From www.guardian.co.uk
Download source here

Basketball in Britain, which has long struggled for headlines because of soccer's dominance and the lack of a unified national team, is finally primed for exposure at Europe's highest level.

For the first time in the 73-year existence of the European Basketball Championships a Britain team, rather than England or Scotland who have qualified before, will rub shoulders with Europe's best sides.

After six home and away qualifiers last month Britain topped their group containing Israel, Bosnia and the Czech Republic to go through to EuroBasket in Poland next September.

The team came out of a 14-year hibernation in 2006. British teams assembled before 1992 had nothing like the talent now available, such as Chicago Bulls leading player Luol Deng.

Since January 2007, it has been run by British Performance Basketball (BPB), a UK Sport-funded body responsible for elite players, set up in the wake of London winning the 2012 Olympics to ensure Britain would actually have a team there.

Deng feels the game in Britain is now on an upward curve.

"From the years before, there was an improvement in the attendance and fanbase in Britain, plus it was great being able to step out in London for the first time," he told Reuters by e-mail from Bosnia.

Add to the equation a burgeoning number of participants, a national league gathering strength again after years in the doldrums and the NBA's decision to move its European headquarters to London in 2007, and it is easy to see why leading figures in the British game are excited.

GREAT FUTURE
"The future is so great for the sport in Great Britain," Ron Wuotila, performance manager at BPB, told Reuters by telephone from Bosnia.

"In all honesty I hope people in Britain would spend more of their time talking about what's possible and not why we're not playing in front of 18,000 people. What we achieved just helps all of that," he added.

Coach Chris Finch, who has been involved since the team's rebirth in 2006, was thrilled by last month's campaign.

"Looking from where we came it is an amazing achievement by everyone who has been involved in some capacity, and it's nice for the British public to have something to rally around," he said in an e-mail.

Officials hope this exposure for basketball will help the sport to overcome the barriers that have held it back.

For instance, during the home qualifiers none of the venues were basketball specific and Wuotila says this needs to change.

"When I travel through Europe I encounter multiple facilities built for basketball. We suffer from that. The O2 arena in London is a perfect venue but you have to dress it up, you can't just turn the key and walk in," he said.

"Across Britain we need more places that clubs and schools can call home."

John Amaechi, a 2006 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist with England, told Reuters that the British team's success was outstanding given the lack of facilities.

"These people have had to work harder because there isn't a gym or a quality coach around every corner," he said.

In England alone between 80,000 and 100,000 children aged 11-15 play basketball, making it the second largest team sport for the age group.

The key area to address, however, is unity.

"WORK TOGETHER"
In December, an independent chairman will be appointed to head British Basketball, which will then be recognised as the nation's official body by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), simplifying the amalgamation of BPB and the British Basketball Federation which happened in January 2007.

Former BPB chairman Alistair Gray, who was named chairman of British Swimming last week, said last month that bolstering the national league should be a priority.

"The underlying challenge is to strengthen the league in Britain and it will take some years before we achieve that," he told Reuters by telephone.

Founded in 1987, the British Basketball League (BBL) is recovering from attendance and coverage losses following the management's decision in 2001 to leave Sky Sports and join ITV digital, which collapsed in 2002. However, games were televised on Setanta during the 2007-08 season.

BBL chairman Paul Blake told Reuters that working in partnership was the key if basketball was to take off in Britain, as it did in Spain after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

"Sport England has looked at the sport in recent years and said it is fractious," he said by telephone from Newcastle.

"Right now they're looking at it and saying it is getting its act together, and anything that comes in now to upset that current position is going to hurt the sport," he added.

With talk of a nationwide grassroots tournament next May organised by the 20-month-old BBA (British Basketball Association), who in time also hope to start a national league to rival the BBL, Gray shares Blake's wish for unity.

"The last thing you want is people fighting and then producing two mediocre leagues. My plea to them all is 'Guys just work together would you?' Swallow your pride and your ego and just get on with developing athletes in winning teams."