Recently we celebrated the meteoric rise of London Lions on the European scene. The London Lions Women’s team won the Women’s European Cup, becoming the first British basketball outfit to conquer any form of the European competition. Their male compatriots were a whisker away from qualifying to the Eurocup Final, losing to the eventual winners Paris Basketball.
With the lack of awareness and knowledge of basketball history in the UK, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Lions were in uncharted territory and were pioneers in exploring the top echelons of the European aristocracy.
The truth is far more complex and worth the attention of a very good screen writer specialising in in sporting documentaries. The story of Kingston Kings is not only the story of the best ever basketball team which no one ever heard about (ok, almost no one) but also the story of breathtaking bravery, unchained fantasy and insane self-belief. Unfortunately, it is an also the story of unfulfilled promises and missed opportunities
Throughout the history of British basketball, the Kings franchise enjoyed moderate success and was well respected as one of the top sides in the NBL and post 1987, the BBL as well. The franchise endured a brief stint in Glasgow for the 1988/89 season, in which they for the first time stepped on a collision course with European superpowers.
In the European Cup Winners Cup, they received a bye into the second round, and then rather unfortunately, drew European powerhouse Real Madrid. Mandrittas at that time were far too strong competition for Kingston beating them by 70 points on aggregate. Perhaps there is some consolation in the fact that Real Madrid won the Cup Winners Cup that year.
The club, acquired by David Murray when he bought Glasgow Rangers Football Club, stayed in Scotland for just one season before moving back to Kingston, where the franchise would enjoy the best three-year stretch of any team in the history of the BBL.
The 1990/91 European campaign remains to this day, the greatest achievement of any British team in the topflight European competition. For the ’90/’91 season, Kingston had acquired the very best players available from the England team and an impressive group of American players. The US contingent included mercurial passer and two-time league MVP Alton Byrd and the ultra versatile Alan Cunningham, Darryl Reshaw, and Lorenzo Duncan, who was formerly drafted by the Washington Bullets. Interestingly, the front line was mainly British with two Boston College products: Martin Clark and Trevor Gordon alongside Virginia Commonwealth alumni Martin Henlan providing a fearsome rebounding and scoring combination. The up-and-coming homegrown talents of Mike Griffiths and Sam Stiller completed the team. The reigns of the team remained in the hand of the legendary Coach with the midas touch, Kevin Cadle.
In three seasons, domestically the Kings won everything except one BBL Cup when they were beaten by Sunderland 76ers (now the Newcastle Eagles).
Despite all preparations, their 1990/91 European Champions Cup Campaign started in the worst possible way. They lost 84-79 at home in the first leg to Dutch Champions, BV Den Helder, despite 21 points from Alton Byrd and 19 from Alan Cunningham.
Backs against the wall and facing an early exit from the competition, the King’s pulled off a dramatic win 72-62 in the second leg, taking the tie by just five points on aggregate. Martin Clark led all scorers with 27 points and Alan Cunningham had 19.
Beating Den Helder was a success, but hardly a sensation. What happened next was the stuff of dreams. The second round saw Kingston as heavy underdogs against the Russian champions and European powerhouse CSKA Moscow. Moscow featured multiple players who had won silver at the FIBA World Championships with the Soviet Union squad just a year earlier.
Before we talk about the game itself let’s spend some time on the venue of the game. The game was played at the Tolworth Girls School which after 5pm each day served as a local leisure centre. Tiny bleachers on one side of the court could hardly seat more than 300 spectators. In soccer terms, it is like Pep Guardiola bringing Man City to the local provincial leisure centre to play a cup game
The Russians, perhaps shocked by the surroundings were convincingly beaten 93-77 with 26 points from Alan Cunningham. To add to the surrealism of the situation, straight after the game, while players were still interviewed on the court, Tolworth staff promptly removed the baskets to create space for the local ladies waiting for their usual badminton game.
