What happened with the Mallin Review? With Martin Henlan – Ep. 60

For episode 60 of the Hoopsfix Podcast, we bring back Martin Henlan on the show to discuss the Mallin Review, an independent government-mandated review of basketball done in 2007, and the Basketball Players Association.

The Mallin Review was an independent review of basketball in England performed by a group of business and sport high-flyers external to basketball – except for Henlan – aimed to discover what is holding basketball back and why it is not meeting expectations to ensure that the upcoming London 2012 Olympics would be capitalised on.

With basketball in disarray, it was requested by Sports Minister Richard Caborn and was the third review done on the sport in a period of around five years.

Endorsed by the likes of of NBA Commissioner David Stern, the CEO of Euroleague Jordi Bertomeu, and both Luol Deng and Pops Mensah-Bonsu, the Mallin Review group made a number of key recommendations – including major reform of the federation – most of which were disregarded by the administration at the time.

You can see Basketball England’s then-Chair Terry Donovan’s response to the review in the annual report, here.

Henlan, now a successful businessman working with media and rights, is a former England and Great Britain Senior international and 15 year pro, who first appeared on the Hoopsfix Podcast in 2017, which you can listen to here.

In this 1 hour 40 minute episode, hear from Martin on:

• Why the Mallin Review was set up
• How the Mallin Review was the third independent review to be done on basketball in England within six years
• How he came to be involved as the only basketball person in the review group
• The level of gravitas the review had with the people who put their name to it, including former NBA Commissioner David Stern, the CEO of Euroleague Jordi Bertomeu, and both Luol Deng and Pops Mensah-Bonsu
• What the process was to put together the Mallin Review
• The findings of the review and the 5 core recommendations
• How the only group that didn’t endorse the review were Basketball England
• The response to the Mallin Review from Basketball England CEO Keith Mair
• How the calls to reform the governing body fell on deaf ears
• His thoughts on the London 2012 Olympics being a huge missed opportunity
• UK Sport’s almost £10million investment into British Basketball in the run up to 2012
• How responsible UK Sport and Sport England should be held responsible for basketball’s failures
• When he realised that none of the findings of the Mallin Review would be implemented
• The dominance of older white males in the upper echelons of basketball administration
• The lack of successful precedence for how basketball needs to be run in the UK to use as a barometer
• British Basketball not using basketball people in the majority of positions of seniority
• His current relationship with the sport in the UK and how he has become disconnected
• What it would take to re-engage him with basketball
• The need to use current and former players to help be the face of the sport
• The lack of growth in Basketball England’s membership over the past 13 years
• Why the players association was set up in the early 90s
• How the players association was formed and how he ended up as CEO
• How many members the players association grew to and the things they were able to achieve
• Setting up an exhibition game with Magic Johnson’s team of NBA players in London
• How the players association ended up dying after the Bosman ruling
• Whether he would ever get involved with the sport again
• And much, much more!

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