Flagship for the UK: London Lions GM explains how a British powerhouse was built / News - Basketnews.com

As the London Lions prepare to embark on their debut EuroCup season, BasketNews takes a look at their ambitious project with the help of the British club's GM Brett Burman.

Credit: London Lions Credit London Lions

Regardless of how the London Lions' current season will pan out, no one can argue that the British basketball team is there just to make up the numbers.

Nothing less is to be expected of a club that started in 1977 as the British equivalent of the Los Angeles Lakers, using the name of Hemel Hempstead Lakers and the same colors as the legendary NBA franchise.

Located about 24 miles northwest of the capital, the entity went through various rebrandings and relocations, from the Watford Royals to the Milton Keynes Lions.

For the 2012-13 season, the team moved to London and took up residence at the Copper Box arena, which had been built as a venue in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for the 2012 London Olympics.

Now known as the London Lions, they joined the British Basketball League the following year, becoming the only professional basketball club in the capital. The Lions have made the BBL playoffs every year since their founding and won the league in 2021.

That same year, they made their European debut in the Basketball Champions League qualifiers.

However, it took them one more season to register their first win in an international competition. That happened on 13 October 2021, when the Lions beat Donar Groningen away for the FIBA Europe Cup group stage.

But now, things are way different. After losing all domestic titles to various adversaries, the club's management decided to bring in former Raptors 905 (Toronto's G-League affiliate team) assistant coach Ryan Schmidt.

Credit London Lions

The Lions London made headlines when they announced the likes of Kosta Koufos, Tomislav Zubcic, Sam Dekker, and Ovie Soko, among others.

On top of everything, the British club will join Paris Basketball as one of the clubs given a wildcard by Euroleague Basketball for the 2022-23 campaign.

Former EuroLeague CEO Jordi Bertomeu had repeatedly pointed out that getting London and Paris involved was one of his biggest goals. With the exception of 2013 Final Four being held in London, when the O2 Arena remained half-empty during the games, the United Kingdom has hardly entered the big picture of international competitions.

But now, the Lions are playing in the EuroCup, which is a major milestone in its own right. The club, run by the Miami-based 777 Partners company, is the first BBL team to be included in the competition since the Guildford Heat in 2007.

It seems that, to a large extent, the Lions' future is inextricably linked to the BBL's growth. The private investment firm, which took over the club in 2020, has invested £7 million in return for a 45% stake in the professional league, in a deal that has been labeled a defining moment for the future of basketball in the United Kingdom.

777 Partners are hoping the investment will act as a catalyst to trigger further significant investments in clubs, with the aim of creating improved arenas and training facilities. The league also targets at least four new, high-quality franchises to be added within the next five years.

Credit Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Under these conditions, British basketball can see better days. Of course, the London Lions take on a great deal of responsibility in terms of changing the narrative in the ecosystem. Gaining more visibility and persuading bigger masses that basketball is a sport worth investing in would be the first major leap forward.

"The more success we have on the national stage by bringing some awareness, the better it will be for British basketball," Brett Burman, general manager of the London Lions, tells BasketNews.

"We're going to be the flagship team in the league. TV providers can say, 'The Lions had an X amount of social media following, new customers, and viewership. People in the UK love basketball.' So, the next go-around will be an opportunity for them," he goes on to say.

Apart from losing all their five games in EuroBasket's group stage, members of the United Kingdom squad were concerned by the lack of TV coverage. The UK was the only participating team that didn't have a television deal in place. Thus, all their games were streamed live on the Courtside 1891 platform.

"I was in Milan. The TV deal is out of our hands. It goes through the federation and the national team," Burman comments. For the most part of his 16-month tenure with the Lions, the American executive has been traveling from the United States to London and vice versa.

A native of Miami and a Wisconsin graduate, Burman has worked as a video coordinator with the Detroit Pistons in the NBA. He has also served as a graduate assistant at Miami from 2009-11 and as an assistant coach in college and the G League. In his last NBA job to date, he was a personnel evaluator for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Since June 2021, he's taken up residence in Europe as well.

