Bit of a rant...

A fella called fish

Drove to 5 outdoor courts tonight as i just wanted to shoot a few on my own. All of them (bar the 5th!) were full of muppets playing football, despite the fact that the courts are surrounded by grass and in some cases actual football pitches! Finally found one in kimmage, and half the court was occupied by tennis players so i used one of the nets (well, it didnt even have a net, which i find pretty frustrating aswell!!).

There's obviously a serious lack of public courts in dublin. Are there any groups such as basketball ireland (?) who actually try to promote the game in this country? If so, they're not tying very hard by the looks of it.

Anyway, sorry for the rant...but given that the "outdoor courts" thread is 5 years old now, does anyone know any decent courts which have 10ft rims and (god forbid) actual nets?!

Regular Al

There is a Basketball Ireland governing body but they are useless. Have a look here. You might find one near you but I doubt any have nets.

http://www.courtsoftheworld.com/courts

For Forks Sake

Regular Al wrote: »

There is a Basketball Ireland governing body but they are useless.

..and broke

i_am_joey

coming from outside ireland, how big(or small?) is basketball in ireland?

killwill

i_am_joey wrote: »

coming from outside ireland, how big(or small?) is basketball in ireland?

In the 90s it was the biggest growing sport in Ireland. BI did nothing to further promote it and ot is dying a horrible death now.
It is gping ok in Dublin, Cork and Kerry. Struggling big time in Limerick. Dont knpw abput Galway. Midlands is doing ok

WHIP IT!

killwill wrote: »

In the 90s it was the biggest growing sport in Ireland. BI did nothing to further promote it and ot is dying a horrible death now.
It is gping ok in Dublin, Cork and Kerry. Struggling big time in Limerick. Dont knpw abput Galway. Midlands is doing ok

Crazy... I was basketball mad in school (90s) and, as you said, the game was growing at an alarming rate... everybody I knew, whether they played or not, had some interest and knowledge of it and pretty much all my pals played a bit socially etc... Now, nothing! You just rarely hear kids talking about the game, or see them playing it on an outdoor public court (the few of them that are about)...

Most bizarre... I think rugby took over the public conscience alot in the intervening years. 10-15 years ago, rugby was a sport played in posh schools - now it's the biggest threat to the stranglehold that soccer and GAA have on the minds of our youth...

i_am_joey

if it was really big in the 90s, imagine what it wouldve been today!
i mean basketball is now a global sport...would it be nice seeing irish players doing pro basketball, lets say in the NBA! would that be possible with local talents?

Andy Magic

I think it's not going to change to be honest as teams here don't try to bring in new players / newcomers to the game..

On the court issue, I'm the same I've often driven around looking for somewhere to play or shoot a ball around on my own but no luck unless at unusual hours!

i_am_joey

i guess you just have to buy your own basketball net and park it on your driveway if you just want to shoot hoops.

pity the sport is being forgotten :mad:

killwill

In or around 2004ish we had two mens teams in our club and we are on the outskirts of Limerick. Now we struggle for 1 team.
Shameless plug for my club if anyone around Limerick City wants to play in a league come September!!!!!! PM me

i_am_joey

killwill wrote: »

In or around 2004ish we had two mens teams in our club and we are on the outskirts of Limerick. Now we struggle for 1 team.
Shameless plug for my club if anyone around Limerick City wants to play in a league come September!!!!!! PM me

i hope you guys keep your last team to keep the sport afloat.:)

SoulGuy

I think grassroots level definitely needs a lot of work. I'm in Galway and the two local teams are both doing well for support and local media coverage but there doesn't seem to be a lot of incentive to bring in new players which is a shame. The fact that there's really no outside courts that aren't populated by broken glass or no nets is the biggest pity though.

i_am_joey

SoulGuy wrote: »

I think grassroots level definitely needs a lot of work. I'm in Galway and the two local teams are both doing well for support and local media coverage but there doesn't seem to be a lot of incentive to bring in new players which is a shame. The fact that there's really no outside courts that aren't populated by broken glass or no nets is the biggest pity though.

yes i agree, it all starts on that level. if the support and coverage is enough, i dont see why it wont grow.

we have basketball camps here for kids of all ages and is even sponsored by the pro teams with the help of the nba players. it introduces the sport to newbies as well.

A fella called fish

i_am_joey wrote: »

i guess you just have to buy your own basketball net and park it on your driveway if you just want to shoot hoops.

pity the sport is being forgotten :mad:

I'd love that but like many in this country I live in an apartment, so i dont even have the luxury of a driveway.

