London United

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For the former tram company, see London United Tramways.

London United

[[Image:|center||London United logo]]

Main Sponsor

None

League

British Basketball League

Established

2002

History

London United
2002-present

Arena

SPACe Centre
(Capacity: 600)

Location

London,
Greater London

Head Coach

Tony Garbelotto

Ownership

Jack Majewski

Colours

Navy Blue, White and Red

Website

London-United.co.uk

Uniforms



Home



Away

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London United is a professional basketball team from London, England, competing in the British Basketball League. They were elected into the BBL to replace the London Towers for the 2006-07 season, where they were the sole representatives for the capital city. However after achieving a playoff place in their first season, the franchise was parked for the following campaign because the headline sponsor, MoneyGram, halted its financially backing, thus London United will not be competing for the 2007-08 season.

1 Franchise history
2 Home arenas
3 Season-by-season records
4 Players
- 4.1 Current roster
- 4.2 Squad changes during 2006/07 season
5 External links

[edit] Franchise history

[edit] The beginning

London United basketball club was formed in 2002 following a merger between two local teams, the Ealing Tornados and the North London Lords. Ealing Tornados were themselves a very successful team in the lower leagues, having won promotion after promotion since their foundation in 1999. When the merger took place at the end of the 2001-02 season, Ealing Tornados had just finished as runners-up in NBL Division 1 (Now known as EBL Division 2) behind the Derbyshire Arrows.

[edit] Further successes

Playing as London United, the successes continued with promotion to EBL Division 1 achieved just a year later, in 2003. United spent 3 years in Division 1 with their biggest success coming in 2004-05 when they finished as runners-up, again pipped to the title by the Arrows. The logical progression for the club was to join the fully professional British Basketball League in July 2006. However the decision was hastened when the London Towers withdrew from the 2006-07 season, leaving London without a professional basketball team.

[edit] The big step up

For owners Jack Majewski and Dave Schiller, the step-up meant finding a new venue, as well as recruiting more able players and finding corporate investments to fund the venture into the BBL. Their first step was to hire coach Tony Garbelotto to control the team on-court and bring in Chris Morris (who works closely with Tony Garbelotto running the highly successful Hackney Community College Basketball Academy programme based at SPACe) to run off-court operations. Majewski, Schiller, Garbelotto and Morris are the Club Directors. Sponsorship soon came, in the way of international money transferers MoneyGram, and a suitable venue was found at the Space Centre near Hackney. A mass influx of British players strengthened the ranks of United, with major signings including internationals Chris Haslam and Tarick Johnson.

[edit] 2006/07

London played their first BBL game on September 30, 2006 on the road at Leicester Riders. Despite trailing 73-52 at the end of the third quarter, a last gasp effort and a 29-6 run resulted in a 81-79 victory for the rookies. United's successful start to the 2006-07 season continued with another road victory one week later against veterans the Scottish Rocks, who were defeated 76-70. London United finished the 06/07 season qualifying for the BBL Play-Offs in 8th place with an 11/25 record. Here, they were defeated narrowly by BBL Champions Guildford Heat. Tarick Johnson finished as the BBL's top-scorer with over 800pts at an average of 23 per game. Johnson was also voted by BBL coaches into the BBL "All-Star" Team of the season.

[edit] 2007/08

It was announced on September 5, 2007, just two weeks prior to the new season tipping-off, that London United's directors and the BBL had agreed to withdraw from the upcoming campaign. The Press Release stated that United's headline sponsor, MoneyGram, had endured financial difficulties of their own and were forced to withdraw their sponsorship. Without enough funds to compete, the club had no option but to 'park' the franchise for a year and work towards a return to the league for 2008-09. Following the shock announcement, the league was promptly reduced to 12 teams for the upcoming season, with rookies London Capital acting as the flagship for London basketball.

[edit] Home arenas

Brunel University (2002-2006)

Hackney Space Centre (2006-present)

[edit] Season-by-season records

Season	Div.	Pos.	Pld.	W	L	Pts.	Play Offs	Trophy	Cup
London United
2002-2003	NBL 1	3rd	-	-	-	-	-	DNQ	DNQ
2003-2004	EBL 1	6th	22	11	11	22	-	DNQ	DNQ
2004-2005	EBL 1	2nd	22	18	4	36	-	DNQ	DNQ
2005-2006	EBL 1	7th	26	14	12	28	-	DNQ	1st Round
2006-2007	BBL	8th	36	11	25	22	Quarter-final	1st Round	1st Round

Notes:

NBL Division One operated as the third tier league behind the NBL Conference and BBL.
In 2003, the NBL was replaced and restructured as the EBL. Division One was reinstated as the second tier league, instead of the former NBL Conference.
DNQ denotes Did Not Qualify

[edit] Players

[edit] Current roster

The numbers are established according to the official websites of the team (www.london-united.co.uk) and Britain's top professional league, the BBL (www.bbl.org.uk).

As of October 27, 2006

4		Jacek Jagodka	Guard/Forward
5		Perry Lawson	Guard
6		Marcus Knight	Guard
8		Tarick Johnson	Guard
9		Laurent Irish	Forward
10		Junior Williams	Guard
11		Marlin Capers	Guard/Forward
12	/	Bryant Feggins	Forward
13		Leon Bernard	Forward
14		Chris Haslam	Centre
15		Phillip Perre	Guard/Forward