Manchester Giants

Manchester Giants
Founded	2011 / 1975
Hall	Wright Robinson College (900 places)
Homepage	http://manchestergiants.com/
Chairman (CEO)	John Dwan
Trainer	Yorick Williams
league	British Basketball League 2014/15: 9th place
Colours	Purple / white / green
home Away
successes
as United : NBL play-offs 1985; NBL Regular Season 1985/86 as Giants : BBL Regular Season 1999/2000; BBL play-offs 2000; BBL Trophy 1999

The Manchester Giants are a professional basketball team from Manchester , England . The franchise of the closed professional league British Basketball League (BBL), founded in 2011, has been participating in the BBL's game operations since the 2012/13 season. It ties in directly with an already existing franchise of the BBL of the same name, which played in the BBL until 2001 and was a merger of the basketball teams of the original Manchester Giants and Manchester United .

history

Manchester Giants (1976 to 1985)

In 1971 a team playing for the University of Manchester had won the National Cup and thus also the unofficial championship of England. A year later, a national league was introduced with the "National Basketball League" (NBL), which initially did not include a team from Manchester. 1976 reached a team playing as Manchester Giants, which had developed from a basketball team from Stretford and played in Sale , admission to Division One of the NBL. There they reached second place in the league straight away with players such as the native American Jeff Jones, who would later also be the coach of the Giants. However, the Giants could no longer establish themselves at the top and could only draw attention to themselves again in the mid-1980s after they had moved to the Altrincham Leisure Center as a venue. At this time, the future college basketball coach Craig Robinson, brother-in-law of the future US President Barack Obama , played for the Giants. 1985 they landed again in third place in Division One behind the team from Manchester United, which then won the play-offs of the NBL. Then United also took control of the Giants team, but their supporters in Stockport founded a new team.

Manchester United (1975 to 1987)

In 1975 the basketball team of Stockport Belgrade was founded in Heaten Moor, a district of Stockport . After two years in Division Two of the NBL, the team made it to the top national league NBL Division One. Initially, it was not enough to achieve top positions. In the Korać Cup 1978/79 , however, you could qualify for the main round after you had defeated the Scottish competitor Murray BC from Livingston (West Lothian) . In the first round they were eliminated before the group stage after two clear defeats in a two-legged match against KK Cibona Zagreb .

In 1981 the team changed venues and moved to the new Spectrum Arena in Warrington , Cheshire , where they competed as Vikings . After Bill Beswick, coach since its inception in 1975, left the team in 1982, he was briefly replaced by Craig Lynch before Joe Whelton became coach of the Vikings, who took the team to third place in the league and in the 1983/84 season Play-off final that was lost to the Solent Stars . In the following season, the football club Manchester United took control of the team, which under his name, among others, with Colin Irish , one of the formative players of British basketball in the following decade, achieved a second place ahead of the local competitor Giants in Division One and won the play-offs against the Kingston Kings . In the following season 1985/86 they reached as a merger club of Giants and United first place in the league, while the play-offs were won by Kingston, which developed into the dominant English team in the following years. After first place in the league they started in the 1986/87 European Cup , in which they reached the first round after defeating Benfica Lisbon in qualifying . In the main round they met the renowned Real Madrid team , previously multiple winners of this competition, and were able to keep the home game open for a long time, which they lost with eight points in the end and were eliminated after a defeat in the second leg. In the national championship it was enough to a third place in Division One before the closed professional league BBL was introduced for the following season.

BBL franchise (1987 to 2001)

In the Korać Cup 1987/88 they started again internationally and were able to eliminate on the way to the group games Panionios Athens and TDK Manresa . In the group stage of the 16 best teams it was enough in six group games of the group of four to two wins against Snaidero Caserta , while the later finalist KK Cibona won the group. In the BBL you came in the premiere season to fourth place after the regular season and were eliminated in the play-offs in the semifinals against the main round first from Portsmouth , against whom you had also lost in the semifinals of the National Cup. Subsequently, however, the BBL lost four of the 15 founding teams and United also lost interest in its basketball team, which was sold to local business people. Former Giants player Jeff Jones succeeded Joe Whelton as coach of the now called Eagles franchise. In the Korać Cup 1988/89 they eliminated before reaching the group stage against a Belgian team and reached fifth place in the BBL before they were eliminated in the first play-off round against the Leicester Riders . Previously they had lost the final in the National Cup against the Bracknell Tigers . Then you returned to the old name Giants after the merger with the lower class team of the Stockport Giants , which had formed after the takeover of the Manchester Giants by United.

