Steve Bucknall
Lee Stevenson "Steve" Bucknall ( born March 17, 1966 in London ) is a British basketball coach and former player. After his studies in the United States Bucknall played for one season in the most highly endowed U.S. professional league NBA before he continued his career in Europe. In addition to clubs in his native England, he played in Germany, France, Italy, and in particular for Iraklis and Aris in Thessaloniki, Greece. At the end of his career, he won with the England team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and a bronze medal was then coach of the capital from his hometown of London in the British Basketball League (BBL ). Since 2010 he has worked for the British Association as coach of the men 's Under-18 youth team.
Career
In his youth he played for the youth teams of Crystal Palace and graduated first appearances in the men's team. In 1984, he then went to the United States and completed a preparatory year at the " Governor Dummer Academy" (now known as The Governor's Academy) in Byfield in Essex County ( Massachusetts). He then moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There he was coached by Dean Smith, a legendary basketball coach and member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame, who had made the high school team Tar Heels one of the most prestigious college teams in the country. Bucknall even played with the Tar Heels along with the future NBA All-Star Brad Daugherty and later NBA champions Kenny Smith and Rick Fox. The Tar Heels reached into his playing time is always at least the second round "Sweet Sixteen" of the NCAA Men 's Division I Basketball Championship twice and the quarter-finals " Elite Eight ", but missed the end of the 1980s another Final Four participation. Bucknall himself was elected in his final year as a "senior" at least in the "2nd team " of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which corresponds to the ten best players of this Conference. Nevertheless, Bucknall was not selected in the following NBA Draft 1989. However, in the summer he was able to convince the leaders of the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers vice to give him a contract. After he completed 18 games with good four minutes operating time per game for the Lakers in the 1989/90 season before he was released in March 1990 before the end of the season of his contract.
In the season 1990/91 Bucknall initially returned to his British homeland and played in Sunderland in the British Basketball League, founded in 1987, where he won the cup competition of the league with his team. In the summer of 1991, he tried to use the summer league United States Basketball League, in which he lost the final game of this league with the Miami Tropics, to recommend themselves again in the U.S. for a contract in the NBA. When this failed, he played in the 1991/92 season in the German Basketball Bundesliga for BG Stuttgart / Ludwigsburg. The Swabian club won the southern group of the first division, but lost in the semi-final play-offs for the German championship against Alba Berlin. For the following season Bucknall joined the French giants ASVEL Villeurbanne out. ASVEL 's last title won in 1981 and 1993 would retire in the play-off second round early from the race for the championship title. For the following season, he was hired by the league rivals from Le Mans, another veteran. This had previously been a professional organization and renamed " Le Mans Sarthe Basket" (MSB ), but was so little success in his first season and finished only second to last place in the table.
1994 Bucknall returned back to the British Basketball League (BBL ) and played for the Thames Valley Tigers in Bracknell near his hometown of London. With this team he won the so-called " BBL Trophy", a separately played out competition of BBL with regional group matches in the preliminary round. Plan for the next season 1995/96 he returned home to London and played for the Towers, with whom he won the Cup and the Trophy and had the best record of all teams in the regular season. But the play-offs were won in the end by the Birmingham Bullets around the league MVP Tony Dorsey. Due to the Bosman ruling Bucknall was interesting for other European clubs again because he does not "foreigners space " occupied more than Briton in contrast to Americans. In 1996 he then moved to the Greek Cup finalists Iraklis in the A1 Ethniki. This lost during the season Jurij Zdovc, but still reached the semi-finals in the European Cup Winners' Cup. In the championship, it was not very successful and missed the play-offs for the championship and in the following year. For the season 1998/99 Bucknall then moved into the second Italian league, where he first played for the club from Fabriano, before it was end of January 1999 from the first division committed from Reggio Emilia. While Fabriano at the end of season relegation from the second division, Bucknalls reached club from Emilia Romagna the play-offs for the Italian championship, in which one was eliminated in the first round against a lower- ranked team.
1999 Bucknall returned again in the BBL and played back at the London Towers, who had previously won the play-offs of the BBL. While they won the BBL Trophy, one difference in the play-off from the semi-final. For the newly created ULEB Euro League 2000 /01 you got a starting place, but there was no chance and retired after only one win in ten games of the preliminary round. Also in the championship they lost the semi-final again, this time against the eventual champions Leicester Riders. Then Bucknall returned at the age of 35 years already again to Thessaloniki back and played in the 2001/ 02 season for the local rivals Aris. While his English team-mate Andrew Betts with AEK won the championship, Aris did not reach the play-offs. After one season, he returned in 2002, first in the BBL, where he played for the Birmingham Bullets, before he again returned to Thessaloniki during the season and once again played for Iraklis. Iraklis missed at the end of the season because of the poorer direct comparison just the play-offs for the championship. In the following season 2003/ 04 they reached the play-offs and was here to win the small final series for third place.
With 38 years of Bucknall played in the season 2004 /05 for another season in the French second division LNB Pro B together with the four years earlier French Alt- International Stéphane Ostrowski. However, it only reached the third last place. With 39 years of Bucknall then returned to the BBL and now acted simultaneously as assistant coach for the Leicester Riders in the season 2005/06. The Newcastle Eagles, who had emerged from the Thames Valley Tigers, dominated the British National player Andrew Sullivan, the BBL this season, winning all titles, including the trophy in the final against Leicester Riders. Then Bucknall first completed his active career, after he had won with the English national team at the first time to host a basketball competition during the Commonwealth Games at the 2006 Games in Melbourne a bronze medal. Having previously been the London Towers had to suspend the operation of gambling for financial reasons, also acknowledged the successor club London United 2007 game mode. Therefore, the London Capital were included in the BBL and Bucknall committed as their coach for the season 2007 /08. In their debut season in the Capital just missed the play-offs of the BBL and Bucknall then went to the British Association, where he works as a trainer of the male U18 youth team in England since 2010.