The state of basketball in Ireland

I love basketball. I’ve played many sports, but none make me feel as good when I’m shooting hoops. So today I got to do a shootaround for the first time in nearly five years. Why so long, if I like it so much?

Basketball in Ireland is in a sorry state. There are a few semi-professional teams that dominate the local leagues but all struggle to get mindshare and audiences in a sports-mad country. GAA games, soccer and (increasingly) rugby are the pre-eminent sports but plenty of others get their turn in the limelight now and again. Basketball is right to the back of the queue.

There used to be regular televised coverage of the afore-mentioned semi-pro teams. Not any more. There used to be round-the-clock coverage of the big National Cup tournament. Not any more. Check out the RTE (national broadcaster) website section on basketball. Last updated four months ago, it has 15 updates for a whole year.

When I played my shootaround, some preteen kids hassled me (cos that’s what kids do when they’re bored) to play soccer instead on the court. Never mind the huge green area all around the court, they wanted to use the court 🙄. Anyway, they had never played basketball. They had never heard of the NBA. They had never seen basketball played to a high-level.

I realise I haven’t directly answered the question I made up top: why so long since the last time I played? But I sort of have answered it: because there are no virtually facilities and very few people would ever want to play. That is a sad state of affairs.