British basketball has problems but promise after revamped BBL All-Star Game 2024
There had not been a men’s British Basketball League All-Star for over a decade or a women’s All-Star ever, until this past weekend. Now there are 42 of them, across the men’s and women’s game, as they showed out at Copper Box Arena, London.
High-flying dunks, half-court shots and alley-oops galore / Credit: British Basketball League
Jamell Anderson, the only Brit to grace the men’s All-Star game, described what it meant from a player’s point of view: “I’ve played in this league for 14 years now so to get that recognition feels amazing. I know when I first started playing basketball if you told me I was going to be an All-Star in the professional league here I wouldn’t have believed you, so I’m thankful,” said Anderson.
While British Basketball League (BBL) CEO Aaron Radin told us his ambitions for the revamp of the All-Star game. Radin explained: “We needed vehicles to allow fans to connect with our players, where we have the opportunity for fans to connect with our players so that fans could understand their stories.
“We wanted to have a showcase event where we could highlight the top players. We wanted to have a showcase event where we could take a week off to have the opportunity to promote and tell the stories of these players.”
On the day some players stood out more than others, as all-time great Brit Temi Fagbenle took home the women’s game MVP and Teddy ‘buckets’ Allen took home the men’s game MVP as the South teams swept the North teams in comfortable fashion.
Women’s South team claim a 99-81 victory / Credit: British Basketball League
Teddy Allen has taken the league by storm since joining in December, averaging a league-high 23.6 points. Allen told the Sports Gazette: “It feels good. Guys weren’t really playing super hard but somebody’s gotta get it so might as well get it.”
Sharpshooter Matt Morgan was crowned three-point contest winner while his London Lions teammate Josh Sharma impressed judges to win the slam-dunk contest.
Matt Morgan celebrates the men’s South 149-116 victory / Credit: British Basketball League
But both the men’s and women’s London Lions have the opportunity to put British basketball on the map in a larger capacity than this. The respective teams have made history reaching further than any other British sides have before in Europe.
Looking to complete the journey, the Lions men will be on the road to their EuroCup first leg semi-final on March 26th against Paris. While the Lions women will be at Besiktas on April 3rd for the first leg of their EuroCup final, after recently being told by the club they are to be withdrawn from European competition next season.
Former NBA first-round draft pick and London Lions forward Sam Dekker exclusively told Sports Gazette: “That’s where our sights are set on. I never want to take anything away from today but we’ve got bigger things in mind in terms of competitive basketball coming up and against a really good team. It’s gonna be fun, two really good teams competing for something big so we’re going to need as many Lions and proud Brits here as possible here to cheer us on and ready to watch some good basketball.
“Every win we get, we achieve more history. If we’re able to get to this championship and win it, this will be something that’s just unprecedented and such a quick ascent from starting in EuroCup last year for the first time and getting a chance to win it now. I can’t tell you how big that would be for London, for basketball here and just for the culture of hoops growing here. It’s something I feel would have a lasting effect here moving forward.”
A big achievement it would be, but British hoops still suffers from a lack of funding and attention according to Radin. Radin said: “It was all alien to me when I arrived and started to learn about how government funding works. I went to some governing body meeting with a bunch of acronyms, and before the meeting I got the digest version of how government funding works in the UK. It’s really focused on how to get medals in the Olympics so it’s individual sports: rowing, fencing and equestrian, which gets five times the amount of funding that basketball does.
“I walked in the room, a naive guy who had basically just arrived from Mars, and said, ‘You guys could have the next LeBron James in this country right now, and based on the way you fund sports, he’s going to ride a horse’. That sucks for basketball here but it also sucks for the horse.”
This could be somewhat recognised by the dominating American presence at the British All-Star game, with Radin insisting: “The best thing that could ever happen to this league is to have a top British player rise up through this league and play here, or come back here.”
As was visualised in the Caledonia Gladiators BBC documentary ‘Ballers: Ball or Nothing’, British Basketball League teams also have difficulties keeping the American talent here long-term. Radin recognised this: “Ideally we get some players to stick around a bit longer and we create the conveyor belt that allows us the ability to get really good at telling these stories year after year. Again, that’s an attraction for players to come here, that their stories will be conveyed.”
But despite the remaining difficulties, this was an occasion to celebrate the successes of this season and a sign of progress for the league. In a bid to create high-quality sporting entertainment, another passage was created to encourage British basketball fans to tune into the British Basketball League.
