Super League Basketball’s third season tips off at the 750-capacity SGS College Arena on Friday night, where Bristol Flyers host London Lions at 19:30. Twenty-four days later, the same Lions squad will walk out at the 19,000-seat Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, to face the Trail Blazers – the first British club to play an NBA team.
Those two fixtures, three weeks and 4,700 miles apart, frame the question hanging over British basketball this winter: can a domestic league that was rebuilt from administration in 2024 hold on to a champion that has outgrown it?
A first for British basketball
The Lions arrive at the start line having won everything there was to win. Last season they swept all four domestic trophies, becoming the first British club to complete a clean sweep, and followed back-to-back Championship titles in 2024-25 and 2025-26. That record earned them a BKT EuroCup place for 2026-27 and, on 12 October, the pre-season date in Portland.
The symmetry there is hard to miss. London are coached by Tautvydas Sabonis, whose father Arvydas spent seven seasons with the Trail Blazers between 1995 and 2003 and remains a franchise icon in Oregon.
“Playing a pre-season game against the Portland Trail Blazers is a historic moment for our club and for basketball in the United Kingdom,” said Lions general manager Martynas Purlys.
No British side has previously been given that stage. The old British Basketball League, which ran from 1987 until its operating licence was terminated in May 2024, never came close to an NBA fixture.
Ten teams, 36 games, one new city
Behind the headline, the league itself has changed shape. Liverpool Basketball, announced on 5 August and owned by media executive Jason Dolan through Kings Dock Sports Group, becomes SLB’s tenth franchise and returns professional basketball to the city for the first time since the Mersey Tigers folded in 2010. The club will play at the M&S Bank Arena on the waterfront.
Expansion has forced a rewrite of the calendar. All ten clubs now meet four times – twice home, twice away – across a 27-week regular season of 36 games each, up sharply from the nine-team format of last year. Every Championship, Cup and play-off game remains free to watch worldwide after SLB extended its deal with DAZN, announced this week.
Newcastle Eagles owner Paul Blake, one of the few figures to have run a British club through the BBL’s collapse and the new league’s founding, has called this potentially the most competitive season in a generation. His own club has acted on that belief, pausing its European North Basketball League campaign to concentrate on the domestic title in what is the Eagles’ 30th anniversary season.
“Our absolute priority is focusing on the SLB, our domestic league, from this September and ensuring we are competing consistently at the highest level in British basketball,” Blake said.
Newcastle open at home to Bristol at the Vertu Motors Arena on Friday 25 September.
The bigger game being played
The competitive argument matters more than usual because of what is happening above the league. EuroLeague is moving towards a 24-team franchise model to meet the NBA’s planned European competition, and London is the market both want. The Lions have declared themselves candidates.
EuroLeague chief executive Chus Bueno confirmed the interest in July but was blunt about the domestic product, describing SLB as “not as competitive as other European domestic leagues” and adding: “If you tell top talent that you’re going to play in a small college arena, 800 people, it’s not very compelling.”
That assessment carries a consequence. Securing a EuroLeague licence could require the Lions to leave SLB altogether – removing the champions, the biggest market and the league’s most visible export in a single move. It is the reason opening night reads as more than a fixture.
Three things will define the season:
- Whether the chasing pack – Leicester Riders, Caledonia Gladiators, Sheffield Sharks and a Newcastle side with no European distractions – can turn Blake’s claim into results against a squad that lost nothing last year
- Whether Liverpool’s arrival at a genuine arena, rather than a sports hall, shifts what SLB can offer players and broadcasters
- Whether London are still in the league when the play-off final is staged at The O2 on Sunday 16 May
The Lions begin their defence in Bristol on Friday and host Liverpool in their home opener. Portland, and everything it represents, comes later.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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