The Perfect Storm – Feedback

Following the publication of ‘THE PERFECT STORM’ I received a number of replies that I wanted to use. Unfortunately these were sent to me privately so I have taken some time to seek out the permission of the senders. A couple were happy to give that permission provided they remained anonymous. I am delighted to agree.

Hi Mike,

Firstly can I say a massive thank you for your commitment to British Basketball and the Sheffield Sharks over the years. Your return is the big one each year for us and I really believe you have won more than a few games for us over the years.

I have just read your article about the events at the EIS on Friday and am glad to see a report more than 3 sentences covering the topic. Thank you very much for that. Myself, my friend and his Dad have been going to the Sharks matches for 15ish years now and in all that time the game of British Basketball has had it’s ups and downs but this is the first time in a while that we have been truly worried about the plight of the game. You mentioned at the end of your article about the owners and sponsorspossibly drifting and in a climate where there is little national funding or recognition for a minor sport this is a worrying.

In my opinion the game and subsequent social media take of the game against the Eagles underlines a bigger league problem and approach to the sport. I support Atiba 110% as a coach and a recruiter with a limited budget but he has to be professional on and off court at all times to ensure we are a healthy respecable product for future investment so that we at least have a team to watch in Sheffield for years to come. I disagree with a lot of the refereeing of the game (including Singh’s unsportsmanlike foul) but I do agree with the T’s given to Atiba.
Saying that, the Eagles are a great team and clearly the best put together in the BBL. Maybe Chapman could even hang with Terrell and Will in the day?

The BBL and Sharks as professional organisations, in my opinion, both need to take a gamble on the employment of a full time administrator to ensure the future product of professional basketball exists. You mentioned the idea of a Commissioner of British Basketball who could tie the league together in an impartial setting and this seems like a no brainer to me. The Sharks I believe need to add an extra body to the office too. There have been many times friends and family of mine along with the group that I see the Sharks with, have contacted the Sharks office and had little response in regards to merchandise, sponsorship, ticketing, website and other issues. It seems that there is simply too much work for Joel and an extra administrator would be able to interact and pull the strings together for us. This would surely lead to a closer interaction, financial improvements and a larger and more consistant attendances. Saying this however it must be a hard call to pay for an office staff over an extra player.

If you got to the bottom of this thank you very much, there are few places to talk with passion about British Basketball and few people that seem to understand the game and it’s consequences.

Wishing you all the best,

Rich

Posted 18th February 2012

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Hi there Mike

Thank you for sharing your views on the match between the Eagles and Sharks. This match truly highlights the underpinnings of professional basketball in UK. Sadly, the league is not respected around the world.

For all franchises, the league needs to

(1) focus on developing a sound business model with strategic vision and achievable and realistic goals; (a) stop trying to win at all costs; (b) remove the misnomer: zero or limited development of UK players who have become practice or bench players only; (c) attract quality “franchise” players (2 or 3 GB/USA/foreign) who are willing to reach out to the community two-fold: assist development of players (teammates & others, e.g. youth teams) by being true professionals at all times (role models) & initiate contact (personal selling) with public at all times to develop strong links (networking) with schools primarily building fan/member base (pyramid management).

(2) design set of policies for all franchises which are strictly enforced including conditioning levels and conduct of players.

The standard of the league has dropped because players are not conditioned for the professional game. Would majority of players pass a standard fitness screening and test delivered by high calibre expert?

Poor fitness = poor concentration = poor performance = blame culture, i.e. officials, coaches, etc.

I have watched many games at the highest level. The game is played cleaner when both teams are fielding players with excellent fitness and discipline. The officials find it easier to make calls and the spectators enjoy the fast-paced game.

Is the league and/or teams attracting and hiring the right type of players and/or coaches? What is the true definition of a professional coach and/or player? Professional league should be comprised of professional players and professional coaches.

A true professional player does not blame others that is why they are a “professional”. If you continually blame others, you will never reach your full potential or become a professional as you will be distracted with blame culture instead of using time wisely.

Eagles are continually successful because they follow the above and focus on (1) fitness – excellent strength & conditioning programme; (2) defense – most controllable part of the game whereas putting the ball in the basket depends on many influences; (3) discipline – structured offensive & defensive principles.
The above is a brief outline of my many years of experience in the UK and off the record.

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Phil

Mike – An AWESOME piece of work that deserves an OH BABY!!!!!!!!
See you soon

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A JETS’ FAN

I have just read your post re the “fiasco” in Sheffield last weekend – and I could not agree more with your summing up of the situation; the worst aspect to my mind is the lack of transparency in the situation. We do not know why Atiba Lyons was deregistered [ as opposed to any other player], we do not know who authorised this action, nor do we know precisely why. We do know that the BBL is controlled by the owners of the clubs, who as you say includes Paul Blake – whose team undoubtedly benefitted from the lack of Lyons as a defensive force in the game last week!

As for the referees – so long as some of them think that we turn out to watch games to see them then we will continue to get glory seekers with whistles! As you say, it’s not a role that I would fancy – but I genuinely feel that refereeing standards have slipped alarmingly in the last few years. Incidentally – I cannot really think that standards have risen or that games have been more closely controlled since teams of three became the norm – it just seems that they are all 50% more likely to wait for one of the others to blow!

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CHRIS PULLEM

Mike – Just read your blog post. While I can’t speak to the on-court events, I can say that the leadership structure of the BBL has caused the game to shrink to what it is today.

