The journey has begun

Having done my stint at the Paralympic Games at London 2012, I decided to take a short break in Turkey for a couple of weeks.  Well that was the plan anyway. Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond our control we would have to stay an extra week in the fabulous 31 degree heat.  This meant that not only would I miss the first week of the BBL and NBL seasons, I would also be missing week 2.  Consequently, I would be missing the game I have been looking forward to most for the past few weeks.  It was Manchester Giants at home to Sheffield Sharks.

Now there have been some truly awesome games in the BBL over the past 35+ years but one of the most memorable was the encounter between the old Giants and the Sharks at the Nynex/MEN Arena back in the day.  It was a truly glorious affair to round off the season and both teams could have won it but only 1 would.  It would come down to a final shot from Tyrell Myers who would sink the jumper and win the Championship for The Sharks.

But that was a long long time ago.  The Giants would eventually go out of business and the Sharks would keep moving on, sometimes with great difficulty.

The sport itself would go through many troubles with most teams moving out of Arenas and back into sports halls.  Other teams, like London Towers, London Leopards, Birmingham Bullets and more would just go out of business.

Now in 2012, post London Olympics, Manchester was reborn under the stewardship of one of their legendary former players Jeff Jones.  Jeff had most recently been looking after the Manchester Magic in the EBL and had, with Joe Forber and their other coaches, developed some great players including his two sons James and Callum.

Jeff had decided he would bring back together some of those great players  into an All-English team and unleash them on the BBL.  Now this is not a new strategy.  Back in the day, Mike Burton had tried to do the same thing and to put it mildly they took some awful beatings, one, I was commentating on, so bad that I cried at the end of it.

Looking on from Turkey and following the games of the first weekend on Twitter, Facebook and Livestats, the Giants would defeat the newly named London Lions by a score-line of 85 to 84 (somebody really ought to correct that score on the Giants’ website).  This must have been a fantastic game to be at for an almost full house at Wright Robinson.  Lions Head Coach Vince Macaulay put the defeat down to difficulties the team had on the 7 hour journey from London.

Game 2 would see the Giants entertaining the Sheffield Sharks.  Now as I said earlier, this was a game I wanted to be at.  News on the Sharks suggested that they had recruited a pretty good team but not everybody would be playing because of registration difficulties.

Well again I would have to follow this one on Twitter, Facebook and Livestats. The game would see the Giants defeat the Sharks  comfortably by a score-line of 99 to 87.  One had to begin wondering if these Giants were real contenders.  They would be at the top of the BBL next to the clean-sweep champions last time out Newcastle Eagles.

A road game to the Worcester Wolves would see the Giants pick up their first loss going down 92-80.

And so we are gathered at Wright Robinson for a real top of the table clash as the Giants entertain the previously mentioned Newcastle Eagles.

This was my first visit to Wright Robinson for a few months having done some Netball there for the Northern Thunder earlier in the summer.  The venue was about 3/4 full with, as usual where ever the Eagles play, a large contingent of Eagles fans.

The Giants would get off to a great start but would be pegged back to trail by just 1 point at the end of the first.  The score was 21-22 in favour of the Eagles.

For the next quarter and the half the Eagles would slowly build their lead into double figures and then into the 20s. At the half the score was 35-50 to the Eagles and I for one was fearful of an embarrassment.

Now I like to think I know the game of basketball but I am not sure what happened next.  Midway through the 3rd quarter it would all change.

The Giants would begin to play and would begin to eat away at what had become a 22 point deficit.  The Eagles would turn the ball over, over and over again and the Giants would make them pay.

Watts was simply awesome coming up with some monster scores inside and outside of the arc.  Not only was he scoring he was dishing up assists as well alongside Gill. From 6:04 remaining in the 3rd all the way to 3:18 remaining, the Giants would stop the Eagles from scoring.  Worst than that, they would simply shut the massive Eagles supporters up.

On the floor for most of that time was Gill, Schall, Watts, Bailey and Aliu.  Collectively they were awesome.  The score at the end of the 3rd was 55 Giants 64 Eagles.  The Eagles score was helped by a massive triple by Chapman to beat the buzzer.

And so on to the 4th and somehow the Giants would continue their dominance.  As I said the score was 55-64 at the end of the 3rd  – a 9 point deficit for the Giants but all that would change .  The home team kept the visitors without a score for the next 2 and a half minutes while increasing their own score to 59…a 5 point deficit.  The Eagles drought was broken by two freethrows  by Maddox.

But the Giants weren’t done yet.

Eagles would pull the lead out to 10 but Watts, Gill, J Jones and Bailey would all score.  At 5:32 left J Jones would stick a three… next up Watts would nail a 2 and then Bailey would drop a three. Suddenly it was a four point game and The Eagles had to call for time.

When Watts nailed a triple coming out of the time out, the Giants fans were making some noise.  It was now a 1 point game and the silence from the Eagles fans was quite deafening.

But it was now that the Eagles would regain their composure and carefully rebuild a lead which was enough to see them win the game by a score-line of 82-91.

Watts would lead all scorers with 26 inc 5 from the arc. Gill would finish with 20.  

Chapman would lead for the Eagles also with 20.  The Giants scored 10 from beyond the arc to the Eagles 9.

Unfortunately for the Giants, James Jones would go for only 8 points.

This was my first game of the new season and I have to say I loved it. The Giants need a big man who can play and when that happens I think we will know that they are for real.

Lets hope the season continues with games of this calibre.

Now as you know I always call it as I see it and when referees make a major mistake I have been known to point it out.  Well in this game I saw one of the worst cases of dissent I have ever had the displeasure to see.   I will not name the player but he does play for the Giants and he knows who he is.

The referee blew a whistle on him…a call he definitely did not like.  He didn’t make a fuss but collected the ball and took it to the referee.  As the official held out his hands to receive the ball, the player simply and cold-heartedly dropped the ball.

To that player I say you are better than that.  You owe that official an apology…I hope you will see it in your heart to make that apology next time he officiates one of your games.

Next time I will tell you about my game at Leeds Carnegie  as my first weekend of basketball action continues.

Later

Mike S

Photos – Russell Hart