Alan Cunningham (basketball player)
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| Player information | ||
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| Full name | Alan LeMoyne Cunningham | |
| Nickname | Vitamin C, swoop | |
| birthday | 2nd February 1955 | |
| place of birth | San Diego (CA), USA | |
| size | 201 cm | |
| position |
Power Forward / Center |
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| college | Colorado State | |
| NBA draft | 1978 , 169. Pick Philadelphia 76ers | |
| Clubs as active | ||
1976–1978 Colorado State Rams ( NCAA ) 1978 Harlem Globetrotters Anderlecht 1982–1983 Doncaster Panthers 1983–1985 Worthing Bears 1985–1988 Portsmouth FC 1988–1992 Glasgow Rangers / Kingston Kings 1992–1996 Worthing Bears 1996–1997 London Towers 1997–2002 Solent Stars   
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| National team | ||
| -1993 | England | |
| Clubs as coaches | ||
| 1992–1996 Worthing Bears ( SpTr ) 1997–2002 Solent Stars (SpTr) 2004–2005 Solent Stars
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Alan LeMoyne Cunningham (born February 2, 1955 in San Diego , California ) is a retired American basketball player . After studying in his native country, Cunningham played professionally in Europe. In 1982 he came to England , whose citizenship he later accepted, and won numerous championships there. He later became a player-coach before ending his playing career in 2002 at the age of 47.
Career
From 1976 to 1978, while studying at Colorado State University , Cunningham played for the Rams college team, which was then part of the NCAA's Western Athletic Conference (WAC) . In the entry draft of the professional league NBA he was selected in 1978 in the eighth round of the Philadelphia 76ers, which did not take him over in their season squad. After Cunningham had played under the nickname "Vitamin C" for the Harlem Globetrotters show team, he went to Europe, where he played in Belgium , among other places .
For the 1982/83 season Cunningham came to the English "National Basketball League" (NBL) Division One to the Panthers from Doncaster , who had won the double in England in 1979 and lost the cup final in the "National Cup" against the Solent Stars in 1982. However, the Panthers did not have a successful season and Cunningham moved to the south coast of England to the Bears, who were still playing in Brighton in 1983 . However, due to high indoor rents, the Bears finally moved to Worthing for the following season 1984/85 . The team reached the semi-finals of the NBL play-offs in 1985 , in which one was subject to the basketball team of the eventual title winners Manchester United , in which Colin Irish scored 41 points.
Cunningham and Irish moved to the 1985/86 season to another NBL basketball team operated by the owners of a football club in Portsmouth , which had previously only achieved one win in 26 games. This team now reached third place in Division One and was even able to reach first place after the regular season in the 1986/87 season. The British Basketball League (BBL) was then set up as a closed professional league , which, in addition to Division One teams, also included the Scottish team MIM Livingston sponsored by David E. Murray . In the first season of the BBL 1987/88 Portsmouth was able to take first place again after the regular season, in the semi-finals of the play-offs they beat Manchester United in the "duel of football clubs", but then lost the final against Livingston. For the following season, the owners of Manchester United sold their basketball team, which now had to compete as Eagles, and Portsmouth's owner John Deacon sold his shares completely, but found no interested parties for the basketball team, so that their game operations were finally stopped. In total, the BBL lost four teams after their first season. Only David Murray initially went the opposite way in Scotland and had taken over the football club Glasgow Rangers . In addition, he took over the shares in the BBL team Kingston Kings, which were transferred to Glasgow as Rangers . Cunningham was committed by the Rangers, who in the 1988/89 season before Livingston reached first place after the main round, in which Cunningham was named " Most Valuable Player " (MVP) of the BBL. In the play-off final against the Scottish competitor and play-off defending champion Livingston, the Rangers were able to keep the upper hand with just one point difference. Subsequently, Murray also lost interest in his basketball teams and focused on football. While Livingston was completely withdrawn from the BBL, the former Rangers returned to Kingston upon Thames as Kings . The BBL had reached its lowest point at the beginning of the third season when, after 15 teams at the premiere, only eight teams took part in the game.
