FIBA ranking Coach Paul James Joined FIBA 1937 | Location England, United Kingdom | |
 | ||
National federation English Basketball Federation Appearances 4 (1946, 1955, 1961, 1981) | ||
The England national basketball team represents England in international basketball competitions. The team is organised by England Basketball, the sport's governing body in England. Currently, England only competes internationally at the junior level. In 2005 England, along with the basketballscotland and their counterparts in Wales combined forces to form the Great Britain national basketball team, with the target goal to field a competitive team capable of winning medals at the London 2012 summer Olympics. England's direct affiliation to FIBA will end on 30 September 2016 as they will be joining Scotland and Northern Ireland to form a Permanent Great Britain Side, while Wales will remain independent .
Contents
- Eurobasket 1946
- Eurobasket 1955
- Eurobasket 1961 and 1981
- Melbourne 2006
- Current squad
- Past squad
- References
England's biggest success were its four qualifications to the EuroBasket, which is Europe's prime basketball event. Further, the team won the bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Eurobasket 1946
England's first European championship appearance was at Eurobasket 1946. They lost all four of the games that they played, and subsequently finished last in the field of ten teams.
Eurobasket 1955
A few years later, England qualified for the Eurobasket 1955 in Budapest, where the English Team had a couple of strong showings. After losing their preliminary round games they beat Switzerland, a major player at the global stage until the mid-50s. The victory marked England's first victory at a major international basketball event. Later, England outscored Austria as well. Eventually, the team placed second in the five teams of the classification group, moving to the 9–12 classification semifinals. There, however, England could not take advantage of the gained self-confidence and lost the next two games. Overall, England finished in 12th place out of the 18 teams, a considerable improvement from its last eurobasket appearance in 1946.
Eurobasket 1961 and 1981
Despite the improvements in the preceding years, Team England did not do well at the Eurobasket 1961 or the Eurobasket 1981 and lost most games. Its lone victory, however, came in 1981 when they beat the elite team of Greece. This victory still stands as one of the major surprises in the history of the tournament.
Melbourne 2006
The men's and women's teams were competing for the first time as England in a major multi-sport event, and it was the first Commonwealth Games in which basketball was featured.
The men's team included Steve Bucknall, the second Englishman to play in the NBA. John Amaechi, who played 284 games in the NBA, came out of retirement to participate in Melbourne. Having lost to Australia in the semi-finals, they faced Nigeria in the Bronze medal match. The teams were tied at 15 points to end the first quarter. Robert Reed and Andrew Bridge led the way as England found their stride in the second phase, and they pulled away in the second half of play. Reed played like a snake possessed and was the top scorer for England with 16 points and dominating the Nigerians who had no answer to his all action style. Michael Martin also contributed with 13 points. England won the game 80–57 to claim the first Bronze medal in Commonwealth Games basketball
Team
Coaching Staff
Current squad
At the FIBA EuroBasket 2003 qualification: (last official squad before formation of Team Great Britain)