Seems though that basketball ireland really need to get the finger out. The local authorities could do their bit aswell by maintaining the public courtsz (i.e sweep up the glass every few months, replace the nets (not even the rims!) even once a year..what would that cost? Maybe 200quid annually?!! ****, i'll pay for it!!

killwill

A fella called fish wrote: »

I'd love that but like many in this country I live in an apartment, so i dont even have the luxury of a driveway.

Seems though that basketball ireland really need to get the finger out. The local authorities could do their bit aswell by maintaining the public courtsz (i.e sweep up the glass every few months, replace the nets (not even the rims!) even once a year..what would that cost? Maybe 200quid annually?!! ****, i'll pay for it!!

Ye are spoilt up around Dublin lads.
Forget about whinging about nets and glass. Sweep the glass yourself if you wanna play.
Down the country you get NOTHING, no basketball courts at all.

buyer95

Basketball Ireland, was and continues to be a woefully inept governing body. From the grassroots level right up to the senior team.

The Irish senior team was going fairly well there for a while in the mid noughties,they were competing at a high level. I remember them being in contention to qualify for a european championships around 2005(actually did we qualify for that?), we even had NBA players in Pat Burke, Marty Conlon, and Cal Bowdler.Those games were shown on RTE too which was great.

However, a few years back Basketball Ireland got themselves into financial difficulty, the details of which I have since forgotten, which meant the mens and womens senior teams were disbanded... It was and is a disgraceful positition to be in.

Worse than this however , in my opinion, is the farcical way in which the underage international teams are run. In short, because Basketball Ireland is broke, if a player is picked to be on any of the u16,17 or 18 teams, the players families themselves have to come up with huge amounts of money up front, I think its in the region of 3 to 5 thousan euros to cover expenses, such as gear, travel to tournament etc. I am a member of a prominent basketball club in Muster which will remain nameless, and last year there were 2 players on my clubs u18 team who were and are exceptional talents. News filtered through from basketball ireland to the club that trials were being held, but neither of these players tried out, because the amount of money was just too much of an ask... What this has done, esentially, is that the team is made of players exclusively from wealthy backgrounds, while many excellent talents are not getting their chance to represent their country...

Basketball Ireland is just an awful association...

Paully D

buyer95 wrote: »

The Irish senior team was going fairly well there for a while in the mid noughties,they were competing at a high level. I remember them being in contention to qualify for a european championships around 2005(actually did we qualify for that?), we even had NBA players in Pat Burke, Marty Conlon, and Cal Bowdler.Those games were shown on RTE too which was great.

Off topic here but I Honestly never even knew an Irishman had played in the NBA.

What a shot :eek:

Paully D

Paully D wrote: »

Off topic here but I Honestly never even knew an Irishman had played in the NBA.

What a shot :eek:

Pat Burke again, dropping 3's with ease :eek:

i_am_joey

didnt even know hes irish!
yep the first one to play in the NBA...
left in 2007 to play in the euros and retired 2009 with championship titles.

buyer95

Mario Elie, played in the superleague, in 87 for Dart Killester and subsequently went on to have a fine NBA career, winning 2 championships with the Houston Rockets. He was a key role player, and in the 95 nba finals he averaged 16 points per game. He is now assistant coach with the Brooklyn Nets.

He was known as a clutch shooter who over the years hit some huge shots.
Here is his most notable

Edit: Elie actually won 3 rings, one with the Spurs in 99 aswell!

i_am_joey

do lots of people watch the Superleague?
are they televised?

buyer95

i_am_joey wrote: »

do lots of people watch the Superleague?
are they televised?

The Superleague today is another by-product of Basketball Ireland, and their complete incompetence. It's popularity has fallen, but yes people still go to games.

Some great teams like The Tralee Tigers, and ST Pauls Killarney have left the league due to financial reasons. Losing the Tigers was a huge blow, as the Tralee had the biggest weekly attendance of any of the Superleague teams, with hundreds of people regularly attending games. They brought some outstanding players to the Superleague, ala Chris Craig, CJ Hadley Roy Smallwood, and Ricardo Leonard along with many other great American players.

Basketball was huge in Ireland in the 80's as I said above Mario Elie played here, but there were other unbelievable players too, names like Jasper McElroy, Terry Strickland, Tony Andre would have been household names. The rivalries were emmense too. The two Cork teams Neptune and Demons dominated that era, and whenever Neptune-Demons went to war, it went to the wire. Only Cork-Tipp could rival it as a 1980s sports rivalry.

I would point the blame squarely at BI, for failing to kick on and capitalise on the thriving position basketball was in, and letting sports like rugby and others, whose popularity wasn't in the same league as basketball's in Ireland in the 80's and 90's, overtake it

i_am_joey

probably the ones handling BI then were more into other sports and not basketball thats why they never supported it that much.
its such a waste though knowing that talented players have been coming over to play and would have developed local players to compete in a bigger stage.