England men's national basketball team
 | |||
| FIBA ranking | None | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Joined FIBA | 1937 | ||
| FIBA zone | FIBA Europe | ||
| National federation | English Basketball Federation | ||
| Coach | Paul James | ||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Appearances | None | ||
| FIBA World Cup | |||
| Appearances | None | ||
| EuroBasket | |||
| Appearances | 4 (1946, 1955, 1961, 1981) | ||
| Commonwealth Games | |||
| Appearances | 1 | ||
| Medals |
 Bronze: 2006 | ||
| Uniforms | |||
| |||
The England national basketball team represents England in international basketball competitions. The team is organised by England Basketball, the sport's governing body in England. Currently, England only competes internationally at the junior level. In 2005 England, along with the basketballscotland and their counterparts in Wales combined forces to form the Great Britain national basketball team, with the target goal to field a competitive team capable of winning medals at the London 2012 summer Olympics. England's direct affiliation to FIBA will end on 30 September 2016.[1]
England's biggest success were its four qualifications to the EuroBasket, which is Europe's prime basketball event. Further, the team won the bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
History
Eurobasket 1946
England's first European championship appearance was at Eurobasket 1946. They lost all four of the games that they played, and subsequently finished last in the field of ten teams.
Eurobasket 1955
A few years later, England qualified for the Eurobasket 1955 in Budapest, where the English Team had a couple of strong showings. After losing their preliminary round games they beat Switzerland, a major player at the global stage until the mid-50s. The victory marked England's first victory at a major international basketball event. Later, England outscored Austria as well. Eventually, the team placed second in the five teams of the classification group, moving to the 9–12 classification semifinals. There, however, England could not take advantage of the gained self-confidence and lost the next two games. Overall, England finished in 12th place out of the 18 teams, a considerable improvement from its last eurobasket appearance in 1946.
Eurobasket 1961 and 1981
Despite the improvements in the preceding years, Team England did not do well at the Eurobasket 1961 or the Eurobasket 1981 and lost most games. Its lone victory, however, came in 1981 when they beat the elite team of Greece. This victory still stands as one of the major surprises in the history of the tournament.
Commonwealth Games
Melbourne 2006
The men's and women's teams were competing for the first time as England in a major multi-sport event, and it was the first Commonwealth Games in which basketball was featured.
The men's team included Steve Bucknall, the second Englishman to play in the NBA. John Amaechi, who played 284 games in the NBA, came out of retirement to participate in Melbourne. Having lost to Australia in the semi-finals, they faced Nigeria in the Bronze medal match. The teams were tied at 15 points to end the first quarter. Robert Reed and Andrew Bridge led the way as England found their stride in the second phase, and they pulled away in the second half of play. Reed played like a snake possessed and was the top scorer for England with 16 points and dominating the Nigerians who had no answer to his all action style. Michael Martin also contributed with 13 points. England won the game 80–57 to claim the first Bronze medal in Commonwealth Games basketball[2]
Team
- Antony Burns
- Jermaine Forbes
- Andrew Bridge
- Ronnie Baker
- Delme Herriman
- Andrew Sullivan
- Fabulous Flournoy
- Mike Martin
- Robert Reed
- John Amaechi
- Julius Joseph
- Richard Windle
Coaching Staff
- Coach – Peter Scantlebury
- Assistant Coach – Michael Hayles
- Assistant Coach – Tim Lewis[3]
Competition charts
Olympic GamesA red box around the year indicates tournaments played within England
Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain. FIBA World Cup
Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain. |
Eurobasket
Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Commonwealth Games
| Commonwealth Games record | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | L | ||||
| Australia 2006 | Third Place | 3rd | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||||
| Australia 2018 | TBD | ||||||||
| Total | 0 Titles | 1/1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||||
Rosters
1946 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 10 teams
Colin Hunt, Douglas Legg, John Hart, Ronald Legg, Frank Cole, Arthur Lee, Derius Hewitt, Stanley Weston, Ken Dight, Charles Watson (Coach: W.Browning)
1948 Olympic Games: finished 20th among 23 teams
Colin Hunt, Douglas Legg, Ronald Legg, Frank Cole, Robert Norris, Stanley Weston, Lionel Price, Trevor Davies, Malcolm Finlay, Stanley McMeekan, Sydney McMeekan, Alexander Eke, Harry Weston
1955 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 18 teams
Arthur Cladingboel, Reg Fearn, William James, Gordon Cook, Dennis Wilkinson, Colin Wedge, Alan Bruce, Ugo Agnelli, Wilf Byrne, Keith Ledbrook, Michael Roblou, Ronald Rix, N.Smith
1961 EuroBasket: finished 19th among 19 teams
Raymond Kirk, Kornel Tober, Alan Wardle, Peter Creasey, Wilfred Byrne, Alan Tillot, Alan Hildyard, Ronald Hextall, Geoffrey Kaiser, Dennis Wakefield, George Whitmore, Terry Keogh (Coach: Thomas Vaughan)
1981 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 12 teams
David Lloyd, Neville Hopkins, David Berry, Martin Clark, Paul Richards, Nick Burns, Clive Hartley, Jim McCauley, Ian Day, Paul Stimpson, Dan Lloyd, Karl Tatham (Coach: Victor Amber)
See also
- England women's national basketball team
- Basketball at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
- England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games (Basketball)
- England national under-19 basketball team
References
External links
- Basketball In England
- FIBA profile
- Archived records of England team participations