SportsTalk - Sheffield Sharks 2025-26 Season Preview - video Dailymotion

Yorkshire Post

The Yorkshire Post’s Nick Westby previews the 2025-26 Super League basketball season for Sheffield Sharks and the ongoing turmoil off the court over the sports’s future in the UK ...

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to a special edition of Sports Talk from the Yorkshire Post,

00:14where we bring you a preview of the 2025-2026 basketball season in the UK.

00:20As fans will only be all too aware, it's been an off-season of turmoil with the governance of the sport in the UK

00:27thrown into chaos by various factions arguing about this, that and the other.

00:31Who should rule this and who should rule that? It's all been a bit of a mess.

00:36To try and make sense of it all, rival leagues, who should be in charge of referees,

00:41which referees should be reffing, which teams should be taking part, etc, etc.

00:46And as well as the more simple matter of looking ahead to what Sheffield Sharks can hope to achieve in 2025-2026,

00:53we are joined by Nick Westby, the Yorkshire Post basketball correspondent and many other things.

01:00Nick, where do we start after such a mad few months, really, for the sport?

01:08It had been brewing for some time, obviously.

01:10There were various shots fired towards the back end of the last campaign, if I remember correctly.

01:15You're probably correct me if I'm wrong.

01:16But then in the summer, it all kind of erupted and we find ourselves with probably more questions

01:23unanswered than when we were probably two or three months ago.

01:26I don't know. What's the latest, essentially?

01:29Well, yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

01:31More questions.

01:32OK, moving on to the next question.

01:35Sorry, go on.

01:36So here we are, what, Wednesday afternoon, 17th of September, two days before the start

01:42of what should be the second Super League basketball season.

01:45It's all been, it's all started kicking off around January when the British Basketball Federation

01:53awarded the tender for the licence to host the professional elite tier from 26-27 to GBB League

02:03in America, a group of American businessmen led by Marshall Glickman, the former Portland

02:09Trailblazers CEO and president.

02:13It's been rumbling on all summer long, really, but it's come to a head in the last two weeks

02:19when myself and a couple of other journalists who have been following the story quite closely

02:23have been digging around again.

02:26I've been digging around all summer, to be fair, but I've really stepped up the digging

02:29around and we've unearthed a few bits between us, one being that the GBBL League is now going

02:40to be delayed until 2027, which Super League Basketball will probably rejoice at.

02:48But that, in telling us that this Monday, they said they're doing that to coincide with the

02:57start of the NBA Europe in 2027.

03:00That's not been announced yet.

03:02Adam Silver, the NBA Chief Executive Commissioner, said overnight in America that 2027 is ambitious.

03:08It's going to be 2028 is the more realistic.

03:11So GBB League is, I don't know if they want to be aligning themselves with NBA Europe so

03:20closely if NBA Europe is still up in the air.

03:23So that's one faction.

03:25That's one asset going off.

03:26Then you've got the legal claims between SLB and the British Basketball Federation over

03:32the handling of the tender license.

03:34SLB have lodged a legal claim in the High Court.

03:40This British Basketball Federation have leapt to their defence in the High Court.

03:46And then you've got mass, so that's a High Court hearing is pending.

03:51But now you've got FIBA, the international governing body for basketball, stepping in and informing

03:57Super League Basketball and the British Basketball Federation at the weekend that they were setting

04:03up a task force to look into it.

04:06So both factions are being told that their draws are being rummaged through by the governing

04:16body and they're going to have a good old look.

04:18And it needs that, to be honest.

04:19It needs someone above all this because the government have not really done anything.

04:24UK Sport or Sport England, where the money comes from, is all different factions.

04:30So it's the FIBA governing body now that's getting involved and saying, right, we're going

04:33to investigate this and put a stop to that.

04:36So that's that element.

04:37Then you've got the element of, excuse me, you've got the element of the league starting

04:44on Friday night with nine teams.

04:47But at the minute, no elite level referees because this dates back to Vormillette, the Sheffield

04:58Sharks owner and then interim chair back in March, alleging racism and bias against one

05:05of the leading officials.

05:07That prompted the strike.

05:10Sheffield Sharks had to fly in officials from Canada to cover about a month's worth of games

05:15for them.

05:17The BBF got back involved and said that's not illegal.

05:23That's not the word.

05:24But you can't be doing that in a basically in an unregulated league.

05:28And now this talk that, well, I've seen, I've seen evidence SLB want to get the proper

05:35referees back.

05:36But there's reports that the BBF have worn them off.

05:40And I've seen evidence of the SLB, the letter they've sent to the BBF pleading with, not

05:46pleading, but trying to appeal to the BBF's better sense of judgment to get them to relent

05:55and let elite level referees officiate the Super League games.

06:03And Super League basketball have also sent out a letter to a whole variety of referees, old,

06:12young, current, they've won, saying we'll pay a certain amount of money, come and do these

06:18games.

06:18They're up in the ante, they're desperate to get some referees.

06:21So there are referees for the first round of games, where we'll be in a week's time.

06:28I don't know what standard those referees will be.

06:31I'm not sure, but games are going ahead and they are going ahead.

06:36We're waiting for an announcement on a broadcast deal from DAZN as well for the second year.

06:41That's all streamed live and for free on there.

06:45That is still up in the air.

06:46That is not confirmed.

06:47We have to put someone at Super League today and they couldn't say that for definite that

06:51when the announcement was going to come.

