Hey,

Taking a little break from client work to get this newsletter done on time and before I forget!

This week's 3-pointer:

🎙Podcast: Paul Douglas aka Dougie

I had a sense this one would be longer than usual - Dougie has stories for days and we had so many different topics to cover it was worth clearing my morning for! Spent way more time talking on basketball in Birmingham than I had planned to, but a lot of good talking points; particularly of interest to me was what happened with Birmingham Knights - another failed BBL franchise that grossly overestimated how easy it would be to bring in sponsorship revenue.

🦠COVID-19 continues to cause problems

In perhaps a sign of how difficult it is going to be to get through the season at every level, a covid-19 outbreak in the Riders programme led to the cancellation of their games in the L Lynch Trophy (how good was it to have some hoops back - re-watch the streams from the games that were played here), same for Derby. Meanwhile, the BBL has scheduled their start date for October 30 (the WBBL the day after) following reassurances from the government they will get enough money to make up for projected loss of revenue. With lockdowns being announced all over the place, I continue to struggle to see us go through a season without major hurdles. Additionally, GB's originally scheduled home double-header in November has now officially been moved to France in a 'bubble'.

🏅MBE for Kieron Achara

Great to see Kieron Achara get recognised for services to community sport in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list - well deserved and will help shine a little light on some of the great work being done in basketball.

That wraps up another drop, as always, hit reply with any comments questions or anything else.

With gratitude,

Sam

P.S. Check out the top 10 plays of the GB Under-18s at the 2017 European Championships!