THE BBL BLOG - NEW PREPARES TO SEVER OLD TIES
03/04/2010

Players come and go. Eras end and begin. The only constant in British basketball is change and, for good or bad, fans have got used to the uncertainty that accompanies each passing season.

You spend eight months placing your faith and hopes in the latest imported recruit, only for him to be spirited away to pastures new by a lure of a sackful of Euros or an agent's desire for an extra 40 pieces of silver.

Michael New never expected to still be here when he stepped off the plane 14 years ago, persuaded to leave a lucrative gig in Hong Kong (where he was the reigning MVP) for the neon lights of Newcastle. Those were different times. When the BBL was based largely in arenas, not leisure centres. When tickets were given away like newspapers on the commuter train. When the chief suspicion was that London's team was breaking the salary cap - not if they would ever pay a living wage.

The Chicago-native would not have imagined he'd still be around, plying his trade in a league that barely resembles the one he first encountered. But he did have a firm goal in mind. "For me personally, it has always been a goal to play and stay healthy until I was 42 years old," he laughs. "My first number in basketball was 42 when I was only 12 years old. So I made that plan a long time ago."

So enjoy him while you can folks. Because the BBL's ultimate veteran has confirmed he will retire at the end of the campaign, bringing to a close a playing career that not only has spanned the highs and lows of the domestic game but also stops in Turkey, Japan and Sweden as well as the length and breadth of Britain.

"I've been very blessed and fortunate not to have had any serious injuries or surgeries over my career," he grins. "And I feel great. It's good when you can call it quits on your own terms. That's what I feel I am doing."

It's only the cluster of grey hairs on the chin that gives the game away. Otherwise, Milton Keynes veteran forward-slash-assistant coach still remains in the kind of robust shape that embarrasses opponents half his age. That longevity is a tribute to conditioning an dedication. However some would argue that his continued ability to impact on the court reflects poorly on a league that has dipped during his stint in the UK and which is no longer able to attract the upper class of Stateside exports.

"It has changed, especially with the arrival of more European players from Lithuania and elsewhere recently," he observes. "They are good calibre players. The league now is really young, speckled with a few veterans like myself. It's an athletic league." And with the economic problems, there have been some arrivals this year who might previously have gone elsewhere. "The guys who have come in have really good pedigrees, coming from universities back in the States," New adds. "Other guys have played on the continent. I see that as a positive."

New is one of the few relics from the BBL's golden by-gone age. His team-mate Robert Youngblood is fighting a similar battle against Father Time. Everton's Chris Haslam left and then returned, but injuries have left his future beyond this campaign in doubt. Once they have exited the stage, it will be symbolic. However people should look forward, he argues, rather backwards.

"When I first arrived here, the BBL had some pretty big sponsors, like Budweiser. The league was on TV, on Sky, every week. It was really big and the game was out there on a national stage. Even maybe an international stage. If they could secure another deal like that, I think people would see that the level of play here was pretty good."

Having 12 competitive sides has provided a boon. "Back then, the (London) Towers used to win everything. They were the team to beat. Now there's a lot more parity in the league. Sheffield have revived their organisation under Atiba Lyons. Newcastle, over the past five or six years, have been a mainstay at the top. You still have a couple of powerhouses. But now, anyone can beat anyone on a given night. You have to lace them up tight and come out to play."

That's what he'll do, for another three months, night in, night out. After that, who knows? "I want to stay involved in some capacity. But that will have to be determined after the season." With his wife and kids now settled in Britain, he will not disappear. "We have a five-year plan here now," New chuckles. "We're not going away."
For all his dutiful service on some of the league's better teams, New's cabinet isn't over-flowing with silverware. The memories apart, the BBL Cup medal picked up by the Lions in 2008 is all he has to show for his efforts.

On Friday, his soon-to-be-last club meet Cheshire in the first leg of their Trophy semi-final. After four defeats in a row, all the gags about Milton Keynes and Christmas decorations have been trotted out. "I think we're going through a stretch where we're just not playing very good basketball and we have to correct that," their number two concedes.

"There are things we need to do. When things go great, things go great. But when they're going badly, that's when you really see who the soldiers are. We have a team full of them. We're standing together and trying to make each other better. And to turn things around."

Even on borrowed time, he retains ample fight in his ageing legs. The hunger still burns to claim another souvenir before those laces are undone for the final time.
"I want at least one trophy," he grins. "But we'll take it one competition at a time. Cheshire at our place is a huge game. They beat us by one, we beat them by one, it's always a tough match-up. We're trying to get out of this funk that we're in and we'll do that by working hard."

An era is fast coming to an end but 14 years on, that promise still sounds just like New.

Mark Woods for 24/7