Ethan

Talking about British Basketball / Marketing BSc / Freelance Commentator / Freelance Sports Journalist

[Ethan @EJBBL]

Manchester have the best fans in the SLB 🙂‍↕️

[Ethan @EJBBL]

watching british hoops on the DAZN app was a pretty cool experience overall

[Ethan @EJBBL]

@TheHoopGenius Bilal has a very high ceiling

[Ethan @EJBBL]

Midnight Madness (🇬🇧) just beat the defending Quai 54 champions La Fusion in the QFs!

Notable players on the squad include: Jordan Spencer, Jordan Williams, DLO, Amin Adamu, Dirk Williams and William Lee

Team is being coached by Vince!

[Stuart Hodge @Hodgeythehack]

FANS OF 🇬🇧🏀,
I’M ASKING A WEE FAVOUR…

Given my current reporting focus on all #BritishBasketball matters, I’m inviting you all to follow as I prepare to begin regular coverage of a new type, streaming on my basketball platform @BouncyPodcast.

The intention is to discuss all of the real stuff and personal experiences which surround the bigger picture around the game right now, in a casual way.

With that in mind, I’m inviting all potential pitches and guests to get in touch via DM.

If you’ve followed or shared or valued my reporting recently, I would appreciate if you could please RT this tweet and share any pitches you may have via DM. Also, a follow for the podcast account would be great.

Particularly interested in experiences from players and people who work at/for the clubs in the league, or at the league itself, to start with, but I’m even more interested in any very unique personal stories that people may have.

All shares appreciated and please don’t be scared to approach, we can discuss parameters around the discussion to ensure everyone feels safe and do it in a time and way which suits you.

People have asked me to provide coverage on the podcast but I need the help of hoops fans to make it happen!

Thanks a lot,

Hodgey x

[Ethan @EJBBL]

@BBLRevolution @TheHoopGenius bold of you to assume anyone cares about your opinion with your track record

[Ethan @EJBBL]

@MattHardyBBL Why didn’t you? Your platform is called BBL Daily and yet it didn’t cover something that was discussed daily by the community of the BBL. Not trying to antagonise, genuinely asking! To say ‘until something actually happened’ is to imply things haven’t been happening throughout

[Ethan @EJBBL]

It’s a few people with big voices who showed their true colours during this saga.

People who only HAVE their platform as a result of the community who’ve been taken advantage of in broad daylight for the last few years. Heads in sand & boots getting licked 🤦🏻‍♂️

[Paul Brown @pbsportswriter]

There you go. It’s over. And everyone in British Basketball who ignored the multitude of warnings about 777 and the state it has left the BBL in should be utterly ashamed of themselves

[Ethan @EJBBL]

@DBGyt_ @TheHoopGenius Biffa Basketball League

[Ethan @EJBBL]

@TheHoopGenius Yeah i like that. Of course that begs the question: who? Recent history shows the league has no attraction/no one competent enough to bring to household name brands

The only “big-name” sponsor the ex-Disney, ex-Apple CEO pulled in was Biffa… The jokes write themselves 😂

[Ethan @EJBBL]

@TheHoopGenius Yeah that’s why I said somewhat 😂, I do agree that it’s a barrier to brand credibility overall tho. What you reckon is the alternative? Keep the name but run with UKBL abbreviation? BBA?

[Ethan @EJBBL]

British Basketball Federation:

[Ethan @EJBBL]

Great write-up ⬇️

[Stuart Hodge @Hodgeythehack]

🧐 THE 777 AGENDA AND HOW THE BBL HELPED THEM - EXPLAINED

777 Partners’ #BritishBasketball masterplan for 🇬🇧🏀 was never, ever about growing the sport sustainably in the UK or allowing the league and game to thrive.

Despite their many protestations to the contrary, 777 was never interested in the holistic side of our sport. They wanted to build the @LondonLions and @londonlionsw into a sellable asset by competing at a high level in Europe and potentially buying the Copperbox Arena. That was all they were interested in and the BBL, by taking investment money, afforded 777 every means to execute their plans given the extra sway they had in the centre of the league’s power base - the board.

The #BBL (@britishbasketm) allowed 777 to buy a 45 per cent stake for £7million in order to facilitate the investment firm’s goal (which in itself is crazy, imagine Man Utd owning nearly half of the Premier League!) but, admittedly, the vision - although it will never come to fruition because of the firm’s widely-reported financial impropriety - was well thought out.

Here is how it happened:

Firstly, 777’s buyout was conditional on BBL granting 777 exclusive franchise rights to the area of London - meaning NO OTHER London team would be able to compete, despite it being the demographic hub of basketball in the country and the city with the most potential to organically grow the game. Fostering a rivalry within the nation’s capital would surely be a way to do that, you would think - but, as I say, it wasn’t part of the plan.

777 then got the BBL to remove the salary cap from the league and persuaded the BBL board to increase the number of US players to five per team, meaning they could focus on paying millions of pounds to high-profile US talents such as Sam Dekker - who was paid more individually than a number of clubs’ entire salary bill, very much stifling the sense of competition within the league.

777’s primary ambition was to build a successful London team which could compete at the top level of European competition, which they managed for a short space of time. Owning the club also provided a useful means for Josh Wander to enter rooms with decision makes at top-tier domestic football clubs, eventually leading to the failed bid for Everton… once the money had all run out (if it was ever really there, read @JosimarFotball for more on that).

But now that it’s abundantly clear 777’s empire turned out to be built on spurious funding from allegedly unscrupulous sources, as was warned by a select few, our game is facing an unprecedentedly damaging financial collapse and - should the allegations prove true - a wholesale reputational wipeout.

[Ethan @EJBBL]

@Britishbas27974 And it wasn’t even the best british basketball instagram account this season! ;)

[Ethan @EJBBL]

Seeing a lot of ‘worried about how this sets back the league’ type comments

What step forward did the league actually take lol? The instagram is nicer now?

Did the league support any of the clubs without facilities in building one? No

cont. ⬇️

[Ethan @EJBBL]

Do we have a TV deal with a major broadcaster? Nope, had some games shown in the US though!

The league has faced major setbacks before (see collapse of NTL deal), and has bounced back.

No need to be giving credit where it isn’t due.

[Ethan @EJBBL]

What was done to elevate British talent and bring the best British talent home OUTSIDE the one team? Nothing, but the salary cap is gone and the # of import players allowed was increased to 6 👍🏼

Do we have big name sponsors bringing in income and legitimising the brand? No

[Ethan @EJBBL]

You might be the only person surprised by this news 😂

[Drew Lasker @drew21pink]

No EuroCup for Lions?! Damn.

[Ethan @EJBBL]

🥱 British basketball doesn’t need any(more) hobbyist investors (or scam artists).

[Ball in Europe @ballineurope]

You want a basketball team to be viable in London?

Get Arsenal or Spurs to start one and somehow convince BOTH their investors and fans that it won't take money away from the football operation.

Given that it definitely would and fans aren't dumb, that's not happening.