The chair of the British Basketball Federation (BBF) has dismissed fears of another 777 Partners over plans to hand control of its league to more US investors.
The BBF had to strip the 777-owned British Basketball League (BBL) of its licence last year after the Miami-based fund ran out of money, leaving clubs facing extinction.
Nine of the teams rallied round to form a new competition, Super League Basketball (SLB), which was granted an interim licence by the BBF and is halfway through its first season.
The BBF’s decision to name Marshall Glickman’s group preferred bidder for a long-term licence has infuriated SLB, which has now vowed to split from the federation.
But BBF chair Chris Grant insists that former NBA and EuroLeague executive Glickman’s bid has already been vetted more than 777 ever was.
“So the previous situation clearly was untenable, and that was why we took what was a difficult decision to withdraw that license [from BBL/777],” Grant told City AM.
“I believe that the due diligence and scrutiny that has been applied to the preferred bidder in order for it to become the preferred bidder exceeds by a long way anything of that kind which has been done, certainly in my knowledge, in British basketball up to this point.”
SLB has complained that it was not consulted and it is understood to have refused to take part over concerns about the legality of the process as well as the cost.
Grant and the BBF responded to those suggestions, said it didn’t know why SLB hadn’t bid and dismissed concerns over the future of a British basketball league.
He added: “We said that we would apply very high standards of integrity, fairness, expertise and, as far as we’re concerned, we haven’t moved away from that process. There’s more to it, I’m sure, but the real cause for this is hard to discern.
“We wanted to do this right so it wasn’t appropriate to have a potential bidder at the start of it in the room deciding what was going to be in the tender documentation.
BBF: Super League Basketball chose not to bid
“I’m pretty certain they could have put forward a really strong bid, but they chose not to. Individual clubs have not been sidelined.
“There will be a professional league, and everything we’re doing is to have those established, important clubs in that league.”
There’s more to it, I’m sure, but the real cause for this is hard to discern.
BBF chair Chris Grant on SLB’s vow to split from it
Grant and the British Basketball Federation urged clubs to come to the negotiating table and study the Glickman proposal.
“This is called an exclusive negotiating period. Part of that is for you to negotiate with the bidder. As of today, as far as I’m aware, none of the clubs know what’s in that bid,” he said.
“The clubs will be the only stakeholders to have the opportunity at this point to see what’s in the bid to like it, to not like it, to negotiate it.
“We’ve set up a process for the clubs to see what it is, and then a period of negotiation, and that’s what we want to happen.”