Barca Baby!!

Having been on air for the last month, staying up every Tuesday night until 6am, I really needed to recharge my batteries. A trip to Barcelona was the perfect remedy - a good way to see some hoops, experience good weather and eat in really nice Tapas restaurants!

The plan was to watch DKV Joventut as Andy Betts, Andrew Sullivan and Robert Archibald are all members of the squad clocking major minutes. But in recent weeks Betts has been sidelined due to injury. Archibald is coming of another off-season knee surgery and is being rushed back due to Betts’ untimely sick note. Meanwhile Andrew Sullivan is currently playing a very undersized power forward position; hence not clocking the kind of minutes he has been accustomed to.

On my arrival DKV Joventut were on the road in their Euroleague match-up against Lottomatica Roma on Thursday night. They lost to the Italian side 71-69. My return flight was scheduled for Sunday morning, so I was unable to catch their ACB league encounter against Etosa Alicante; which they won by a comfortable 81-63 margin.

Having not seen the guys play I had to at least call them to see how they were getting on in Spain. Apart from the obvious injuries and lack of court time, the English cats seemed very upbeat and in good spirits. Their team are currently 2-2 in Euro play and 6-4 in their domestic league, so it’s not all bad news.

I did have time to catch-up with Ed Scott. Ed (a budding young coach), is now working for FIBA Spain and is based in Barcelona. We chilled at Starbucks on Las Ramblas and parlayed about world basketball, the UK side to be precise! Agreeing this is where we would like to see things develop.

Ed and I kicked it for a couple of hours whilst I chugged on a Mocha Frappaccino. As my trip in Spain came to an end, it was time to hit the road and head back to the howling wind and rain of South London!

Now fully recharged and ready for a full week, I have the NBA match-up of the Knicks @ Bulls on Tuesday night to look forward to. Bulls are failing to live up to the hype as they sport a rather dismal 4-9 record, whilst my New York crew are just continuing on their downward spiral from last season. They are the proud owners of a 5-10 record, which is not good news for Coach and GM Isiah Thomas! It will be interesting to see how the soap opera in the Big Apple develops…

BBL Experience

Having been a part of the BBL for quite some time, I now find myself in the wilderness. First, there is no local team to visit. The London Towers have gone on a year’s sabbatical and the Brighton Bears are hibernating. To compound the issue the marketing of the BBL is quite poor (bordering on non existent), so I no longer know what’s going on in the league unless I make a couple of phone calls.

This weekend I had one such call which prompted me to head to my old stomping ground, Guildford. The Heat faced Tony Garbs’ team, London Utd. Driving to the game it became clear in my mind that I was not supporting the BBL (that’s crystal clear). I was supporting the young English talent which make up the nucleus of both teams. Having coached most of their players at some stage in their careers, it was easy for me to relate to both clubs; therefore hiking to the game was not a chore. This however would have been the case if I could not identify with the players in anyway.

Apart from the Heat blazing Garbs’ crew by 13-points, Guildford were up as much as 20 at one stage. The officiating at the game was 'piss-poor'!! I thought it was bad in my day as a coach – but what I saw on Saturday was just simply atrocious! At one stage London’s Phillip Perry and the Heat’s Chad McKnight had a verbal confrontation during a timeout at mid-court. An official stood in front of them drinking water and said nothing. This confrontation was one of many the two were having throughout the course of the game. The question I asked was, ‘why are you allowing this situation to escalate?’ As we’ve seen in the past, if the referees don’t take control, the trash talking will undoubtedly turn ugly!

I can only hope that my return to a BBL match-up in the future is a little more enjoyable. It was great catching up with the guys after the game; I have much love for both teams and their coaches. However, the whole English professional league is far from where it needs to be, in the mid to late 90’s it was huge, to see it degenerate into local league is not something you want to witness.

Stern Rules!

New season, new attitude, new rules… new ball.

Banned this year are tights, also there is to be no showing of any emotion whatsoever, if you do? Just ask Rasheed Wallace, Mike Bibby and others. The zero tolerance rule has got players on edge as it seems any reaction is a free pass for an early shower. The aforementioned players found out in the first week of game-time in the NBA. All were shown the red card in the first couple of quarters of action.

I am all for discipline, following the rules and having respect for the officials; however I don’t feel it should be to the detriment of the game. Fans pay big money to see stars - the excitement and the emotion of a basketball game. Most would feel thoroughly disappointed and cheated if they only saw their stars play for a couple of quarters, due to some ref getting his feelings hurt.

I expect there to be some revolt or reassessment of the situation. Throwing out T’s like Frisbees isn’t going to the help the cause from a player’s standpoint, or indeed the fans.