Best of British Basketball on the Web September 09 - Hoopsfix.com

Best of British Basketball on the Web September 09

Every now and again, Hoopsfix will trawl the web for British basketball bits and peices, and post the most interesting on here. It won’t involve much analysis, just a bit of link love and range from short mentions of players abroad, to full blown features and videos.

Rob Gilrchrist winning the Joe White Dunk Comp this Summer

Rob Gilrchrist winning the Joe White Dunk Comp this Summer

1) London Born Player Robert Gilchrist Reppin Stateside
A nice lil mention of London’s own, Robert Gilchrist who seems to be looking good out at Worcester Academy, MA.

“Another impressive frontcourt player is London native Robert Gilchrist (6′8″ Sr. SF-PF).  Possessing a good body that can still get better, he’s athletic and shot the ball very well early on, seemingly never missing from long range until later in the day.  Active and around the ball often, he’s athletic and has a lot of tools at his disposal at the offensive end as he can also post up.  He will take contact and continue playing, and right now his in-between game leaves something to be desired, but he’s an intriguing talent.”

I filmed Rob a few times this Summer and he is definitely one to watch for the future. The guy is a walking, talking highlight reel, athletic as hell and from what it seems, has been working on his outside game as well.

Guy Dupuys ridiculous new dunk

Guy Dupuy's ridiculous new dunk

2) Basketball 24/7 Guy Dupuy Clip Takes the Net by Storm
Greg Tanner and Basketball24/7 have done it again with a Guy Dupuy clip at Midnight Madness 2009 that has gone viral.

“I put the clip online yesterday, not really expecting much. But when I saw someone on Facebook had posted a screenshot of the front page of Yahoo featuring this dunk, I knew it was on once again.

It was the Ball Don’t Lie blog which had blown the Stu vs Devin clip…so I knew that when it posted this latest clip the numbers would be crazy. And they are…nearly 2.5m so far today.

The LA Times is labelling this “the best dunk in baskeball history”

Great to see it happened at Britain’s own Midnight Madness, a testament to how big the sport is getting in the country.

Image Credit: Ismini

3) Matthew Bryan Amaning Hype
Matthew Bryan-Amaning, one of the UK’s brightest prospects is getting a lot of web-love recently. Named one of Sporting News’ “8 Pivotal Players who could emerge in 2009-10”

Nagging injuries have hindered his development, but that’s not enough of an excuse for him struggling to get minutes as last season closed.

Bryan-Amaning moves well, has a reasonable amount of skill and is the UW big man best suited to complement the team’s blazing perimeter attack. He is capable of better performances than he’s delivered.”

A Seattle Times blogger has mentioned that MBA “looks leaner and more explosive” whilst Montlake Madness stated that “there seems to be a real buzz around MBA this year” and he’s in for a “breakout year”. Also worth checking out this little interview with Matthew Bryan-Amaning from the Seattle Times.

Got some very nice footage of MBA from Midnight Madness Regionals in Nottingham that will be released soon-subscribe to the Ball Don’t Brawl Youtube Channel if you’re not already.

4) NBA Sets it Sights on Europe Within 6-8 years
Interesting read about the new UK based NBA-ESPN partnership which will screen almost 100 NBA games here in the UK this season.

“The NBA is claiming that the global economic slump will not derail its plans to grow the game around the world and will tomorrow unveil a new UK TV rights deal with ESPN that it says is an important staging post towards establishing permanent teams in Europe.”

The NBA now have offices in London and hopefully this is one step closer to making basketball mainstream in the country.

5) Loul Deng Love
Real nice article on Loul Deng and his camp that ran in Loughborough this Summer.

“Early one quiet and dreary morning in Loughborough, two black teenagers – a sassy girl from London and a serious boy from Birmingham – got to know each other a little better by discussing sporting celebrity and success in America. “You get these muppets who think David Beckham is the most famous British sportsman over there,” the 17-year-old girl sighed as she spun a basketball on her finger. “They ain’t got a clue. They ain’t even heard of Luol Deng.””

Also worth checking out this Chicago Tribune peice on Loul Deng’s rehab and training over the Summer and this real nice article on Loul Deng’s childhood (credit to @markbritball for bringing it to my attention).

Its hard to appreciate this picture without getting distracted by the Refs BRIGHT orange jersey

It's hard to appreciate this picture without getting distracted by the Ref's BRIGHT orange jersey

6) Make Sure You Wear Your Sunglasses to BBL Games
Short entertaing peice on Mark Wood’s blog on the ghastly new shirts to be worn by BBL refs this season.

“I had a look at the new referees uniform tonight at the Rocks pre-season win over USA Select (94-79, if you care) and the best way to describe it would be day-glo peach. Or vile, if I’m being honest.”

Also worth checking out his predictions for the 09/10 BBL season

7) Sneak Preview of the new look BBL Website
Not sure if this was meant to be kept under wraps, but it’s accessible on the web for everyone, so if it was they did a poor job! Looks good, looking forward to seeing it in action.

8) Team GB’s in with a chance for Wild Card
Fingers crossed for GB getting wild card entry to the European Championships next year in Turkey.

“Fiba president Bob Elphinston said: “They must show they are competitive week after week.

“So yes it is yet to be seen but they are in with a chance.”

GB’s status as Olympic hosts could also strengthen their chances of gaining of a wild card entry to the 2010 tournament.”

This would be HUGE.

9) Deng and Britain Sitting in a Tree
An interesting read regarding Team GB’s Summer and Loul Deng from British NBA blogger Mark Deeks.

“Two weeks ago, I watched the Great Britain basketball team crash out of Eurobasket 2009. It was only the second time a British team had made a Eurobasket tournament (England got there in 1981), and as documented here, it represented a massive breakthrough in the basketball fortunes of a country that has about as much basketball tradition as it does volcanic eruptions. And yet they flumped out of it without winning a game.”

10) Rookie Ryan Vogwell Makes His Point
Always nice to see a young Brit work their way up through the ranks, and even better to see them get coverage in the press.

“Irvine teenager Ryan Vogwell proved he was a little big man when he scored his first professional points for the Glasgow Rocks last week.

At just 5ft 8ins Ryan is dwarfed by some of the players around him but the former Auchenharvie Academy pupil isn’t fazed by their presence – he just gets in among them and it’s that sort of determination which won him a pro contract with the Rocks in the first place.”

That’s it!
Let me know what you think of these stories by dropping a comment in the box below!

That’s it for this month. If you have any stories you want to draw my attention to for next month’s Best of British Basketball on the Web, please drop me a line on sam[@]balldontbrawl.co.uk

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