An Open Letter to Boris Johnson

I’d like to talk a little about the state of basketball here in Britain. I know that there are many more popular spectator sports in England (https://iwishiwasalittlebittaller.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/9/), nevertheless basketball remains widely played, particularly amongst the under 25 age group. An extremely important demographic for the growth of the sport, with the proper facilities this number will increase over time giving kids in London and elsewhere another sporting outlet. However, the facilities remain in shambles, the more time I spend in London I’m appalled at the lack of respectable places to play.

I tried to play a pick-up game last saturday at the Hackney Community College near Old Street which I had heard was one of the best gyms in North London. I must say I was impressed by the facility for London standards, however when I showed up I found 15 guys standing by the entrance because the game had been cancelled. Apparently to play for two hours you have to pay £4. Not ideal, but fair enough, the problem was that players weren’t paying so we were in debt £150 which we couldn’t raise, so we were left staring at an empty court. A scenario which is played out over and over in England because your forced to pay every time you want to use a court. Which I find shocking considering that in the States, Europe, China, everywhere except the UK basketball is so widely played because it’s cheap! Basketball is not supposed to be for the wealthy, that’s the point of the game, they already have tennis, golf, sailing and cricket. If a kid has to come up with £4 everytime he wants to play a game or workout, plus the tube fare home, why would he play?

Lovable London Mayor BoJo

Anyway after that experience I talked to some people and got to practice with the London Met team in Islington to stay in shape which was great. The problem was the floor wasn’t standard wood floor you would find on a normal basketball court, it was linoleum, or tile or some other material that made me feel as if I was playing on the top of Ayers Rock. I spend the next day soaking my joints and looking for other places with a decent court.

Two days later I discovered a team not too far from where I’m staying that a mate put me on to. I arrived in the middle of their practice, changed quickly and got on the court. Then threw up three straight shots straight off the backboard from three-point range. I then realized the rims were 9 feet tall. Apparently, they installed a new wood floor on top of the existing floor, but didn’t raise the hoops. It was so low I could almost dunk…almost.

Basketball shouldn’t be this hard. Can we built some normal courts, free of charge for the locals to enjoy before we spend billions of pounds on our cycling and rowing teams? Not that I’m against gold medals for Britain, (afterall the GB basketball team was given millions of pounds to improve performance and I’m not complaining) but let’s think long term as well. Chris Hoy’s gold medals, as good as they are for British pride wont keep kids in gyms and out of trouble.

PS- I wrote a letter to the Mayor’s office of London requesting an interview with Boris Johnson on this very subject, they’ll reply within 24 days (random), they said.

PPS- Never the one to bite the hand that feeds me, I wont post it on my blog. But if want a laugh from british commentators doing a basketball game go to http://www.unionversity.com/category/sport , then scroll down to ‘Worst Sports Commentary of all time.’ My personal faves- 00:38, 04:30.