The Story of Streetball.co.uk – With Greg Tanner – Ep. 50

For Episode 50 of the Hoopsfix Podcast, we take a trip down memory lane with Greg Tanner the man behind the legendary website Streetball.co.uk.

Streetball.co.uk was the epicentre of British basketball and global streetball culture in the early 2000’s, doing over a million impressions a month whilst putting the UK on the map with a variety of mixtapes and clips of streetball highlights.

Tanner, now living in Dubai working as an executive TV producer, spent his 20s running the site, which was originally set up as a passion project, helping to make household names out of a selection of top British hoopers.

After winding down Streetball.co.uk, he set up Basketball 24/7, and then went into print with MVP Magazine, not to mention working at the London 2012 Olympics as a basketball expert, along with hosting basketball-related events for Nike, the EuroLeague and adidas.

In this 90 minute episode, hear from Greg on:

• How he first got into basketball through a school friend introducing him to NBA Jam on TV presented by Alton Byrd in the early 90s
• His creative background and getting into building websites, for his own personal interest and amusement
• How his job in television as a producer gave him access to editing suites in the days before mass-market home editing software was really available
• How he had zero expectations of Streetball.co.uk growing into anything big and it was just a personal passion project
• The moment he realised Streetball.co.uk had an audience and it was a ‘thing’
• How a shout out from Rough & Ready after Stuart Tanner showed out at their trials first put the site on the map
• The way people would play up to the camera when they would see him with his camera
• How at it’s peak in 2003-04 the website was doing over a million impressions and 100,000 visitors a month from a global audience
• The other streetball websites that were on the scene at the time including VC-backed HoopsTV, the Notic, Streetballaz, streetballzone.tk and Streetball Xtreme
• The influence of streetball culture in that era following Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury getting drafted along with the and1 mixtapes
• How Pontel VHS tapes played a role in Greg and other basketball fans in the UK getting access to video footage
• The potential blowback for promoting highlights/streetball instead of the fundamentals
• Being threatened for posting highlights of the players’ getting victimised
• How big summer basketball was during the early 2000’s compared to now
• The involvement of corporates/brands with basketball in that era
• Why he quit his job to go freelance so he could work between Streetball.co.uk and TV news producing work
• Selecting players to represent Streetball.co.uk and the faces of the website
• Taking travelling teams to tournaments UK wide
• The balance between capturing highlights but also winning
• His personal favourite streetball.co.uk moments
• The Street All-Stars events and what made him do them
• The shammgod move and why Streetball.co.uk could be responsible for bringing it to the world’s attention
• Why he brought Streetball.co.uk to a close
• The transition of Streetball.co.uk into Basketball 24/7 and why that happened
• His life after SBUK and the other basketball related projects he was able to get involved with
• Any regrets he has about the Streetball.co.uk days
• Being a basketball expert for the in-arena experience at the London 2012 Olympics
• His thoughts on the potential for the London 2012 Olympics to help facilitate British basketball’s growth
• Media coverage of basketball in the UK and how it compares now to then
• The importance of mainstream TV coverage to grow interest in basketball in the UK
• The backstory of Fadeaway Magazine which soon evolved into MVP magazine
• The legacy of streetball.co.uk
• And much, much more!

As always, I’d love to get your feedback, come back after you’ve listened and lets get some discussion going in the comments.

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