Crystal Palace Basketball Club

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Crystal Palace Basketball Club
Founded 1973
resolution 1998
Hall Crystal Palace Center
(1,800 seats)
Trainer
league
successes
9 times NBL Division One 1974, 1976 to 1978, 1980,
00000000000000000001982, 1983, 1995, 1996
6 times National Cup 1974, 1976 to 1978, 1980, 1981

Crystal Palace Basketball Club was a basketball club from the London district of Crystal Palace in England , which was created in 1973 from a cooperation between a basketball team from the London Borough of Sutton and the football club Crystal Palace FC . The fusion club, which provided the dominant teams in English basketball in the 1970s and early 1980s, is considered one of the pioneers in English basketball, which also attracted initial attention in European club competitions. It existed with varying degrees of success until 1998, when it merged with the then leading London club, London Towers, in the British Basketball League (BBL).

history

Successful start (1973 to 1978)

The club from the borough of Sutton had reached the finals in the National Cup in 1971 and 1973 and lost each time. Then they cooperated with the eponymous football club Crystal Palace and initially competed under Sutton & Crystal Palace, with the Crystal Palace National Sports Center as their home ground. The Crystal Palace Center, built in 1964, was also the venue for the finals in the National Cup from 1965 to 1974, the actual championship in English basketball until 1979. In the first season of the cooperation, they not only won the cup competition, but also first place in the year previously introduced Division One of the "National Basketball League" (NBL). In the European club competition Korać Cup 1973/74 , however, they were eliminated in the first preliminary round, where you could win the home game against the Belgian club from Bruges . Then, after winning the cup, they were also one of the first English teams to compete in the European Cup , but lost both games in the first qualifying round against the Dutch representative from Rotterdam . After finishing second in the championship and cup in 1975 and not being able to defend the title, Crystal Palace won both competitions as a double three times in a row from 1976 to 1978. A first respectable success at international level was second place in the group stage of the national champions -European Cup at the beginning of the 1976/77 season when, in a direct comparison, the Swiss champions Federale Lugano could be left behind. Only the dominant Spanish champions and former vice European cup winner Real Madrid could qualify as group winners for the quarter-finals. In the following two European Cup competitions of the national champions, however, they remained without a win again.

Notable successes in the European Cup (1978 to 1983)

In the 1978/79 season you had to let the Doncaster Panthers go first in league and cup as second . However, these did not take part in the European Cup and so Crystal Palace was able to compete again in the national championship competition 1979/80. For the 1979/80 season, among other things, the US-American Alton Byrd was engaged , who in his college career at Columbia University with his height of about 1.70 m received the "Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award" for the best college player with a height of less than 1.83 m. Byrd, who later naturalized and became an English international , had not made it into the American professional league NBA after a foot injury and played the following three seasons for Crystal Palace. In the group stage of the European Cup they met again on Real Madrid, who took first place and later won their seventh European title. Except for the two games against Real around the two star players Wayne Brabender and Walter Szczerbiak , however, they won the remaining four group games, including both games against the German champions TuS 04 Leverkusen . In the national competitions they managed to double again in 1980. In 1981 you could only defend the title in the National Cup and lost the championship in the league to the Birmingham Bullets . In the European Cup it was enough to win one home each over the French champions from Tours and the Greek champions Panathinaikos Athens . In the final accounts of the group, however, this only meant the last place in the group of four, which the later European Cup winner Maccabi Tel Aviv won. In the seasons 1981/82 and 1982/83 one won again the championship in the national league. In the 1981/82 European Cup Winners' Cup , they won against the Swiss representative BBC Nyon and moved into the quarter-final group stage, where, however, in a group of four with the eventual title holder KK Cibona, only one victory was possible in six games. In the 1982/83 season then again took part in the Cup of National Champions, which this time was played without a group stage in the first round. In the first round they beat the German champions BSC Saturn Cologne in both games with one point and were able to beat Real Madrid at home with eight points difference for the first time in the quarterfinals. In the second leg in Madrid, however, they lost by 30 points (81: 111) and thus missed participation in the final round for the title.

