James Thomson puts club over team as Teesside Lions grow the basketball community

The Lions men’ first team sit happily in Division 2 of the National Basketball League, but the involvement with the seniors is something that Thomson removed himself from a while ago.

“It was a number of reasons. One was the finances – it was costing a lot of money to run a men’s team,” he begins.

“Playing in the National League meant a lot more travel going up and down the country.

“I was doing a lot of the work in terms of the development of the game, but then other teams were benefiting from that development, so I felt that I was developing two or three teams at the same time, and I just felt that, for us to be better, we had to take a step back to go forwards.”

With regards to finances, Thomson said that Basketball England doubled their fees this year, saying: “It’s hard because a lot of this work is unpaid.

“For most of the clubs around the country, it’ll be unpaid or very, very low paid. Basketball England costs doubled this year, which means it has a significant impact on every club.”

Thomson has a clear passion for his community and is hoping to provide a better future to those who might not be currently interested in basketball, who could be inspired by the club’s positive development programme.

“When a 12-year-old looks at two 15-year-olds playing in front of 500 or 600 people, it fires an ambition— ‘If I work really hard, that could be me.’” said Thomson.

One of the under 16’s at the club who is breaking through into the men’s senior team is 15-year-old Jaydon Wise-Malcolm.

“He’s only been with us for just over a year,” said Thomson. “And the development he made in his first year was phenomenal. He established himself as one of the best players. He was very raw, but this year he’s established himself as one of the best players in the league.

“He’s actually doing a job at under 18 level, and he hit five points in the last game he played for the men’s team.”

Crowds for the men’s team are usually around a thousand people with the atmosphere “almost like everyone’s cup final,” said Thomson.

Reaching out to the community through the crowds is not Thomson’s only method however, he also works with a prison team in an attempt to rehabilitate and better the in-mates.

“There’s a lot to answer for as a society as to where it’s broken down, why it’s broken down. But then it’s like, well, how do we try and fix this? And the answer shouldn’t be that we just put them in prison and throw away the key.

“How do we rehabilitate these people so that they come out of the prison process as better or more in-control people?

“And we found that through basketball, the feedback from the staff, from the governors and from the prisoners themselves has been really positive.”

He added: “I’m a very ambitious person. The ambitions don’t stay with the men’s team. The club is not built around the men. It’s built around the whole programme. So we put as much effort into the community development and the junior development programme as we do the men’s team.”

“And then the ladies’ programme as well. We’re putting a lot of focus on the ladies’ programme.

"So we’re very ambitious in all areas.”