"It was a unique situation. If you have the chance to be part of something bigger than yourself and do things your way, you don't say no," he admits.

"For me, it was a no-brainer. I'm excited, but we want to build a sustainable program for basketball in the UK and the Lions. Last year, we didn't win domestically, but we were winners. We had 300 people in our games, and towards the end of the season, we had 3-4.000. People were excited, and we were able to create a following."

Although the Lions' pre-season results indicated that the team had a long way to go, the reality of the official games was different. The Lions opened up pre-season action against Bourg, suffering a 43-point defeat (62-105). Some days later, they visited Vitoria-Gasteiz and lost to Baskonia by 18 (82-100).

"Our pre-season wasn't indicative of what our season is going to be," Burman maintains.

"We didn't have Vojtech Hruban, who arrived in London after spending the whole summer with the Czech NT. Ovie Soko and Luke Nelson were with the GB national team. We went to three games in France, where we played Bourg and Strasbourg. It was about guys getting in shape.

Then, we went to Antwerp, where we played them twice in three days. No excuses here because it's been an interesting pre-season."

Burman, 35, thinks it's always good when a team has international players competing in tournaments like the EuroBasket.

"You'd rather have them face the best players of the world and play meaningful games. Our pre-season has been a bit disjointed," he continues.

According to the Lions GM, the casual fan might not know that playing in an international competition doesn't help you domestically.

"You're playing more games, you're traveling, you're having less days for practice and preparation. It's more of a challenge. No excuses, it's just reality. All teams are waiting for the opportunity to play you. But that's what you signed up for," he concedes.

So far, the Lions have racked up four - rather comfortable - wins in as many BBL outings. But the tough part of the season is just about to start. Their first EuroCup opponent is Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv, a team featuring three first-round NBA Draft picks in Jordan McRae, JP Tokoto, and James Young.

The group also houses Gran Canaria, Aquila Basket Trento, KK Buducnost, Turk Telekom, Paris Basket, Promitheas Patras, Hamburg Towers, and Slask Wroclaw.

Burman maintains that the Lions want to build a winning team across all competitions. Does that also include the EuroCup?

"I'm not going to put limits," he replies.

"Nobody's going to sit here and say, 'We expect to win' If I say, 'We have to win the EuroCup,' then if we don't, I'll put myself in a position to fail.

Everyone's in that mindset that we want to win every possible trophy and every single competition. Does that mean we'll get there? It's 14 new teams and a team that has never played together before. It will be interesting. I like the structure.

It's just a matter of going through the Xs and Os of the entire season. We have to hit the point where you realize what it takes to go to the next level. We're going to play 18 EuroCup and more than 40 domestic games. No one's here to have fun; everybody's here for business," he warns.

On paper, a squad featuring two former NBA veterans in Dekker and Koufos, and some high-flying local talent spearheaded by Ovie Soko, appear as the clear frontrunner for all domestic titles. And while in the BBL regular season, suffering a couple of losses wouldn't be a disaster, in the playoffs, every game matters.

The playoff system in the British league follows the football model: it's a two-leg aggregate, home and away. Home-court advantage is non-existent. The higher seed can only choose where the first game will be played. One bad night can jeopardize, or even tank, the whole endeavor.

Balancing different competitions is something that the Lions have undertaken as their basic task for the season. But there's something more at stake than winning, Burman says.

"We understand that the country itself is going to benefit from our success. We understand that we have to do well in order for the game to be held in the spotlight.

Our ownership has several key measures of success. It's not just about the Lions winning trophies. It's youth participation in basketball and building a new stage. We have multiple layers where we try to succeed.

I want our team to be as successful as possible. But our ownership group wants to elevate the sport and the community by getting people involved. It's a lot to take up, but our group is trying to make sure we're a good representation," he points out.

Putting any long-term aspirations regarding a possible EuroLeague spot aside, Burman emphasizes that everything will depend on how the Lions organization will manage to build basketball in the UK, doing it the right way.

