Thumbs up for Rocks
first year
Mark Woods
A capacity crowd of over 2,100 people crammed
into Edinburgh's Meadowbank Arena on Thursday evening to say a farewell,
at least for the summer, to Scotland's only professional basketball team.
Following their progress from drawing board to reality and from pre-season
hardships to respectability, the fact that Edinburgh Rocks' largest crowd
to date came in a victorious final fixture against play-off bound Birmingham
Bullets bodes particularly well for the club's future. In a city which
can be a fickle friend of teams who fail to deliver consistent victory,
the Budweiser League side appear in rude health at the end of their inaugural
campaign.
Rocks' owners have already given a vote
of confidence to their coach Jim Brandon to carry on his work into the
Millennium season. That the New York native began the season with 11 straight
losses soon ended any allusion of immediate grandeur but according to Brandon,
his newly awarded contract extension will bring much needed continuity.
"We always talked about two years from
now, even though there was always the option for me to leave. The atmosphere
here to build up things from humble beginnings is special and if we can
build on that and get a winning team out there, in my opinion it could
be one of the best situations available in British basketball. That's saying
something in such a short space of time."
The brightest spark in the Rocks campaign
has undoubtedly been the diminutive Ted Berry, a man with shorts so long
that they cold easily tuck into his sneakers. The American guard has won
the hearts of the Meadowbank crowd with his consistency, his dazzling shot
play and above all, his willingness to engage the crowd in mutual appreciation.
Averaging just over 20 points per game - a top ten ranking in the country
- Berry also picked up the Most Valuable Player at the All-Star Game.
Having made himself the cornerstone of
the fledgling franchise, will the wee hoop star return to fight another
day ?
"I'd love to come back and get some sort
of success here because the organisation deserves it. Right now, it's 80-20
that I'll return. The main thing however is for me to know that there is
going to be a team that has a chance to challenge for silverware. I wouldn't
like to come back and start with eleven losses again. Getting the nucleus
from this year to return would be a start.
"It is disappointing that with the talent
in this team, we should have been in the play offs. It has been difficult
knowing that there have been a lot of games that we should have won that
we didn't, which has left us in this position. "
Despite their range of successes over top
teams like Manchester Giants and Thames Valley Tigers, the fact is that
the Rocks mid-season burst from worst to worthy fell far short of the top
eight finish required to extend their season past April Fool's Day. Brandon
concedes that his own mistakes played their part but believes that the
best is yet to come.
"Certainly, the start of the season was
poor and I could have made changes to the team sooner than I did. But there
were a lot of positives to take overall. We've put a decent product that
people who have come along have enjoyed. Now we just want to look to the
future and build both a good product and a winning one. "
Nonetheless, with four longer established
teams left in their wake, it is hard to begrudge Brandon's men anything
other than a pat on the back for their first season efforts. Come September,
the noisiest fans in the country will be hoping that the Rocks can take
the next step and roll their way to major honours.