To those who say professional basketball is unsustainable in the UK, I respectfully disagree. But to be sustainable, it must operate as a business and not a de facto co-operative non-profit agency.

Can you trace the downturn BBL’s downturn to the resignation of Mike Smith? Certainly, a case could be made for it. In my opinion, the decision to NOT replace Smith was a detrimental to the BBL as the decision to leave SKY for ITV Sport.

Anyway… enjoyed the post. Hope all is well.

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A BBL FAN

Hi Mike,
Good post ‘the Perfect Storm’.

I have also been puzzled by the deregistering of players.. and have been digging into it.
Have talked to many sources and it does seem like all was done according to the rules –
in regards to the ‘why Atiba and not Nate’. question.
The rules are quite clear – but WHY BBL doesn’t make these rules clear.. I don’t know??

Suppose as the deregistering is due to un-paid monies.. then if BBL announces these things.. then it makes public the fact that club X is in financial trouble.. which I can see being unwanted attention..

I do wish that for people who report about the game, there would be a ‘BBL rules handbook’ available.. it would make our job easier. Should all information always be made available to the fans.. probably not.. I am sure there are things in all sports that are kept quiet about.
But when things are getting this public (in basketball circles) – it would be nice of the club to make an announcement to their fans.. as from what I have heard.. I believe the deregistering of Atiba in the game against Eagles actually was the right call..

Shame that the sport is in this state in the country – and personally at the moment I am finding it tough to see a way up for it. Other sports are coming and over taking it very quickly…
Take Women’s Football.. last season they announced the WSL.. got ESPN to screen live games (and ESPN paid the league – not the other way around). Sponsors came in… crowds jumped from the 10’s in games to 100’s… THis league also brought back to England 90% of the national team.. so there are ‘stars’ on the pitch..

Now, I know I have followed BBL for a very short time (apart from few years in 90’s) … about 4 years.. but in my eyes the level of game/players has really declined year after year.
Not a nice thing to say/see…

ANyways.. just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading the article..
and hope to see you at a game soon!

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Jeremy Rowland

Very well written and argued article from a man who knows what he is talking about. Hopefully this will be taken seriously so that basketball can grow and others can come to enjoy the game. We’ve got a team at the Olympics and it would be a crying shame if that could not be built on so we can have a strong league in the years to come. And so we don’t lose some of our players to lower divisions in foreign leagues – isn’t Tap playing in the French second division. And it’s absolutely appaling that we have to pay Sky. Flabbergasted.

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Bal Birdy

Wow! Is this what the professional game in this country has come to? Very sad indeed.

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Frances Crosland

Very good article, he speaks a lot of sense. Every week I come away from the games and moan about the low standard of refereeing – then I think, am I biased? Is it just because I am a Sharks fan that I think the decisions go against us? After reading this, obviously not!

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Harry Steele

Very good article. The comments about the BBL and the decision to de-register a player I could not agree with more. i do not see how this will help the game in the long run, either in Sheffield or elsewhere. The game needs to be competitive…

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Rob McPherson

I think Mike Shaft’s article called ‘A Perfect Storm’ on friday is a really good and balanced discussion on fridays events… i hightly recommend fans going to have a read: http://www.mikeshaft.com/

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Dave Moore

Very interesting review, I was not at the game but following it on NBL statcast and text updates from an Eagles fan at the game, it was at the start pf the game when i found out Lyons was mot playing. It seemed a normal close game in the first quarter and poor calls reported for both teams. It then seemed that the Eagles tight D was shutting down the Sharks but the Sharks were not coping with Eagles O. Then it appeared Sharks went into disciplinary meltdown with a string of Ts and unsportsmanlike fouls. The final result left me pleased but dumbfounded. Since then it’s all speculation and conspiracy theories.

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Lynne Glen

Good piece Mike. Tough times for basketball and all small sports. A lot has been said about allowing the fans information about the problems their clubs are having. They are trying to run a professional franchise and so turning with the begging bowl or whingeing about their predicament doesn`t sit well. Yes the standard of reffing is sometimes questionable but I think all the teams suffer from that to some extent. For us that have been around along time, we would love to see Olympic year be the one that sees us catapulted into sustainable growth. However the truth is we`ll just keep bobbling along!

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Sarah Collins

Flippineck !

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Louisa ‘leni’ Liversidge

i have the privilegde of paying £25 amonth out for sky sports, solely for watching the bbl games, which i hate doing but i love the sport. i also agree with you about the referees, ive been following the sharks for 12years now and go to every game home and away and i can honestly say i have never witnessed so many bad and missed calls in that whole time.

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Kathryn Geering

Thanks mike. It makes a few things clearer, but sad reading i’m afraid.

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Hannah R

Didn’t tweet about the farcical Sharks game over the w-end. Luckily@mikeshaft has summed it up perfectly. mikeshaft.com #theBBL

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statboyluke

Great article from @mikeshaft on Fridays events at eiss, well worth a read at mikeshaft.com

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OleDJ Darrin Smith

@Proud_Geordie_ @dougytheeagle @mikeshaft What exactly do Sharks want? Why is nobody mentioning their financial mess? Is that PBs fault too?

OleDJ Darrin Smith
@Proud_Geordie_ @dougytheeagle @mikeshaft the foul count on Friday was 17-16 in Sharks favour. The piece is pure propaganda. Ulterior motive