The London Lions and Leicester Riders will make British basketball history in Birmingham on Sunday when they line up in the men’s and women’s cup finals.
The same clubs have never entered the men’s and women’s finals in the 35 years of BBL finals events.
Leicester men are the current cup holders and current Championship leaders London were the 2019 winners.
In the WBBL Cup final, London are clear favourites, unbeaten domestically since April 2021.
This series will have lasted 50 games and 643 days when they line up for the final and the average winning margin is close to 40 points per game in this series.
The last team to beat the Lions was Leicester – in a league game in April 2021, after the Lions clinched their first league title.
In the Leicester squad that day was British Olympian Azania Stewart, who was returning to the UK after several years with European sides. She is now at the Lions as one of five UK internationals in the squad.
“It’s a huge achievement when you’re at a high level and everyone is looking for you,” she told BBC Radio London. “We don’t take victory for granted and we prepare well for every game because it would make any team’s season to be the first to beat us.”
British international guard Holly Winterburn, who led Leicester with 36 points that day, is also now at the Lions. Leicester women’s coach Krumesh Patel is aware of the disparity this creates in the WBBL.
“The money they’ve spent is unbelievable,” he said of the London Lions women. “They are doing very well in the European Cup at the moment.
“We have to aspire to that as a program. We’re doing very well at the moment with the team we have – but if you looked at the salaries of the two teams, you’d be amazed at how different it is. ”
Leicester have British guard Hannah Robb and American Oliana Squires in their backyard and striker Ashley Arlen scoring up front. They won the WBBL Cup two years ago.
The London men’s team is brimming with talent – Luke Nelson and former Love Island participant Ovie Soko are regular starters for the Great Britain national team and Kareem Queeley, Mo Soluade and Josh Sharma have all become regulars of the expanded team in recent years.
Add to that former NBA players Sam Dekker and 7-foot Greek center Kosta Koufos and the Lions are equipped for Europe and should dominate domestically.
The BBL abolished its longstanding salary cap rules last summer, allowing teams with European ambitions like the Lions to play a full squad in BBL competitions as well. This season, only London has chosen to take the step towards Europe.
“They have taken away the salary cap and it has had an impact on one team and one team only,” Riders men’s coach Rob Paternostro told BBC Radio Leicester. “They put together a hell of a roster, a professional group that played very well together.
“Fortunately for us, we have a chance – we are underdogs but the pressure is firmly on them.”
“There are two aspects to that – if you look across the leagues in Europe, there are always teams that are going to spend more money than other teams – there are expectations that go with that,” said Lions coach Ryan Schmidt.
“The other side is there are a lot of variables that come into play – roster build, training. But I think that’s where our league is going as a whole.”
The London men are on an 11-game winning streak in domestic competition, including an 81-75 win at Leicester over Christmas. They have only lost twice domestically this season.
However, this may not necessarily translate to success in the BBL Finals. London lost two finals last season despite being heavy favorites – at Cheshire Phoenix in the trophy and Leicester in the BBL play-off final.
On both occasions, the team entered the final quarter with a game still undecided, then stopped scoring altogether long enough to lose the game.
Paternostro’s Leicester took advantage in the play-off final in May. Can they start again in Birmingham?