Kings' coach Kevin Cadle signed for the 1988/89 season builder Alton Byrd , who had suspended a season and had previously played for Manchester United, while Colin Irish went the opposite way and returned to the now playing as Eagles team in Manchester. The Kings were hard to beat in the following three seasons and won all titles of the BBL except for the National Cup in 1991, which went to the Sheffield Sharks . In the 1990/91 European Cup , they caused a big surprise when they defended a 16-point lead from the first leg against Russian champions CSKA Moscow in the second leg and moved into the final group stage of the top eight teams in who finished seventh after four wins in 14 games. For the 1992/93 season, the Kings left the London city limits and moved to a new hall in Guildford. The now 37-year-old Cunningham went back as a player-coach, a personal union in the BBL at the time, back to the English south coast to the Worthing Bears, who had been accepted into the BBL two years earlier, and took Colin Irish with him for a year had previously returned to England and had also played with the Kings. In the championship you replaced the Kings as the dominant team and won the regular season in which Colin Irish was elected MVP of the BBL. In the play-offs they beat the Kings, against whom they had lost the cup final, with one point difference in the semifinals, and they also won the play-off final game with one point difference against the Thames Valley Tigers . In qualifying for the main round of the European Championship in 1995 , the English national team failed in the summer of 1993 with Cunningham and Irish because of the poorer direct comparison with Romania . In the 1993/94 season, the Thames Valley Tigers remained the biggest rivals of the Bears, who lost the semi-finals in the league cup "BBL Trophy" against defending champions Tigers, while they won the final in the "National Cup" against the Tigers. In the play-offs of the championship, however, the main round first Tigers failed in the first round, so that the Bears could defend their play-off title in the final against the Kings. In the following season, the defending champion in the cup competition failed in the first round and lost again in the semi-finals of the BBL Trophy against the Tigers. In the championship they only moved into the play-offs as seventh, but just kept the upper hand over the Tigers in the first round. After defeating the main round first Sheffield Sharks in the semi-finals, the way was clear to win the play-off title for the third time in a row in the final against Irish 'old team from Manchester. In the 1995/96 season they were eliminated again early in the cup competition, but reached the final in the BBL Trophy, which was lost to the London Towers. With the exception of the play-offs, the Towers were able to win all of the BBL's competitions this season, because the Bears could not repeat their march through the play-offs from the previous season. As seventh they were eliminated this time in the first round.
Cunningham was in the summer of 1996 at the age of just under 41 for a professional basketball player before moving to the Greek club Iraklio BC in Crete , but returned to the BBL and joined the London Towers, which was coached by his former coach Kevin Cadle were. In the cup competition you could not defend your title and lost in the semifinals against the eventual title winner and local rival Leopards , who replaced the Towers as the main round first in the championship. In the BBL Trophy they won clearly against the Leopards in the quarter-finals and were able to defend this title in the final. In the play-offs, the Towers reached the final this time and was able to win it with one point difference against the main round first Towers. Cunningham has now ended his career in the BBL, in which he is, relatively speaking, as a coach behind Cadle with almost 80% of the most victorious coach in BBL history. He went back to the south coast to join the Solent Stars in Southampton , where he worked as a player-coach for the next five years, bringing with him colleague Colin Irish, who joined from Manchester. After a short period at the beginning of the BBL, the stars played again in the league system of the English NBL. In the 1997/98 season you won the championship of Division Two with just one defeat and returned to Division One, in which you immediately took first place in the 1998/99 season. In the following season they finished third, but could move into the play-offs in the final, which was lost to the main round first Teesside Mohawks. After a bad 2000/01 season, which ended as the bottom of the table in Division One, you could commit to the 2001/02 season John Bynum , who would later play in the German basketball league . The Solent Stars, led by Bynum, returned to third place in Division One at the end of the regular season. In the play-offs they reached the final like two years before, which was lost again to the first Mohawks in the main round. Cunningham then resigned as a coach and the then 47-year-old former player-coach should not return to the field in a professional league. After two seasons in the lower third of Division One, however, he returned to the 2004/05 season in the coaching bench of the Solent Stars. However, he could not turn the tide from the edge of the field and the stars won only five of the 22 season games and finished third from bottom of the table at the end of the season. After this unsuccessful season, he was replaced as a coach.
Web links
- Alan Le Moyne Cunningham | EuroCup 1997 - player profile on the website of FIBA Europa ( English )
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1978 NBA Draft. Sports Reference LLC, accessed June 30, 2013 (English, tabular overview).
- ^ The All-Time Roster of the World Famous Harlem Globetrotters. Harlem Globetrotters , accessed June 30, 2013 (overview of all players).
- ^ Mark Fuhrmann: Brighton Bears - Keeping the Dream Alive: 1984-1985. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 18, 2012 ; accessed on June 30, 2013 (English, seasonal chronicle on private “Tribute” website).
- ↑ 1988–89 BBL Championship & Playoffs. British Basketball League , accessed June 30, 2013 (season summary).
- ^ Javier Gancedo: From YMCA to the Towers: London clubs in European competitions. ULEB , February 12, 2013, accessed June 30, 2013 .
- ↑ Champions Cup 1990–91. Linguasport.com, accessed June 30, 2013 (English / Spanish, competition results).
- ^ England / 1995 European Championship for Men: Qualifying Round. FIBA , accessed on June 30, 2013 .
- ^ Richard Taylor: Basketball: Cunningham's return. The Independent , September 7, 1996, accessed June 30, 2013 .
- ↑ Winning Percentage. British Basketball League , accessed June 30, 2013 .
- ↑ England Basketball: Senior Men - Playoff. (No longer available online.) England Basketball . Archived from the original on August 13, 2013 ; accessed on June 30, 2013 (English, overview of final results).
- ↑ Jim Rumsey: Solent Stars Basketball Club - The Complete History: 2001/02. Retrieved on June 30, 2013 (English, chronicle of the season on private website).
- ↑ Jim Rumsey: Solent Stars Basketball Club - The Complete History: 2004/05. Retrieved on June 30, 2013 (English, chronicle of the season on private website).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cunningham, Alan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cunningham, Alan LeMoyne (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American-English basketball player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2nd February 1955 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | San Diego , California, USA |