The squeak of rubber soles filled the arena, the smell of popcorn and hotdogs was in the air and the atmosphere was electric. It was Manchester in 1999, but this was not an Oasis concert, or even a Manchester United match. It was the British Basketball League (BBL) title-decider between the Manchester Giants and Sheffield Sharks.
Sheffield eventually clinched the league title on a last-second, game-winning jump-shot. That it would be the high-water mark of the BBL wouldn’t have crossed the minds of any of the 11,000 in attendance that day. Nor would it have occurred to those watching at home, live on Sky Sports. Or the sponsors who had thrown their weight behind the league – Budweiser took naming rights that year, but were joined by Playboy and Peugeot – in the expectation of Britain going basketball mad in the new millennium.
