The England men's national basketball team is organised by Basketball England, the sport's governing body in England. England's direct membership of FIBA ended in September 2016, when its national teams were merged into Great Britain teams, so England no longer play in FIBA competitions. England competed in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, finishing in fifth place.
England's biggest success were its four qualifications to EuroBasket, the European championship in basketball. The team won the bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
History
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.
Commonwealth Games
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 Antony Burns Jermaine Forbes Andrew Bridge Ronnie Baker Delme Herriman Andrew Sullivan Fabulous Flournoy Mike Martin Robert Reed John Amaechi Julius Joseph Richard Windle
Coaching Staff Coach – Peter Scantlebury Assistant coach – Michael Hayles Assistant coach – Tim Lewis+ et + + Venues/Basketball/News/20060324 Angleterre + prendre + Basket-ball + bronze.htm Melbourne rapport 2006
Competition charts
Olympic Games
A red box around the year indicates tournaments played within England Summer Olympic Games recordYearPositionBerlin 1936did not participateLondon 194820th615Helsinki 1952did not participate between 1952 and 1996Atlanta 1996Sydney 2000did not qualifyAthens 2004Beijing 2008did not qualifyLondon 20129th514Rio de Janeiro 2016did not qualifyTotal2/181129 Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain.
FIBA World Cup
FIBA World Cup recordYearRoundPositionArgentina 1950did not participate between 1950 and 1998Greece 1998United States 2002did not qualifyJapan 2006Turkey 2010did not qualifySpain 2014China 2019Philippines/Japan/Indonesia 2023Qatar 2027to be determinedFrance 2031Total0 Titles0/21000 Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain.
Eurobasket FIBA EuroBasketYearPositionGeneva 1935did not participate between 1936 and 1939Riga 1937Geneva 194610th505Prague 1947did not participate between 1949 and 1955Cairo 1949Budapest 195512th1028Sofia 1957did not participateIstanbul 1959Belgrade 196119th707Wroclaw 1963did not participate between 1963 and 1979Turin 1979Prague 198112th1028Nantes 1983did not participate between 1983 and 1997Barcelona 1997Paris 1999did not qualifyIstanbul 2001Stockholm 2003Belgrade 2005Madrid 2007did not qualifyKatowice 200915th303Kaunas 201115th523Ljubljana 201315th523 2015did not qualify 201722nd505 202224th505 2025to be determinedTotal31/40 229 139 90 Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain.
Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games recordYearRoundPositionAustralia Melbourne 2006Third Place3rd532Australia Gold Coast 2018Quarter Finals5th422Total0 Titles2/2954
Current squad
At the FIBA EuroBasket 2003 qualification:England 2003 European Championship for Men, ARCHIVE.FIBA.COM. Retrieved 2 November 2016. (last official squad before formation of Team Great Britain)
Past squad 1946 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 10 teams
Colin Hunt, Douglas Legg, John Hart, Ronald Legg, Frank Cole, Arthur Lee, Derius Hewitt, Stanley Weston, Ken Dight, Charles Watson (Coach: W.Browning)
1948 Olympic Games: finished 20th among 23 teams
Colin Hunt, Douglas Legg, Ronald Legg, Frank Cole, Robert Norris, Stanley Weston, Lionel Price, Trevor Davies, Malcolm Finlay, Stanley McMeekan, Sydney McMeekan, Alexander Eke, Harry Weston
1955 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 18 teams
Arthur Cladingboel, Reg Fearn, William James, Gordon Cook, Dennis Wilkinson, Colin Wedge, Alan Bruce, Ugo Agnelli, Wilf Byrne, Keith Ledbrook, Michael Roblou, Ronald Rix, N.Smith
1961 EuroBasket: finished 19th among 19 teams
Raymond Kirk, Kornel Tober, Alan Wardle, Peter Creasey, Wilfred Byrne, Alan Tillot, Alan Hildyard, Ronald Hextall, Geoffrey Kaiser, Dennis Wakefield, George Whitmore, Terry Keogh (Coach: Thomas Vaughan)
1981 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 12 teams
David Lloyd, Neville Hopkins, David Berry, Martin Clark, Paul Richards, Nick Burns, Clive Hartley, Jim McCauley, Ian Day, Paul Stimpson, Dan Lloyd, Karl Tatham (Coach: Victor Ambler)
See also England women's national basketball team Basketball at the 2006 Commonwealth Games England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games (Basketball) England men's national under-18 basketball team
References
External links
FIBA profile Archived records of England team participations