06:54But I think that will come before Friday's tip-off.

06:58It's all a bit of a farce, isn't it, really?

07:01It really is, mate.

07:02You talk about the world governing body flexing its muscles finally.

07:07I mean, this really should have been done before the week starting of the season.

07:16Sorry, the start of the week when the season is supposed to start.

07:18It should have been done weeks ago, surely.

07:20It should, but the cynical view would be that BBF wants, doesn't want the Super League

07:26basketball to go ahead.

07:27So throwing all these spanners in the works at this time is just, you know,

07:34all contributes to SLB not being able to go ahead and therefore look at the bright new

07:39shiny thing on the horizon, the GBB league that will go ahead in, but now two years' time.

07:45So you've got all this going on.

07:48It's, as a lot of people have pointed out to me, there's not much money in basketball

07:51as it is, and already, and so much money is going out of basketball at the minute

07:57on lawyers, which is not a very good position to be in, unfortunately.

08:04And it's just going to keep dragging on.

08:07Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely.

08:09Let's switch to the Sharks.

08:10The season's going ahead, like you say, with officials from here, there and everywhere,

08:17quite probably.

08:18In terms of the Sharks, they had a great season last time out.

08:22Can they build on last season's title challenge and the SLB Cup win that they enjoyed?

08:28I would like to think so, but it's not going to be as easy as maintaining consistency and

08:36momentum because they've had such a big turnover of players, which for many years around COVID,

08:42a team of Lions refrained from doing, but he switched it up a lot last year because of

08:47the success this year, this past season, I think it was taken out of his hands a bit

08:53more that he had to switch things up.

08:55He lost players like Donovan Clay and Ricky McGill, who he wouldn't have wanted to lose.

08:59And because of the situation with the governing body endorsements, there's another strand from

09:07earlier, the visas, I think there was some concern and they weren't able to maybe splash as much

09:13cash as before or have the assuringness that imports could come.

09:20So it's altered recruitment a little bit.

09:24So I think Sheffield going a little bit of an unknown quantity to where they were last year.

09:31They built such an identity last year, a really tough defensive team, but also very strong

09:39down the middle through Donovan Clay.

09:41That's gone now, Donovan Clay.

09:44So even a team of Lions has admitted they're having to redraw how they play.

09:49I've just been down to the kind of medical arena to speak to a couple of people.

09:53I spoke to a couple of their new defensive recruits in Jalen DeLoach and Nick Kern.

10:01So they're going to have the defensive strength, but I think they're targeting top four.

10:07I think top four is realistic and with four chances to get a trophy, you've got to be

10:12hoping that you can get yourself into the mix for a trophy.

10:15So I would say they should be looking to build on last season.

10:21Yeah.

10:21Who are the main rivals, would you say?

10:24Who are the sort of main contenders?

10:26London Lions have been very strong for a number of years now.

10:29Very strong again.

10:32They've kept a fair few players, got some new blood in, as they always do.

10:36They've got a European campaign.

10:38Leicester Riders give them a good old beating in the semi-final, the playoff semi-final last year.

10:44But they were without Donovan Clay for all the 12 minutes of that game, that two-legged tie.

10:50So I think that contributed to it a bit more than the box score suggests.

10:54But yeah, the Leicester Riders are going to be strong again.

10:59And I think a lot of people's fancy is Manchester to be the upstart, the surprise package.

11:08They finished the season very well after a tumultuous summer and are recruited very well and looking very nice at the minute.

11:15Do you think the season will be completed?

11:22I mean, how drastic a situation are we looking at?

11:25I mean, it's OK you saying that they've got referees for the first round of games.

11:31They can't sort of continue with a sort of half-mouth existence on a week-by-week basis, surely?

11:36No, I think something needs to be resolved on it.

11:40The referees is probably a bigger sticking point than the broadcast contract.

11:47Because the broadcast contract's nice, but you can survive without it.

11:51But referees, you can't survive without.

11:55I think the season will go on.

11:58They've been through so much, to be fair, the Super League basketball in the last 18 months.

12:06And that community that so much hard work, so many hours has gone into it for them to just say,

12:14oh, we can't do this.

12:15So they will continue.

12:16I think the season will get done.

12:18The referees is the big sticking point.

12:19It needs sorting quick.

12:23Maybe the FIBA task force speeds things along.

12:28Because some of the referees, I suppose to a couple of referees,

12:31they're just unsure that if we officiate these Super League basketball games in what is at the minute an unrecognised league,

12:40does that jeopardise our chances of refereeing in FIBA-sanctioned events like Junior World Championships or Eurobasket or something like that?

12:50Are FIBA looking at the situation now or is it a case of, well, we'll get to it in a couple of weeks?

12:55I mean, the time is now, isn't it?

12:58The time is now.

12:59Yeah, I think they're looking at it now.

13:00They announced it.

13:01Basically, the letter kit was sent late last week, that this task force,

13:06and they named the people on the task force.

13:08So hovering also in the background is NBA Europe 2027 or 2028.

13:15You would think if there's going to be two teams from Great Britain in it, Manchester and London,

13:22you'd think FIBA would want its house in order before then.

13:26So I know it's a long way in the future, but I think it's going to be sorted.

13:30It's got to be sorted soon, the referee situation.

SportsTalk - Sheffield Sharks 2025-26 Season Preview

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