The Steve Bucknall Interview

PAWS London Capital proved that they mean business as they prepare for their first season in the BBL by announcing that former England international Steve Bucknall as their new coach.

Bucknall can justly claim to be one of Britain’s all-time greatest players. The 40-year old has played throughout Europe playing for three different clubs in both Greece and France, as well as having spells in Germany and Italy. He has also won many domestic honours with London Towers, Thames Valley Tigers, Birmingham Bullets, Leicester Riders and Sunderland.

The 36-year-old also collected a bronze medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games as England shone in Melbourne – where he collected his 98th and final cap. He also won 22 Great Britain caps during the late 1980s and early 1990s before the team was temporarily disbanded.

Bucknall started his career at Crystal Palace before progressing to North Carolina – one of the top colleges in the United States – where he collected the Most Valuable Player award in his fourth and final season.

Following his graduation from college in 1989, he was not drafted by an NBA team, but he was still signed by Los Angeles Lakers and made 18 appearances in the world’s toughest league during the 1989/90 season.

Capital’s general manager Brandon Bethall is delighted with the signing of Bucknall: "We're delighted to have Steve on board. It's a major coup for a new club in the BBL to have one of English basketball's all-time greats as our coach, and we’re sure he’ll be a big success" he said.

Bucknall is excited about the prospect of coaching one the BBL’s youngest clubs: “I’ve always wanted to coach, but I’ve been busy with my playing career. I wanted to put something back into the game. I’ve doing that with some work in the London community, and now I want to work with a men’s side. I turned another opportunity down to join Capital, I’d been talking to Brandon and we were both saying similar things. We want to give the chance to more English players, and we’ve built up a good relationship . He’s taking a chance on me, and I’m taking a chance on him.”

Capital’s new play-caller confirmed that his playing days are over, and that he will be concentrating on coaching the London team: “I’m too old to be playing, we need to develop younger players, and bring in develop the talent that there is in this country. I’ll be aiming to put a good product on the floor that the fans enjoy. We’ll try to improve on a game by game basis.”

Bucknell is excited about the side he has put together, and is still hoping to add to his roster: “Wes Miller from North Carolina has a pedigree that’s there for all to see, and Anthony Anderson also went to a big college, UMASS. We’re hoping to pick up another big player after the deal with Bryant Feggins fell through and we’re also looking at a French guy.

“We’ve also got some good young players, and I’m very excited about them. Santa Ataha and Ibrahim Gariba are coming back from last season, we’re talking to Pierre Henry-Fontaine and we’ve added Tayo Ogedegebe from Towers’ under-23s.”

While it will be a coaching debut for Bucknall, Lions will have an old hand back in the hot-seat as club owner Vince Macauley takes charge of the side.  Macauley last coached the Lions in the 1999/2000 season when he stepped in for several games due to Tom Hancock returning to the States, and he is looking forward to the challenge: “I’m very excited to be working with this group of players, and I’ve been looking forward to it from May. We’ve made just the one signing [Yorick Williams], so I’ve known what I wanted to do since then. We’ve got lots of weapons, and lots of different combinations, we can go big, we can go small, we can field a quick team or a slower one. It’s very exciting.”

Back to Home Page