The ‘P’ word that haunts British Basketball
If you were asked to name the top five sports in terms of participation for 16 to 25 year olds that appeared on the Sport England Active People Survey 2015, what would you say? No prizes for guessing number one on the list; you would have needed to have spent most of your life on Mars to not know that one – football. How about the rest?
Well to put you out of your misery – the next three in order were athletics, swimming and cycling. And number five? You guessed it – basketball. And when you look at team sports it was number two for 14 to 16 year olds, ahead of rugby and cricket.
But before you get too excited, the realities of basketball in England paint a mixed picture. The report also shows that by age 26 many have stopped playing. Funding for basketball has been variable at best, with all sorts of conditions attached to the money in recent times due to the funding bodies’ suspicions that basketball’s governance was not all it should be.
Things appear to have changed for the better with the arrival of Basketball England’s (BE) new CEO, Stewart Kellett last year. He comes from British Cycling who knows a thing or two about attracting funding. There has also been the launch of the Basketball Development Model (BDM) which is BE’s blueprint for developing the sport. The home nations uniting under the British Basketball Federation has been welcomed by many.
OK sounds great; but haven’t we been here before? There have been so many false dawns in basketball in this country we think anybody involved in the sport should be allowed to be a bit cynical.
Unfortunately at least one person here at 3x3ballers can remember the first false dawn where Channel 4 handed basketball a weekly TV slot back in 1982 only for politics and incompetence to bring it all to a shuddering halt. That was followed by sponsorship deals that were terminated early, more blown TV deals and a truck load of speeches and declarations by basketball’s leadership that the future is bright for the sport. A future that has never quite arrived.
The biggest false dawn of them all was when Great Britain fielded both a men’s and women’s team at the 2012 Olympics in London. This was the first time since 1948, when London previously staged the Olympics. The basketball world and others felt this was the breakout moment; the sport had arrived. Less than a year later UK Sport pulled funding for the GB teams.
The whole basketball community cried foul accusing the funding body of a betrayal of the ethos of the 2012 games – legacy. What everybody chose to forget is that UK Sport is not there to support grass roots basketball. They are here to develop elite teams who have a realistic chance of reaching the medal podium.
UK Sport is both clever and ruthless. That is how they got GB from 36th in the Olympic medal table in 1996 to third in 2012. And then going on to win more medals in the next games after their home one, which has happened very few times in the whole of Olympic history. They know which winners to back and which losers to drop.
Team sports will always be at a disadvantage when it comes to Olympic funding because of the relative lack of medals available – usually three. Other sports such as athletics, cycling, sailing, rowing and swimming have a large number of medals and so a multitude of opportunities to bump up the tally.
Remember that until 2007 there was no GB basketball team as it had been disbanded some years previously. From a standing start they managed to convince the world governing body, FIBA, to allow the teams to participate in London. But for all their hard work, both teams won just one game between them. Yes some of the games were close but elite sport is not about nearly winning. UK Sport, who are only concerned with winners, decided there was a slim chance of either team winning a medal by 2020. Harsh but understandable considering UK Sport’s remit.
Even though the Olympic dream turned out to be just that, it doesn’t mean there isn’t hope for the sport in this country. Quite the opposite actually.
Right at the top of the list of Sport England’s requirements is the desire to increase participation. That appears to also be at the top of the list for BE.
BE should be looking to remove as many barriers to the sport as possible. By doing as much as they can to get kids playing and also bring back ex-players to the sport. That doesn’t just mean getting players to join clubs but to also encourage organised informal participation.
And it is to that last point that 3x3ballers has a suggestion to make. FIBA has realised the development possibilities of 3×3. It is a much more informal discipline of the sport that requires less by way of organisation, players, officials and equipment. They have embraced that and created an exciting structure around 3×3.
“But it is not proper basketball!” we hear the purists cry. Oh get over yourselves you snobs – you are missing the point. If the goal is to get people interested and keep them that way then it doesn’t really matter what form the game takes. What matters is that they are participating. The world is getting faster and attention spans are getting shorter. Fast paced action packed games that have a shorter duration are ideal for this. Some 3×3 kids will crossover into 5v5 and some won’t. It doesn’t matter – it is all basketball.
And if you couple that with taking basketball to non-sporting public spaces by setting-up pop-up courts, we think you have a recipe for success.
But it will take vision, planning, passion and money.
Oh and what about that ‘P’ word? It is potential – the word that has hung over English basketball for as long as we can remember. Lets hope that the sport now has the leadership that can realise all that potential that the activity numbers suggest is out there.