Martin Clark had a massive game with 32 points in the away leg which proved to be enough for the Kings to hold out for a 74-72 loss on the road, giving them the aggregate victory of 14 points.
Wins over Moscow secured Kingston a spot in the elite eight.
Kingston would compete against the very best teams in Europe. The group consisted of the previous year’s winners; Split POP 84, Barcelona, Scavolini Pesaro, Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, Aris Thessaloniki, Bayern Leverkusen and Limoges. Teams would face a league-style, home and away competition consisting of fourteen games. The four teams with the best records would progress to the Final Four in Paris.
The Kings, despite finishing seventh, gave a great account of themselves and proved to be tough opposition for the cream of European competition. The only significant defeat they would suffer would be at the hands of eventual winners POP 84 Split, losing 91-72 behind 23 points from three-time European Champions Cup MVP and future multiple NBA Champion, Toni Kukoc.
However, in the return fixture, Kingston almost got the job done at home, losing by just two points at Crystal Palace with 26 points from sharpshooter Lorenzo Duncan, and Kukoc notching up 28.
During the fourteen games in the elite eight, the Kings were perpetual underdogs, and yet they managed to impress with close-fought contests, managing to take several scalps along the way. They managed an 82-77 win over the Italian champions Scavolini Pesaro coached by Sergio Scariolo, and rather convincingly dismantled Limoges at home 96-77. Kingston’s exploits created such a huge interest among the Jewish community in London that their leaders approached Kingston management with the proposal of switching the venue of the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv from Crystal Palace to Wembley Arena to make sure that all Jewish fans could attend the game. Jewish diaspora which has paid for hiring Wembley was absolutely shocked when their beloved, iconic team was beaten 64-62.
Perhaps the most remembered win of any British team in top-flight European competition, ‘The Snow Game’ that saw the Kings topple the Greek Champions, Aris Thessaloniki, led by legendary Nicos Gallis, 97-96 at Crystal Palace.
It was a game that had everything, from a delayed start, excitement, scoring, dubious referee calls, to physical play, epic defence, and Greek fans throwing coins at Trevor Gordon after he perhaps “inadvertently” elbow dropped his Greek opponent after wrestling for a rebound. All this was before the game-winning overtime buzzer-beater from Matt Cunningham who had entered the game literally a couple of seconds earlier with his first contact of the ball during the game.
It was an incredible coincidence that due to heavy snowfall that day, all sporting events in the entire country were canceled. All apart from the Kingston game. There is no surprise that that TV footage from that game reached an astronomical number of viewers and Kingston’s victory was the headline in every sports news bulletin.
A couple of seasons later, in the season 1993-94, Kings moved 20 miles down the A3 to Guildford and yet again tried to conquer European elite competition. After conquering Budivelnyk and Hapoel Galil Elyon coached by David Blatt, the Kings once again reached the final stage of the competition. This time round due to a change of the format it was Top 16 as opposed to Top 8 which was the case previously. Veteran legends Alton Byrd and Lorenzo Duncan still led the way with Trevor Gordon, Martin Henlan and Carl Miller operating inside. The team plagued by constant financial and administrative issues failed to win a single game out of the fourteen played and were unable to recapture the magic of ‘91. This time round there were no nail-biting finishes, giant killing or buzzer-beaters with the Kings bowing out of the competition defeated.
By end of this season, the Kings folded and have never returned to any level British basketball. With them, like a puff of smoke disappeared the concept of a British basketball team which could be a consistent and valid competitor in top European competition.
To commemorate and celebrate the heroic achievements of the Kingston Kings we will include a Legends Veterans game between players representing the Kingston team and members of another organisation that attempted to make themselves at home at the Euroleague level, London Towers. This game will take place on 25th August 2024 at 3pm, directly before the Future Stars International U18 final at Brunel University, London.
More details on the event and Veterans game rosters to be released soon.
J Majewski
Credit article with original facts Pablo Cheeks (BBL Daily)