You know something; one of my most prized possessions is an e-mail from a former Sharks player who now plays for a different BBL team.
I’ll tell you his name in a moment, but, I hear you say, why is it so special?
Well firstly this is one of my favourite players in the BBL it was then and it is now and what he does in the e-mail is to thank me for the support I gave him when he first arrived in the BBL.
In fact I can quite clearly remember him having terrible problems with the officials who called him for travelling nearly every time he touched the ball.
But that did not make him a bad player. It was probably his only flaw. He could do it all, dunking with one hand or two, blocking shots, making great passes and the rest.
In time he would get accustomed to the referees and perhaps, more importantly, they would get accustomed to his game.
When he finally left the sharks to go to London Towers he always got real respect when he came back to the Sharks. He then went to Europe where he made a name for himself.
Later in his career he returned to the UK where he signed for the Eagles and led them to Championship success.
His name is Lynard Stewart.
Read my extended interview with Lynard here
Lynard is a friend of mine and I am proud to call him a friend, but my reason for writing this is about showing love and respect to all players in the BBL.
We all have our favourites but there are also players who for some reason we do not like. I can honestly say I do not understand this.
These are professional players giving their best for their team.
When former players return to the Sharks they are always given a warm welcome but reading some of the message boards, people are sometimes really rude about players even from their own team.
After our first defeat of the season against the Everton Tigers I read comments from people who were never going to come back to a Sharks game. I can honestly say was shocked by that attitude!
Now that our coaching team has got the team playing great Sharks’ basketball are these people going to come back, or are they going to stay away? In my opinion true fans get behind the team win, lose or draw.
We are not going to win every game we play but as long as our team gives 100% every game then they deserve our full support.
It’s about attitude and there is a Sharks attitude.
We’ve seen it over the years in Todd Cauthorn and Chris Finch, we’ve seen it in Iain McKinney and Michael Payne and now we are seeing it in Matt Gorman, Chris Sanders and Sherman Rivers.
I don’t know how far this team will go this season or in the future but as long as they continue to give 100% I’ll be supporting then 100%.
Later
Mike SHAFT
Be the first to write a comment.
Your feedback