England men's national basketball team

England England
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
Light
Dark
Former logo of England Basketball

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

John Amaechi was England's dominant player at the 2006 Commonwealth Games where he helped secure the bronze medal.

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

Coaching Staff

Competition charts

Olympic Games

A red box around the year indicates tournaments played within England

Summer Olympic Games record
Year Position Pld W L
Berlin 1936 Did not participate
London 1948 20th 6 1 5
Helsinki 1952 Did not participate between 1952-1996
Atlanta 1996
Sydney 2000 Did not qualify
Athens 2004
Beijing 2008 Did not qualify
London 2012 9th 5 1 4
Rio de Janeiro 2016 Did not qualify
Total2/181129

     Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain.

FIBA World Cup

FIBA World Cup record
Year Round Position Pld W L
Argentina 1950 Did not participate between 1950-1998
Greece 1998
United States 2002 Did not qualify
Japan 2006
Turkey 2010 Did not qualify
Spain 2014
Total0 Titles0/17000

     Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain.

Eurobasket

FIBA EuroBasket
Year Position Pld W L
Geneva 1935 Did not particpate between 1936-1939
Riga 1937
Geneva 1946 8th 3 0 3
Prague 1947 Did not particpate between 1949-1955
Cairo 1949
Budapest 1955 12th 10 2 8
Sofia 1957 Did not particpate
Istanbul 1959
Belgrade 1961 19th 7 0 7
Wroclaw 1963 Did not particpate between 1963-1979
Turin 1979
Prague 1981 19th 10 2 8
Nantes 1983 Did not particpate between 1983-1997
Barcelona 1997
Paris 1999 Did not qualify
Istanbul 2001
Stockholm 2003
Belgrade 2005
Madrid 2007 Did not qualify
Katowice 2009 15th 3 0 3
Kaunas 2011 15th 5 2 3
Ljubljana 2013 15th 5 2 3
FranceCroatiaGermanyLatvia 2015Did not qualify
2017To be determined
Total29/37 224 139 85

     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
Total0 Titles1/1532

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

References

External links