"We have to win this year, just like any other team. We're focused on winning and on seeing how close we are to being where we need to get to," he stresses.

"Right now, we've got a wild card. Most of those teams have a core of players that's been together for a while. So, it's going to be interesting to see how we'll do."

The American GM has rebuilt the frontcourt with a mix of experience, youth, and players who have inspired a lot of excitement among London's fanbase because of their impressive resumes.

Apart from Dekker and Koufos, the signings of Great Britain star Luke Nelson and Basketball Champions League all-time leading scorer Vojtech Hruban are proof of this.

While making a roster rundown, Burman observes that "there are guys like Josh Sharma, whom a lot of people have started to notice. He's a seven-footer who can run the floor and change the game. Tomislav Zubcic has been around all these levels and wants to prove a point."

In this vein, motivation can become a powerful weapon for this Lions squad.

"We have a bunch of young guys who can hopefully find their way. The team is built on a lot of guys who're itching for more. We have a 14-player roster. We want to show that we can do well this season and that we're not far off from the elite, which is made of the teams that have systematically been steady," Burman contends.

Not many outside the UK borders might have been aware of it, but until 2021, BBL clubs had to operate under a £250,000 (net) salary cap. Divided by 12 players, you had an average of £20,833 per year British Basketball League salary. Not included in the cap are the salaries of the top two British earners on each roster in an effort to retain more local players.

Under those conditions, it was certainly impossible to compete against anyone outside the country.

"There were stipulations and exemptions," Burman assures. "The league realized that you have to adjust if you want to have a team to compete at the next level. I knew that those were the rules in place.

We had a lot of players under contract. It was a situation where we made it work, and we ended up not winning any of the four trophies, which was fuel to the fire and set the bar for us to win this year. "

When asked to provide a rough estimate of where the Lions budget currently stands, Burman respectfully declines.

"I'd rather not disclose any of that. Last year, we had different competitions. Now, we're at the EuroCup. We're being fiscally responsible and conservative with what we're doing," he notes.

Although Burman graduated from the University of Wisconsin, receiving his bachelor's degree in communication in 2009, and then spent two seasons (2018-20) in Memphis with the Grizzlies and their affiliate team, he had never spoken with Wisconsin-born Sam Dekker and former Grizzlies big man Kosta Koufos until he recruited both of them last summer. After all, the Greek center played in Memphis between 2015 and 2017.

"The only player who I had actually worked with was Tarik Phillip, whom I coached for a year (editor's note: at the 2018-19 Memphis Hustle)," the American executive says.

Burman explains that the recruiting process was about finding players who had something to prove.

"Everybody has their own story. For those guys, it was about being a part of a new mission. They felt comfortable with myself, the approach, the ownership group, and what they were stepping into. Maybe in past situations, it wasn't everything they had looked for. Some players value being in an English-speaking country," the former Director of Operations at the University of Tulsa explains.

Burman recalls that when he tried to talk players into signing with the London Lions, he was met with a lot of skepticism. He says everybody had the same questions: Who, what, where, and why?

"Who are you?", "What are we trying to do? Are we trying to win or just get participation medals?", "Why is this team built this way?", "What's the timeline? Is it a 5-year plan?".

Those were some of the things Burman had to break down to describe what was at stake and how the day-to-day business would look like.

"I'm not bringing you into a situation where your playing role and your lifestyle role is going to be different than what I'm telling you. Players were excited because they felt like it was a fresh start for them. Things might change with the highs and lows, but that was the foundation in place to deal with these guys."

Credit London Lions

Apart from building a winning culture at the national level, what can draw high-level players to London so that they consider the Lions and England an attractive destination?

"London sells itself," Burman thinks. "It's a top destination. Everybody knows that. I've been very well outspoken about this: the BBL is strong and consistent. There's a lot of talent, and the league is going to be better this year."

In this regard, and given the United Kingdom's underwhelming EuroBasket presence, one is tempted to presume that a GM working in England will have a hard time tracing local talent that can perform at the EuroCup level.