Decline until resignation from the BBL (1983 to 1989)

In the 1983/84 season you took part in the Korać Cup 1983/84 instead of the European Champion Clubs' Cup . After the respectable success at European level last year, however, they remained without a win in the group stage of the 16 best teams. In the national league it was enough to runner-up in 1984 behind the Solent Stars . With Steve Bucknall a player from Crystal Palace made it to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later in the NBA. However, the most successful days of Crystal Palace BC were over just as the British Basketball League (BBL), a closed professional league , was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1987 . Although they were still a founding member of the BBL in the 1987/88 season, it was only enough to win two games this season in 28 games and the last place in the table among 15 teams in the final table. In the second season, which has already shrunk by four teams, only two wins this season in 20 games were achieved, which in turn meant the last place in the table. Then they also withdrew from the BBL, while the league took on a new franchise from London with the London Docklands , which would later be one of the most successful teams of the 1990s in the BBL under the name London Towers.

Short comeback until the merger with the Towers (1989 to 1996)

After returning to Division One, which is now no longer the top division, they stabilized themselves athletically and in 1993 reached a third place in the league. In 1994 Alton Byrd, who at the end of his playing career in 1991 and 1992 was the only player to win the BBL's “ Most Valuable Player ” (MVP) award twice in a row, returned to Crystal Palace as coach and co-owner and was able to revitalize the club. 1995 and 1996 you won again the championship in this division. In the National Cup 1995/96 you beat two teams of the BBL and moved to the semifinals, where you lost to the defending champion Sheffield Sharks . This was at the same time the most successful season of the London Towers, which won all other BBL competitions except for the championship play-offs . Crystal Palace tried again successfully for inclusion in the BBL, but in the first season after returning in 1997 after five season victories only the penultimate place in the table, while the Towers now also won the play-offs of the BBL for the first time. Byrd left the club and later moved to the management of the NBA club Sacramento Kings . In 1998, the Crystal Palace occupied in the last season of their independence, far behind from the play-off places, third from bottom of the table among 13 teams. They then merged the remnants of the club with local rivals London Towers, who now used the National Sports Center in Crystal Palace as their home ground in addition to the Wembley Arena . Two years later, the Towers wanted to build on Crystal Palace's successful European Cup times and took part in the competitions of the newly founded ULEB Euroleague . In a total of 24 group games in the first two ULEB Euroleague events, however, it was only enough to win the ULEB Euroleague 2000/01 against the Opel Skyliners Frankfurt , which initially continued the apparently traditional weakness of German teams against London clubs. At the following ULEB Euroleague 2001/02 , however, it was enough for the Skyliners to win two times against the now clearly inferior and overall winless Towers, which four years later in 2006 ceased playing in the BBL themselves.

Succession

While the Pumas basketball team in Sutton was able to play successfully in Division One from 1999 for a few years until 2004, there was an amateur team from 2009, which, according to its name, continued the tradition of Crystal Palace BC. In the 2012/13 season, the Crystal Palace National Sports Center hosted the home games of the BBL franchise London Lions , which will be playing their home games in the Copper Box from Milton Keynes .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Javier Gancedo: From YMCA to the Towers: London clubs in European competitions. ULEB , February 12, 2013, accessed May 24, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Clare Martin: From Columbia to Britain's “Mr. Basketball "to the NBA. Columbia College , February 2001, accessed May 24, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Champions Cup 1979-80. Linguasports.com, accessed on April 25, 2013 (English / Spanish, overview of the results of the competition).
  4. ^ Cup Winners' Cup 1981–82 (sic!). Linguasport.com, accessed on May 26, 2013 (English / Spanish, overview of the results of the competition).
  5. ↑ Champions Cup 1982–83. Linguasport.com, accessed on April 25, 2013 (English / Spanish, overview of the results of the competition).
  6. ↑ 1987-88 BBL Championship & Playoffs. British Basketball League , accessed May 24, 2013 (English, final placements and play-off results).
  7. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Title allegedly: Basketball Performance Institute. )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.basketballperformance.net
  8. ↑ 1995–96 National Cup. British Basketball League , accessed May 24, 2013 (English, results in cup competition).
  9. ↑ Sutton Pumas basketball - team details, stats, news, roster: History. Eurobasket.com, accessed on May 24, 2013 (English, club profile with history).
  10. ^ Crystal Palace Basketball Club. Facebook , accessed on May 24, 2013 (English, Facebook page).