Brighton Bears

Brighton Bears
Founded	1973
resolution	2006
Hall
Homepage	Brighton Bears - keeping the Dream alive (Private " Tribute " website)
owner	Nick Nurse
Trainer	lastly Nick Nurse
league	most recently BBL
Colours	Blue White
home Away
successes
BBL play-offs 1993 to 1995; NBL play-offs 1988; BBL Regular Season 1993, 2004; National / BBL Cup 1994, 2003, 2005

Brighton Bears was a professional basketball club based in Brighton , England . The Bears, founded in 1973 in Brighton, played from 1984 to 1999 in neighboring Worthing and in 1990 they were accepted into the closed professional league British Basketball League (BBL). After winning the BBL play-offs three times in a row from 1993 to 1995 , they moved back to Brighton in 1999 after a disappointing season with only four wins this season. At the new and old location, they won twice the national cup competition, which they had already won once in 1994, before the game was stopped in 2006 despite the guest appearance of multiple NBA champion and all-star Dennis Rodman in three games. In 2008, the Worthing Thunder, a new franchise from Sussex, started playing in the BBL.

history

Start until admission to the BBL (1973 to 1990)

After it was founded in 1973, it first played in regional championships before moving up in the 1977/78 season to the second division of the English basketball league called the "National Basketball League" (NBL). At that time, the American Kevin Kallaugher played for the Bears, whose work as a political cartoonist was later published worldwide. Four years later they played in the 1981/82 season in the then top division Division One. After the first games were played in Worthing in 1983 because of high indoor rents, the headquarters were relocated to Worthing as Worthing Bears from the 1984/85 season . The financially troubled club was also able to win the Nissan company as a name sponsor in November 1984 . After the sponsorship ceased at the end of the 1985/86 season, the Bears also had to suspend play in the 1986/87 season.

For the season 1987/88 Worthing Bears registered again to play and were allowed to return to the top division Division One, after a new closed league with the British Basketball League (BBL) had formed over Division One . Under player-coach Billy Hungrecker, who achieved a record 73 points in the play-off semifinals in the 119: 110 extra time win over the Plymouth Raiders in the second game, the NBL play-offs were won for the first time after the final victory over the Brixton TopCats. In the following seasons they continued to play at the top of the league without winning championships, and thanks to good audience interest, they were accepted into the closed BBL league in the 1990/91 season, which, after starting with 15 teams in 1987, had eight franchises in 1990 had shrunk.

Worthing Bears in the BBL (1990 to 1999)

After qualifying for the play-offs for the championship in the first two seasons, they lost only two season games in the 1992/93 regular season and after two wins with one point difference in the semifinals over defending champion Guildford Kings , against which they had lost the final in the "National Cup" with a difference of ten points, and secured the championship in the BBL for the first time in the final over the Thames Valley Tigers . Colin Irish as a player of the Bears was named the “ Most Valuable Player ” (MVP) of the BBL. The following season they came in second behind opponents Tigers in the play-offs. While you had been defeated in the League Cup BBL Trophy by the Tigers, you had won the final in the cup competition in 1994 against this opponent. In the play-off final the opponents met again, in which the Bears were able to defend their championship title with 71:65. In the 1994/95 season they managed to defend their title again, although the regular season was only finished in seventh place.

In the 1995/96 season, the defending champion Bears came seventh again in the play-offs and this time could not repeat the surprise of the previous year, but was eliminated in the first round. In the League Cup BBL Trophy they reached the final, which was lost to the London Towers . In the following season they missed the play-offs for the first time and in the subsequent break there was a change of ownership. However, the new owner quickly lost interest and at the end of the 1997/98 season they even landed on the penultimate place of the 13-team league. The low point was reached for the time being in the following season 1998/99, when they took the last place in the final table after only four season wins. The Bears sought their salvation in the return to Brighton, as among other things the local venue Brighton Center promised higher income. At the old venue in Worthing, the Rebels formed a team that would later inherit the Bears in the BBL as Thunder .

Brighton Bears (1999 to 2006)

At the new venue in Brighton, new spectators were won and, with the third-worst record of all BBL teams, they were initially able to stabilize themselves somewhat. After stagnating in the following 2000/01 season and again in the play-offs missed, it was for the 2001-02 season Nick Nurse win as a trainer, sports director and co-owner, who previously with the Birmingham Bullets and Manchester Giants once each already Championship had won. As second in the Southern Conference they reached the play-off semi-finals, which were lost to the Cheshire Jets , which were dominant in this season . In the following season, Nurse took over as sole owner of the Bears and in the final of the cup competition 2003 they won against the defending champion Jets and moved in as second in the main round to the final of the play-offs. However, the Scottish Rocks were unstoppable in the play-offs and successively defeated the defending champions Jets, the main round first Sheffield Sharks and finally the Bears in the final with 83:76. In the 2003/04 season they finished the regular time as the first in the table, having just missed this before, but lost in the play-off semifinals by just one point against the Cheshire Jets after they had already played the final against this opponent the BBL Trophy had just lost by two points. In the European club competition ULEB Cup 2003/04 they won four of ten preliminary round games and took a considerable third place in front of renowned clubs such as KK Split and Cholet Basket , which was not enough to make it into the round of 16.

In the following season 2004/05 the Bears won the cup competition in the final against the Scottish Rocks with 16 points difference and also reached the final in the BBL Trophy. But two of the most important players got injured and they lost 14 of the last 20 games of the season, as well as the final game of the BBL Trophy with 25 points difference against the Newcastle Eagles and in the first round of the play-offs even with 35 points difference against the Sheffield Sharks. However, the misfortune did not let go of the Bears, because the following season 2005/06 should be the last season in the BBL in the history of the Bears. As eighth of the regular season you just moved into the play-offs, in which you were defeated in the first round by just four points to the main round first and later champions Newcastle Eagles. The highlight of the season was a guest appearance by multiple NBA champion and NBA all-star Dennis Rodman , who was in the UK for an appearance on the television show "Celebrity Big Brother " and was used in three games of the Bears. At the end of the season, owner Nurse was looking for new options for the franchise, but eventually had to deregister them from game operations and returned to his home in Iowa as a coach .

Web links

• Genesis Brighton Bears basketball - team details, stats, news, roster - profile on the Eurobasket.com website

Individual evidence

1. ^ John Hobbs: Former Worthing player Billy Hungrecker passes away. (No longer available online.) England Basketball , July 29, 2011, archived from the original on May 4, 2014 ; Retrieved on May 23, 2013 (English, media info Worthing Thunder ). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Associated Press : Rodman to play second game in the British League. ESPN , February 1, 2006, accessed May 23, 2013 . 
3. ^ Brian Owen: Nurse still aims to revive Bears. Newsquest Media Group - The Argus: theArgus.co.uk, October 19, 2006, accessed May 23, 2013 .