Burman holds that "the team was put in an unfortunate situation in terms of practice and preparation" and thinks there's enough talent in the UK.

"The one thing they don't have is an NBA player. I don't know how many teams had one, but if you look at college basketball, it's flooded with British talent. I don't think there's a shortage of talent."

Credit FIBA

Usually, the media ask players about the differences between the NBA and Europe. From an executive standpoint, Burman says he's not going to make major changes in how he used to work in the USA. However, he acknowledges that the way things are done in Europe requires some adjustments.

"The style of play is different, and you go into different competitions where you have to adapt. But our daily infrastructure is going to be similar to what I'm accustomed to," he confirms.

"Player development and taking care of the guys' bodies is huge for us. Players come first. When there's anything we can do to make it more amenable, we'll do it. Whenever a player wants to do some extra work, we're going to remove him from practice.

That might be more like the NBA model. But for the most part, I'm not trying to replicate the NBA and bring it to London."

Burman wants to create a working culture where players feel at ease. Apart from relishing the chance to live in a European metropolis, those who sign with the club will immerse themselves into a player-driven program.

"It's all about them and putting them in a position to be successful. Hopefully, this plan will work domestically and in Europe. The level of comfort might be different for every one of them, but there's an acquired taste in everything," Burman continues.

The Miami-born GM believes that a winning program can be the perfect starting point for everything that follows.

"There will be players who aren't on board with me or the coach, and I take it for what it is. I come from a coaching background, so everything I do operates with the coaching glasses on," he admits.

The Lions have several front office members with the US or even NBA experience. For instance, this summer, they made former Chicago Bulls scout Vanja Cernivec the first female general manager in WBBL history.

She arrived after making history as the NBA's first woman to take up an international scout's position in an NBA franchise.

For someone who's curious how American basketball expertise can be transferred to a country whose ties with the sport are not particularly close, Burman has the answer: the Lions aren't a typical British and European basketball prototype.

"I wouldn't categorize it as the American way of doing things," he clarifies.

"For us, it's about people and processes and executing plans. It's about the experience. I come from a large coaching background, and my mentors in this industry have been Hall-of-Famers. I was able to learn from every one of them.

For me, it was about doing it my way. For someone who's been on the coaching side, on the scouting and the development side, it's a unique perspective. It's not American or the NBA way, but a comfort level that allows us to say, 'Hey, let's take the team in this direction and do things as we feel they should be done.'

It's the same for our ownership group. There will be failures along the way. There's no playbook. What works in London might not work in Spain or Germany. We have to be unique," he underlines.

Burman says he was aware that people were going to say that he's young and American - and the same goes for coach Ryan Schmidt, 39.

"You really need to trust yourself and what you believe in. You put your feet on the ground and go. We're doing it systematically - from building a team together, building a culture, building practice and an environment that we feel can be successful domestically and internationally."

Over the last few years, basketball in the UK has been the second most-played sport outside of football. But it's under-represented across media, television, and funding.

At the start of 2022, 67 Britons were playing in NCAA Division 1, illustrating Britain's talent pool. However, due to a severe lack of funding for the sport in the UK, players are starved of opportunities to turn professional and are opting to move abroad.

Although an estimated 1.3 million people play basketball regularly in the UK, and the sport has the highest percentage of players of non-white British descent (47%), it's still ranked 12th in government funding over the past decade.

Between 2013 and 2017, basketball received just £9.25 per participant in funding, compared to £70.72 for cricket and almost £60 for rugby, despite a much higher number in youth participation.

But even if Burman was given unlimited resources, he would still take the time to decide which player from the European market he'd build his team around. His spontaneous answer would be "Luka Doncic". However, the Slovenian star isn't part of the European basketball ecosystem anymore.

"It's a good question. I don't have an answer, but you can look at those who have been successful at the highest level," he indicates.

Regardless of the player's name, Burman would definitely pick a guard to make his squad click.

"You got to have a coach on the floor, someone who can control the pace of the game on both ends. Once you get to the end of the games, guards will take over. That's how most games are dictated."

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