners are then determined by the points difference in the games between said teams.
Following the completion of the Championship regular season, the top eight ranked teams advance into the post-season Play-offs which usually take place during April.
In the regular season, team schedules are not identical and neither are matchdays, with games scheduled mainly around venue availability. Because of this teams may find themselves playing a series of four or five home games consecutively followed by a straight set of away games. As the regular season is also particularly short many games are played over weekends as '
doubleheaders', whereby a team will play games (possibly a home and away game) on consecutive days, something that is not commonplace in British sports, although often seen in the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...
and other North American sports.
Play-offs
The post-season Play-offs usually takes place in April, featuring the top eight ranked teams from the Championship regular season compete in a
knockout tournament. Teams are seeded depending on their final positioning in the Championship standings, so first-place faces eighth-place, second versus seventh-place, third against sixth-place and finally fourth plays the fifth-placed team. Both the Quarter-finals and the succeeding Semi-finals are played over a three-game series, with the higher seed getting two home games either side of the lower seeds home game. The team that wins two of the three games advances to the next round.
As with the Quarter-finals, teams in the Semi-finals are also seeded, with the highest-ranking team drawn against the lowest-ranking team in one Semi-final and the two remaining teams drawn together in the other Semi-final. The culmination of the post-season is the grand Final, held at
The O2 Arena
The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the ...
in London, which sees the two Semi-final winners play a one-game event to determine the Play-off Champions.
BBL Cup
The
BBL Cup
The British Basketball League Cup, often shortened to the BBL Cup, is an annual cup competition for British basketball teams organised by the United Kingdom's top professional league, the British Basketball League. It is one of two peripheral co ...
emerged from a breakaway of the
English Basketball Association-organised
National Cup and was contested for the first time in the
2003–04 season, when
Sheffield Sharks
The Sheffield Sharks, currently known as "B.Braun Sheffield Sharks" for sponsorship reasons, are a professional basketball team from the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The Sharks play in the British Basketball League and play thei ...
were the inaugural winners. Since the 2019–20 season, the competition has a group stage followed by a knockout stage. The group stage consists of the teams being split into north and south groups and within each playing a
double round-robin system. The top 4 teams from each group are then
seeded with 1st of each group playing 4th in the other and 3rd in each group playing 2nd in the other. The winner of the
Aggregate score going through to the semi-final. The winner of the aggregate score of each match in the semi-final then goes through to the BBL Cup Final. The Cup final is played at the
Arena Birmingham
Arena Birmingham (known for sponsorship reasons as Utilita Arena Birmingham, and previously as The Barclaycard Arena and originally as the National Indoor Arena) is an indoor arena and sporting venue in central Birmingham, United Kingdom. It ...
in Birmingham, usually in early January.
BBL Trophy
The
BBL Trophy traces its origins back to a previous competition known as the Anglo-Scottish Cup – and subsequently the British Master's Cup – which was founded in 1984 and was initially a competition between teams from both the English and Scottish leagues. Following the launch of the new British Basketball League administration in 1987 – who assumed control over the National Basketball League from the
English Basketball Association – the British Master's Cup was scrapped and replaced with the newly formed League Trophy.
[Page 29 British Basketball League 1996/97 Handbook] The Trophy competition has historically had a
round-robin group stage format used for the first round, however the current competition is a
knockout tournament with pairings drawn completely at random – there are no
seeds, and a draw takes place after the majority of fixtures have been played in each round. As well as including all BBL member clubs, invited teams from the
English Basketball League, and occasionally the
Scottish Basketball League, often take part in the Trophy. The Final is usually played in March at a neutral venue.
European Competition
In 2018, the
Leicester Riders
Leicester Riders are a British professional basketball team and the oldest club in the British Basketball League (BBL). Established in 1967, the club have played in various locations around Leicestershire before moving to their current purpose- ...
competed in Europe's third tier of continental basketball, the
Basketball Champions League
The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the top-level competition organised by FIBA Europe, therefore the champion participates in the FIBA Interconti ...
, losing in the first qualification round on aggregate to the
Bakken Bears. They became the first British team to compete in European competition since the
Guildford Heat
The Surrey Scorchers are an English professional basketball team based in Guildford, Surrey, that compete in the British Basketball League.
The team was established in 2005 as the Guildford Heat by fans of former British Basketball League team ...
featured in the
ULEB Cup during the
2007–08 season.
Following their elimination from the Basketball Champions League, the Leicester Riders played in the
2018–19 FIBA Europe Cup, Europe's fourth tier.
