OneGuyFromBarlick

Two reasons I can think of. 1. Like baseball it has never been "imported" and franchised in this country the way the Americans gave done in Europe and Asia and 2. We don't seem to have that many home-grown (sic) players across the major basketball league therefore the following is a bit down.
Schools seem to take it seriously and Dan played competitively all the way through high school but then football and now handball have taken over. Nolic

I would say that the all invasive football probably has a lot to account for. It's force fed to everyone whether you like it or not. In many cases you can't get away from it. I think what happens is that any sport that we seem to excel at has a chance of taking off such as the way that the nation has taken to cycling over the last 4 years. Sales of all kinds of bikes, (not just the road racers) have gone through the roof which is no bad thing. Any sport need it's heroes to kick start it into gear and engage the young. (Ride with Brad in Barlick later this month of course). It will be interesting to see what the long term legacy of the Olympics will be, but I suppose that will all depend again on what facilities are available for training.

There was a debate on Radio 2 the other day about the total lack of diving facilities in the vast majority of swimming pools which are mainly constructed now as leisure pools only. Most boards from existing pools with a proper deep end have been removed over the last 30 years on H&S grounds! Less than 100 boards still available (mainly low springboards) in the entire country, and of course the pool rules, no running, no jumping, no bombing or petting and no diving! not even from the poolside. Tom Daly is a hero who can't really be followed with facilities as they are at the moment.

Thanks for your input, gents. It's a shame it's not "out there" as much as football. Barnoldswick has 3 outdoor basketball courts, it would be nice to see more kids playing.

My son occasionally coaches for a Barnoldswick based team, the enthusiasm is really high amongst the, too few, team members.

Team GB women, ranked 48th in the world, gave the world number 6, Brazil, a run for their money this evening. If only we could encourage a few more people to take it up, as a serious sport, and stay in the UK. This time next year...

Last chance for GB mens basketball to win a game against China, ranked 10th in the world. Top 4 GB scorers were absent from the starting 5 and we're all over China. We're playing as a team; why wasn't this tactic used earlier?

Well done GB mens basketball. A good win over China. The first GB Olympic basketball win since 1948. Hopefully this will inspire.

I've just dipped in and out a few times to the closing ceremony. Are they really making the Queen and Phil endure it all? Hope they've left a good supply of gin and dubonnet in the box.

I'm afraid I ignored it and watched a video. Saw a snatch when I changed channels to record a film. It did not excite me. Now for the aftermath.....

My son has returned from his 2 weeks at the Olympics. A "once in a lifetime opportunity" for him to rub shoulders with the best the world has to offer in sport. As an "official" he has had a terrific insight of a major event and has enjoyed every single minute. He'll probably have just dumped his bag of dirty washing in the middle of the floor and gone off to play basketball now...

We really enjoyed the closing ceremony, I had a right good sing along.

Big Kev wrote:http://leedscarnegiebasketball.co.uk/bl ... frightful-

A serious question; why isn't basketball as popular in the UK as it is elsewhere in the world? Honest answers and opinions, please.

Is it because as a nation we are short arsed compared to other nations, mind you we are pretty good at cotact sport like rugby, which is'nt popular amongst the wimp( contactless) sport nations.
PS. 67 inches & 15 stone, but played at 13-1/2 - 14 stone

Bodger wrote:

Big Kev wrote:http://leedscarnegiebasketball.co.uk/bl ... frightful-

A serious question; why isn't basketball as popular in the UK as it is elsewhere in the world? Honest answers and opinions, please.

Is it because as a nation we are short arsed compared to other nations,

We do appear, as a nation, to be getting taller though.

For some reason Rugby and Soccer are taught at schools, other team games less so. Having seen football club car parks unused during much of the week , would it not be possible for the likes of Leeds etc to mark them out for basketball, hockey , handball for use evenings and daytime [Supervised ? ]practice ? That would be a sporting legacy.

It would indeed but there would probably be an H&S reason for not doing so, or more to the point a potential of unwanted litigation against the owners in case of injury.

Big Kev wrote:

Bodger wrote:

Big Kev wrote:http://leedscarnegiebasketball.co.uk/bl ... frightful-

A serious question; why isn't basketball as popular in the UK as it is elsewhere in the world? Honest answers and opinions, please.

Is it because as a nation we are short arsed compared to other nations,

We do appear, as a nation, to be getting taller though.

I'm not, am going tother way

Big Kev wrote:

Bodger wrote:

Big Kev wrote:http://leedscarnegiebasketball.co.uk/bl ... frightful-

A serious question; why isn't basketball as popular in the UK as it is elsewhere in the world? Honest answers and opinions, please.

Is it because as a nation we are short arsed compared to other nations,

We do appear, as a nation, to be getting taller though.

I think it's just your family that bump up that particulr statistic!!

Government is changing the legislation on school playing fields lowering the area required per pupil. That'll help the legacy......?