Marshall Glickman resigns from GBB League with future of British basketball's controversial league in doubt
The future of the controversial start-up league which sparked the civil war in British basketball is hanging by a thread.
Marshall Glickman, the front man for the American-backed GBB League that was controversially awarded the licence to run the professional men’s tier in Great Britain earlier this year, resigned as director on November 30, per an update on Companies House. The company has no other listed directors.
The Yorkshire Post has learned that British-based sub-contractors have also been told they are not currently being retained by the GBB League.
In a statement to The Yorkshire Post, the GBB League via its American PR company, said: “At this time, GBBL is working collaboratively with all stakeholders in British Basketball.” They would not confirm or deny Glickman’s exit.
But despite that defiant message, it is understood that the GBB League is not one of the stakeholders that will take part in upcoming talks with relevant bodies over the future direction of the sport in Britain.
That is required following the announcement on November 14 that the British Basketball Federation (BBF) had ceased trading.
The GBB League’s contract is with the BBF, but the status of that contract once the governing body’s liquidation is confirmed by administrators – which could come before Christmas – is unclear.
The GBB League, in response to the BBF announcement that it had ceased trading, said it was seeking legal counsel because “significant sums of money have been paid to the BBF and this is of grave concern to GBBL”.
It was the BBF, under the then leadership of Chris Grant OBE, that awarded Glickman’s GBB League the exclusive licence to operate the men’s professional league in the UK from September 2026 (later pushed back to 2027) earlier this year.
The existing professional men’s division, Super League Basketball (SLB) – of which Sheffield Sharks are one of nine shareholding clubs – claimed the tender process was illegal and launched a lawsuit against its governing body.
In October, the taskforce sent in by world governing body FIBA to sort out the mess in British basketball, granted recognition to the SLB, a status that was long sought-after by the existing league and which delivered another hammer blow for the group led by former NBA team president Glickman that still has no teams or venues in Britain.
Should the GBB League’s days be numbered – and high-ranking sources within the SLB believe they are – it will lift a black cloud that has hung above the existing operation for nearly a year. Their 2025/26 season resumes on Friday after the international break with three fixtures, among them Sheffield Sharks versus Newcastle Eagles, which at 145 previous contests is one of the British game’s longest rivalries.
But British basketball has a long way to go, with that stakeholder meeting with relevant parties in the coming weeks the first step on forging a new path forward, given the investment into the sport needs protecting and managing.