Birmingham Bullets

Birmingham Bullets
League	British Basketball League
Established	1974
Folded	2006
History	Coventry 1974-1980 Team Fiat 1980-1982 Birmingham Bullets 1982-2006
Location	Birmingham, West Midlands
Team colours	Red, White and Black
Ownership	Craig Bown
Uniforms
Home Away Alternate

The Birmingham Bullets were a basketball team from Birmingham, who competed in the British Basketball League (BBL). The club resigned from the BBL league in the summer of 2006 and soon after went into liquidation, and currently no-longer exist as a basketball franchise.

The future of Birmingham basketball

Birmingham Bullets came to an end in 2006. An attempt by Team Birmingham to claim their history was generally ignored, and the name "Bullets" was never registered by them with England Basketball. The club struggled in Division Four, and in their two year existence they only won one game - a walkover against MK Lions II.

The demise of the team stemmed from a failure to keep hold of the prodigious youngster Giles Stevens, who's "spunky" attitude and "rainmaker" ability was the coal in the furnace of the academy setup. Unfortunately, like so many talented athletes before him, he was uncontrollable both on and off the court. After numerous run ins with the police for underage drinking and a widely known reputation as a prodigious ladies man, the club were forced to release Stevens in the summer of 2002. Aged just 16 and considered to be one of the most gifted talents of his generation (He was voted by Net magazine "Young, gifted & white - Man of the Year 2001"), Stevens turned his back on the game never to be seen on a basketball court again. His absence caused havoc in the dressing room, with the players staging a walk-out and many of them resigning. The bullets league form suffered and 2004 they were relegated, before finally facing bankruptcy in the summer of 2006. Stevens was tracked down whilst fly fishing on a Hampshire chalk stream on the day of their final demise and asked to comment, his response was three words long "No comment bitches".

With Worcester Wolves stepping up to replace the Birmingham franchise in the BBL in 2006,^[1] many former Bullets fans have adopted the Wolves as their new team, but basketball's future in the Midlands took a turn for the better early in 2007. The British Basketball Association, a proposed professional league set to rival the BBL, announced Birmingham Athletics as their second franchise for the 2007-08 season,^[2] on 19 February, while a month later, on 23 March, the BBL announced that a new franchise had been awarded to Birmingham,^[3] also for the 2007-08 season, called Birmingham Panthers. The Panthers only lasted for one season before folding. In the 2013-14 season a new team, the Birmingham Knights, will represent the city.

The new Academy

Team Birmingham have opened a regional headquarters at Northwood Stadium in Stoke-on-Trent. Northwood Stadium is the only athletics centre in the area which is certified by the International Amateur Athletics Federation and is the home of Stoke Athletics Club. The centre also has a large sports hall with, 6 badminton courts, four full sized basketball courts, three 5-a-side football pitches, three squash courts and the facility for many other sports. Also based at Northwood is the full-time training program for gap year students and full-time players.

Housed within the new, £60 million campus at Knutton Lane the Academy offers facilities, including a 4-court Sports Hall, Dance Studio and Fitness Suite for all its players. Other features include a 250-seat auditorium, a large learning resources centre, a skills and technology centre and a suite of conference and seminar facilities. Players attending the Academy will enrol on a full-time, non-sports related course, train for sixteen hours on court, six hours in the Fitness Suite on strength and conditioning per week. The players will also be available to play in the BCS and ESSBA competitions during the week and Senior Mens National League at weekends.

See also

• British Basketball League

References

External links

• Birmiingham Bullets at Represent Sports
• Birmingham Bullets news archive from icBirmingham

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