Basketball Home Coming

Having played basketball on both sides of the Atlantic, including attending High School and University in the United States via an athletic scholarship, I felt compelled to pay forward the remarkable opportunities that the sport of Basketball had provided to me during my formative years.

Consequently, I decided to join the 40 000 applicants and applied to be one of Birmingham’s 13 000 Commonwealth Games volunteers and be a small part of making its legacy – “The Games for everyone” attainable.

I was delighted to be offered a voluntary basketball role at Smithfields, Birmingham.

3 x 3 basketball was making its inaugural appearance at the Commonwealth games. This fast-paced, outdoor format of the game is played using one hoop, half-court, three players per side, one substitute, and a 12-second shot clock. Each match lasts for a maximum of ten minutes, with the team in the lead being the winner or the first team to score 21 points.

My role as a Basketball Field of Play team member enabled me to have one of the best seats in the arena. Throughout my week I covered all things courtside; from ensuring that each team had access to warm-up facilities prior to each match, to liaising with the match officials, TV/media teams, making sure that each game started at the official time, to issuing the game ball at the start of each match.

I immensely enjoyed a rewarding and fulfilling seven days as a volunteer and my highlights included my frequent conversations with the Kenyan and Sri Lankan players as they practiced for 30 minutes each day, to taking part in the team-building exercise “Helium Stick 1” with the England team at the end of a practice session.

It was a fitting finale to a remarkable competition to see England Men’s Basketball team win the gold medal for the very first time, with Birmingham-born team captain Myles Hesson, scoring the winning basket in a dramatic overtime victory against Australia 17 – 16.

I look forward to volunteering again in the near future and perhaps you might just see me again courtside at the Olympics in Paris in 2024.

Norman King – Head of Computing