Hall of Fame

[isthaturinal]

The League announces the first 10 inductees into the Hall of Fame!💫

Men's Players: Alan Cunningham, Peter Scantlebury, Drew Sullivan
Women's Players: Cat Carr, Ta'Yani Clark, Helen Naylor
Coach: Kevin Cadle
Officials: Dale Aitcheson, Mary Clark
Services to League: John Atkinson


So what do we think of those included, Would you change any ?

[irf]

Can't imagine any of those names shouldn't be there

Obviously just need adding to in due course

Which will need:

Kevin Routledge
Rob Paternostro
Fab

At some stage

Amongst many others

Plus Ozzie the 50/50 guy and Reallyoldfeenixfan of course

Mike Tuck?

Fletch?

Defoe?

[spacejammer]

Mar 13, 2024 9:22:02 GMT irf said:

Can't imagine any of those names shouldn't be there

Obviously just need adding to in due course

Which will need:

Kevin Routledge
Rob Paternostro
Fab

At some stage

Amongst many others

Plus Ozzie the 50/50 guy and Reallyoldfeenixfan of course

Mike Tuck?

Fletch?

Defoe?

If this hall of fame happens once a season I imagine if not now those names will be added in future seasons at the next all star game.
To be honest I don't know about other BBL clubs but I think the Eagles are long overdue a hall of fame induction and I wish they did one.

They were going to do a top 25 induction which fans voted on a few seasons ago that ended up never happening.

[reallyoldfeenixfan2]

Mar 13, 2024 9:22:02 GMT irf said:

Can't imagine any of those names shouldn't be there

Obviously just need adding to in due course

Which will need:

Kevin Routledge
Rob Paternostro
Fab

At some stage

Amongst many others

Plus Ozzie the 50/50 guy and Reallyoldfeenixfan of course

Mike Tuck?

Fletch?

Defoe?

You mean you'd put me above that well known Phoenix fan MikeTuck?

[mac]

The Eagles Hall of Fame is a puzzler. Just TJ Walker and Lynard Stewart. Charles Smith, Fab, Fletcher should all be in followed by Darius when he eventually hangs his boots up.

No issues with the BBL inductees but I had to look up Alan Cunningham. What a career he had! Here's a brief bio which also includes Alton Byrd. www.bbldaily.com/news/bbl-greats-1987-1997 and some footage. The free throw at the end is outrageous!

[SamH]

Alan Cunningham is a Worthing legend - the days of him and Colin Irish leading the Bears to the championship and 3 straight playoff wins was legendary. How a small market team like Worthing was able to afford them, I'll never know. Alan kept playing for Solent well into his 40s as the video says, he was player coach there too for a while I seem to recall. One incident I remember when he came back to Worthing as a visitor, he got really upset with the referees and was actually lying across the bench, looked almost inconsolable about what was happening - even in his late 40s he still cared that much. Then he ended up getting ejected, and it was really sad to see this Worthing legend have such a bad day while back in Worthing, it may have even been his final visit there. Not how you'd want to see it end really. Anyway I was really pleased to see him get this honour and for the league to remember stars from a long time ago and not just the more recent players.

[eagles18000]

sponsors.

thats how they could afford them. 1989-95 every team was ‘small
market’.

[SamH]

Did sponsors used to cough up more than they do now then? The size of the crowds wasn't massive and TV exposure was limited so surely sponsors weren't paying that much?

[eagles18000]

and the costs were nowhere near as great

1. Teams didn’t have 10 pros. It was 2 americans a dual national or two and local guys. (think club cricket).
2. Nothing like the european market today existed. Options for players to earn were far more limited.

[SamH]

Yeah you may be right, I think there were more than 2 imports though? I remember the Bears had others besides Cunningham and Irish. Players like Herman Harried (he was AWESOME) Cleave Lewis (also AWESOME!) Steve Paci, Mike Spaid played alongside them. Unless AC and Irish counted as naturalised by then, but they still would have commanded decent salaries. I agree there were probably less opportunities to play elsewhere back then though and not so much competition from the bigger market BBL teams as there weren't really any. London Towers perhaps? Not sure how big they were in the early 90s. Cunningham did join them for a season in 96-97 when they were a top team. Plus Alan was player coach for the Bears so probably got more money for that, but there was a saving being made on not having a regular coach.

[baldereagle]

Not sure of criteria for hall of fame, but if subsequent careers count, Nick Nurse and Chris Finch should be in there as well

[irf]

Out of interest

Where exactly is the Hall of Fame going to be?

Or is it an imaginary one?

[spacejammer]

Mar 15, 2024 10:11:10 GMT irf said:

Out of interest

Where exactly is the Hall of Fame going to be?

Or is it an imaginary one?

I'm guessing you mean where will the awards be displayed or kept once the hall of fame has been done.
I honestly would not know.

Although on that topic it would be cool of we had some sort of British Basketball museum somewhere in the UK similar to how Manchester is home to the National Football Musuem.
Even if it is only a really small one it would still be cool to have.

[milehigh]

The IP, and any physical assets, will probably be part of the remains of the BBL company that sits with the liquidators of 777.

[reallyoldfeenixfan2]

Mar 13, 2024 9:22:02 GMT irf said:

Can't imagine any of those names shouldn't be there

Obviously just need adding to in due course

Which will need:

Kevin Routledge
Rob Paternostro
Fab

At some stage

Amongst many others

Plus Ozzie the 50/50 guy and Reallyoldfeenixfan of course

Mike Tuck?

Fletch?

Defoe?

Just watching the presentations being handed out. Obviously  my invitation letter must be stuck in the post. The Post Office have got a lot to answer for these days.