To be eligible for entry into the
Basketball Champions League
The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the top-level competition organised by FIBA Europe, therefore the champion participates in the FIBA Interconti ...
or the
FIBA Europe Cup
The FIBA Europe Cup (FEC) is an annual professional club basketball competition organised by FIBA for eligible European clubs. It is FIBA's European-wide second level. Clubs mainly qualify for the competition based on their performance in natio ...
, teams must play in arenas with a capacity of at least 2,000 people. Currently the BBL member teams that meet the tournaments' requirements are
Leicester,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
Newcastle and
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
.
Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...
and
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
have both begun work on suitable arenas. Worcester were awarded a B-Licence by the
EuroLeague, the top tier of European competition, for the 2014–2015 season having won the 2014 BBL Playoffs.
Newcastle, London, Glasgow, and Bristol
have all signalled their intentions of playing at a European level in the near future.
Players
All-time statistics leaders
Bold indicates active BBL players.
Last Updated on 20 September 2012
Foreign imports
British Basketball League rules currently allow for each team to have a maximum of three "import" players – from outside of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
(EU) and require a
work permit to play – whilst the remaining players on the roster must have
citizenship
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
of an EU country, either by birth or by
naturalisation. The current ruling was integrated at the beginning of the 2006–07 season, reverting from the previous law which allowed for up to four non-EU players on a roster, along with naturalised players.
New rules introduced for the
2012–13 season allow teams to field a maximum of five non-British players per game (including up to three work permitted players), further demonstrating the League's commitment towards developing British players.
Transfer regulations
According to BBL rules, teams must field no more than six import (non-EU) players in any one season, though only three are allowed to be registered to a roster at any one time. Signings are allowed to be made throughout the pre-season and during the regular season until the league's transfer deadline on 28 February, or if during a
leap year, the date is 29 February.
Notable former players
*
Kieron Achara
Kieron Robert Nnamdi Achara MBE (born 3 July 1983) is a Scottish professional basketball player who last played for the Glasgow Rocks. He is a 6'10" (2.08 m) forward who played college basketball at Duquesne University and represented Scotland a ...
*
John Amaechi
John Uzoma Ekwugha Amaechi , OBE (; born 26 November 1970) is a British-American psychologist, consultant and former professional basketball player. He played college basketball at Vanderbilt and Penn State, and professional basketball in the ...
*
Andrew Betts
Andrew Richard Betts (born 11 May 1977) is a retired British professional basketball player. He had a mostly international career.
Career notes
After starting his career as a junior player with the Leicester Riders, Betts played college basket ...
*
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
Matthew Osei Bryan-Amaning (born 9 May 1988) is a British-Ghanaian professional basketball player, who played for AS Douanes of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). He has represented the Great Britain national team in international competition ...
*
Steve Bucknall
*
Dave Gardner
*
Trevor Gordon
*
Skouson Harker
Skouson Harker (born 1977) is a Canadian former professional basketball player of the FIBA European Leagues. Harker is from Raymond, Alberta, Canada. After five seasons as a Head Coach in the British Basketball League, Harker most recently co ...
*
Chris Haslam
*
Roger Huggins
*
Iain MacLean
*
Richard Midgley
Richard Midgley (born 7 July 1983 in Burgess Hill, England) is a retired British professional basketball player who finished his career at the age of 26. He played Point Guard and played for Great Britain. His final club was Everton Tigers of th ...
*
Robbie Peers
*
Peter Scantlebury
*
Greg Francis
Greg Francis (born April 4, 1974 in Toronto, Ontario) is the head coach of the UOIT Ridgebacks men's basketball team, as well as the manager of men's high performance at Canada Basketball. He was previously the head coach of the University of ...
*
Ricardo Greer
*
Pero Cameron
Sean Pero MacPherson Cameron (born 5 June 1974) is a New Zealand basketball coach and former player. A FIBA Hall of Fame member, he captained the New Zealand Tall Blacks from 2000 to 2010, helping lead New Zealand to the semifinal of the 2002 ...
*
Ted Berry
Theodore Moody Berry (November 8, 1905 – October 15, 2000) is an American politician of the Charter Party of Cincinnati, Ohio and was the first African-American mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Early life and education
Born in poverty in Maysvill ...
*
Flinder Boyd
*
Rod Brown
*
Eric Burks
*
Alton Byrd
Joseph Alton Byrd (born March 11, 1958) is an American-British former professional basketball player who is the Vice President of Business Operations for the Long Island Nets of the NBA G League.
He grew up in the San Francisco area, where he w ...
