Being the face of a BBL franchise – with Tayo Ogedengbe – Ep. 71

For episode 71 of the Hoopsfix podcast, we sit down with Tayo Ogedengbe, 12 year BBL veteran, England international and the face of the Surrey Scorchers franchise.

Ogedengbe has been one of the best and most consistent British players in the BBL for a number of years, having made his debut in 2007-8 with London Capital under Steve Bucknall before representing Guildford Heat, Glasgow Rocks, plus a season in France with Calais, London Lions, and then signing with the Surrey Scorchers in 2015/16 as their franchise player, where he has remained since.

His role with Scorchers goes beyond purely on-court as a player, and he is involved in a lot of decision making with the franchise.

In this 90 minute episode, hear from Tayo on:

• His ‘brand ambassador’ role with the Surrey Scorchers
• The inception of the Surrey Scorchers franchise and the vision for his place with the franchise
• How many years he thinks he has left playing
• What he sees himself doing when he finishes playing
• The change he has seen in the BBL over the decade he has been playing in it
• Areas he would like to see the BBL improve
• His take on the All-Stars Championship
• When he found out last season was going to be cancelled due to COVID-19
• The need for a player’s union
• His thoughts on the coming BBL season and the potential impact of COVID-19
• Surrey’s training ‘bubble’ that has seen numerous players compete as lockdown eased
• Joel Freeland and whether we could see him getting involved with the Scorchers
• His relationship with Puma and involvement with other brands
• The commercial development of British basketball
• His early playing days with Ealing Tornadoes
• Winning Midnight Madness and as a result getting a place at Canarias Basketball Academy
• Starting his time in the BBL with London Capital under Steve Bucknall
• Playing under Creon Raftopoulos – initially at Guildford Heat – and their relationship to this day
• Scratching the itch to play abroad and doing a year in France with Calais
• Whether he has any regrets about not spending more time overseas
• His thoughts on the Scorchers’ roster this coming season and an overall season preview
• The goals he wants to achieve before retiring
• And much, much more!

The show has been approved on iTunes – find it here and please subscribe to automatically receive new episodes straight to your phone/computer/tablet – if you could give us a review/rating it would be much appreciated to help the podcast spread far and wide, meanwhile it is also on Spotify here, Overcast, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.m

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