In the 1989/90 season, which was played with only eight teams in the BBL, they reached second place and lost in the play-offs of the best four teams, the semi-finals against the Sunderland 76ers after two extra times. However, you could beat this opponent in the semi-finals of the League Cup BBL Trophy in two games, but lost the final against the Kingston Kings, who won all competitions of the BBL that season. In the following season, the Kings won the remake of the final in the BBL Trophy again, while the Giants in the league only had a balanced season record and were eliminated early in the play-offs. In the 1991/92 season you missed the play-offs for the first time as Trafford Giants in ninth place, which were also missed in 1993 after the worse direct comparison . Then there was again a change of ownership and in the BBL Trophy it was enough to reach the final again. This time the final game against the Thames Valley Tigers was lost and in the play-offs they lost after a third place in the main round the semifinals against the Guildford Kings . Coach Jones vacated his chair as a coach after six years.

In the 1994/95 season you reached the first round in the Korać Cup , in which you were eliminated by CB Estudiantes from Madrid, while it was enough after a fourth place in the national championship for the first final in the BBL play-offs, but where you were Defending champion Worthing Bears lost. After you stagnated in the following 1995/96 season and could not improve, coach Mike Hanks made way for returning Joe Whelton. But even under Whelton, the team could not improve its results, so that he left the club after only one season and went to Brandt Hagen in the German basketball league . The play-offs were only just barely reached in the following 1997/98 season, after being able to prevail in a direct comparison against two teams at the end. In the final round, however, you could turn off the main round first Greater London Leopards , before you were eliminated in the semifinals against the eventual title holder Birmingham Bullets .

For the 1998/99 season, the Giants from Belgium brought Nick Nurse back to England as coach, who had become the BBL play-off winner in 1996 with the Birmingham Bullets. This was able to form a top team in the BBL again from the Giants after he signed Tony Dorsey , who was 1996 under Nurse " Most Valuable Player " (MVP) of the BBL. After winning the league cup BBL Trophy for the first time in 1999, they were eliminated as runner-up in the regular season in the play-off semifinals against the Thames Valley Tigers. In the following season, they lost the final game in the National Cup and BBL Trophy cup competitions, while in the league as the first in the Northern Conference in the BBL, which is now divided into two regional groups, they had the best record of all teams in the regular season and for the first time Play-offs won. Tony Dorsey became the first player to become the BBL's Giants MVP. However, the owners no longer found enough financial means to finance the team and coach Nurse switched to league rivals London Towers , who also competed in the newly created club competition ULEB Euroleague . After the Giants could no longer finance the hall costs in the 2000/01 season, they moved from the Manchester Arena to the Manchester Velodrome . In sporting terms, the defending champion missed the play-offs and after only nine games in the 2001/02 season the franchise ended.

In 1998 the club Magic was formed from a reserve team of the Giants, which initially played in the NBL Division Three . Former NBA professional John Amaechi financed a 600-seat sports hall in Manchester, which Magic used as the home ground in Division One of the now "English Basketball League" (EBL) division below the closed BBL league. The Magic also got the offer to inherit the Giants in the BBL, but last withdrew in 2007 for economic reasons. From 2007 to 2010 they were among the most successful teams in the EBL with two play-off wins and two other finals as well as the same record in the National Cup.

Manchester Giants (since 2011)

In 2011, Jeff Jones, who had played and coached the Giants for many years, finally decided to found a new BBL franchise in Manchester with the support of investors. The BBL approved the request in January 2012, among other things, to continue the old franchise name Giants and the old club colors. However, the results of the historic Giants are not attributed to the new franchise by the BBL. The Manchester Magic, whose coach Jones was previously, then initially withdrew to the third division of the EBL. For the 2012/13 season, gaming began in the hall of Wright Robinson College in Gorton . In the middle of the season you could sign the internationally experienced Nick George , who missed participation in the 2012 Olympic Games in the capital London after an injury . At the end of the season they just missed the play-offs with a victory deficit in ninth place.

Web links

• Manchester Giants - British Basketball League BBL - profile on the website of the BBL ( English )
• Manchester Giants basketball - team details, stats, news, roster - club profile on the websites of Eurobasket.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ England Basketball: Senior Men - Cup Competitions. (No longer available online.) England Basketball . Archived from the original on April 2, 2013 ; accessed on May 30, 2013 (English, overview of the finals). 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. ↑ England Basketball: Senior Men - Playoff. (No longer available online.) England Basketball . Archived from the original on August 13, 2013 ; accessed on May 30, 2013 (English, overview of finals). 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.  
3. ^ Champions Cup 1986-87. Linguasport.com, accessed on May 30, 2013 (English / Spanish, overview of the results of the competition). 
4. ↑ 1997–98 BBL Championship & Playoffs. British Basketball League , accessed May 30, 2013 (English, overview of results for the season). 
5. ^ Anthony Jepson: Manchester Giants striding back for second coming. Trinity Mirror : Manchester Evening News, December 23, 2011, accessed May 30, 2013 . 
6. ^ Giants History. British Basketball League , accessed May 30, 2013 (BBL Franchise Historical Results).