*
Terry Crosby
*
Tony Dorsey
Anthony Jerald Dorsey (born July 15, 1970) is an American-born British former professional basketball player. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia. At a height of 6'7" (2.01 m) tall, and a weight of 220 lbs. (100 kg), he played at the pow ...
*
Chuck Evans
*
Kenny Gregory
William Kendrick Gregory (born November 16, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. He played the shooting guard and small forward positions. He is 6 ft 5 ¾ in (1.97 m) in height.
Amateur career
Mr. Ohio, Gregory pla ...
*
James Life
*
Loren Meyer
Loren Henry Meyer (born December 30, 1972) is a retired American professional basketball player who played three seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round (24th pick overall) o ...
*
Terrell Myers
*
Nate Reinking
*
Craig Robinson
*
Dennis Rodman
*
Billy Singleton
*
Andre Smith
*
Lynard Stewart
*
Clyde Vaughan
*
Jerry Williams
*
Tony Windless
*
Voise Winters
*
Charles Claxton
Results
League
Present clubs
Historical
Playoffs
Honours board
Media coverage
Basketball receives little national press coverage in the United Kingdom, although coverage is more extensive from the local newspapers in cities where BBL clubs are based, with publications such as ''
The Plymouth Herald'', ''
Manchester Evening News'', ''
Leicester Mercury
The ''Leicester Mercury'' is a British regional newspaper for the city of Leicester and the neighbouring counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The paper began in the 19th century as the ''Leicester Daily Mercury'' and later changed to its ...
'' and the ''
Newcastle Chronicle'' all having dedicated basketball reporters who cover the respective local team. Some national newspapers list results and occasionally provide short summaries of the League's news, but more extensive coverage remains minimal.
The history of television coverage of the BBL has been sporadic. Previously the League enjoyed coverage from
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
in the 1980s and Sky Sports from 1995 to 2001, where audiences peaked at around 150,000 viewers. The League signed a three-year broadcast deal with the ill-fated digital TV company
ITV Digital in 2001, and coverage suffered a sharp decline as the broadcaster struggled and eventually went out of business, resulting in a significant loss of income to member clubs. Television coverage was then infrequent until the 2007–08 season, when international broadcaster
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previ ...
signed a deal to screen one live game a week. In 2010, the League agreed a broadcast rights deal with
BSkyB network
Sky Sports marking the return of BBL action on Sky Sports after a 9-year gap. The League's own subscription-based online TV station,
BBL TV, took over the broadcast of live games from 2013 to 2015, and during the
2013–14 season match highlights were also televised and featured on
British Eurosport each week.
In July 2016, the league signed a two-year broadcast deal with the
BBC, featuring both British Basketball League and
Women's British Basketball League games. The games would be broadcast on the
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside f ...
website with the showpiece finals also being broadcast on the BBC Red Button.
Alongside the BBC deal, a six-year deal with Perform was signed
which saw every BBL game broadcast via LiveBasketball.TV,
and a deal followed a year later with
UNILAD to broadcast one game a week live via Facebook.
FreeSports signed a deal with the league in January 2018 to broadcast games for the remainder of the season, starting with the BBL Cup Final between
Worcester Wolves and
Cheshire Phoenix
The Cheshire Phoenix are a professional basketball team based in Ellesmere Port, England. Founded in 1984, they are members of the British Basketball League and play their home games at the Cheshire Oaks Arena. From 1993 until 2015 the team wa ...
.
In November 2020, coverage of the league returned to Sky Sports in a new two-year deal which sees Sky broadcasting 30 games per season, including BBL Trophy Final, BBL Cup Final and BBL Playoffs.
This has been extended to cover the 2022/23 season.
Awards
*
Most Valuable Player award
*
Coach of the Year award
*
All-Star Team award
See also
*
Basketball in England
Basketball has a very long history in England, being introduced there by YMCA almost immediately after it was invented (having been created by the Canadian Dr. James Naismith in 1891 in Massachusetts). World Wars I and II further spurred its ...
*
National Basketball League (England)
*
Super League (Ireland), featuring teams from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
*
Women's British Basketball League
*
List of professional sports teams in the United Kingdom
This article features a listing of all professional sports teams based in the United Kingdom, in addition to teams from other countries that compete in professional leagues featuring teams from the United Kingdom.
Football Premier League
EFL ...
*
Timeline of basketball on UK television
Notes
References
External links
*
{{English and British National Champions
1
Organisations based in Leicestershire
Professional sports leagues in the United Kingdom
Sport in Leicester
1987 establishments in the United Kingdom
Sports leagues established in 1987