From Basketball to Rugby

From Basketball to Rugby
Gloucester Rugby's Managing Director Ken Nottage it known mostly for being an administrator, but did you know he's one of the most successful home-grown Basketball players to grace the English game?
Gloucester's MD Ken Nottage had a record 19 year top flight career in basketball, and in 1992 the 6 foot 3 player became the only Englishman ever to be top scorer in the English League.
It's been something he's tried to keep secret, until he spoke about his passion to BBC Radio Gloucestershire's Paul Furley.
"The rugby folk say "Oh, that's that women's netball sport isn't it!" So it doesn't give you a lot of credibility around a rugby club."
Ken Nottage
KN: Basketball has had a professional league for a number of years, it's really semi professional and I pretty much always kept it semi professional. I always looked at my business career and education and the basketball had to fit in second to all of that.
I've heard it said that you were the best English basketball player ever and you played over 50 times for England, at what level compared to the NBA were you at?KN: Well the NBA is a million miles away and when I first started off there were no players that ever had any aspirations of playing in the NBA. Now England's had three or four players that have played in the NBA and there's one guy at the moment who came out of the Brixton set up, I believe he's with the Lakers, and he's earning something like $5m dollars a year, that's outstanding isn't it?
Could you have done that in your day?KN: No, I was never that good. We had American coaches that were familiar with the NBA and that set up and I asked one of them how would I go against these people and he said at 6 foot 3 I was too small,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], I would really need to be about 6 foot 6,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 6 foot 7 in my position,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and while I might get to a pro camp it was pretty likely that I would get cut in the early rounds or the late rounds,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], so the aspirations of playing at the top level in the States would never have happened.
So despite being the best English player there would have been no chance of Nike Air Nottage No,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], none at all and I know I was one of the highest paid English players and I had a great time, I played in 20-odd countries, had a fantastic time, met people all around the world and it helped me in my career but I don't think you could say I was the best English player ever.
Ken in his playing days (Pic courtesy Sunday Sun)
19 seasons though in the English Basketball League,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the only English player to be top scorer in that time in the English League, that says something though It says I was either a fool for sticking with that for so long,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], or I was having a good time - I really did enjoy this, it was something very,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], very good. Sometimes I look back and I'm a little bit embarrassed about how much I put into it, there was a time I remember way, way back when I had a new job, I had a new addition to the family, I was studying a master's degree in business and I was trying to play!
I had to say to the coach at the time "I'll probably only be able to make one or two training sessions a week, but I will be fit and I will turn up ready" and it meant very often 11, 12 o'clock at night doing an hour and a half of ball drills in my garage and that was the sort of dedication that I had.
I look back at that and think I must have been nuts to actually do that,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
Do you keep a basketball and dribble around the chairs in your office as keen golfers do when they keep a putter in their office?KN: I actually keep it very quiet. It's funny when you work in rugby - which has the image of the big tough manly sport - whenever it creeps out that I used to play basketball the rugby folk say "Oh,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], that's that women's netball sport isn't it!" So it doesn't give you a lot of credibility around a rugby club, so I tend to keep it very, very quiet.
Do you look at some of the players - say Alex Brown at 6 foot 6, similar build to yourself,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], slim, pretty quick - could he have made it as a basketball player? Obviously you're pleased he's here at Kingsholm!KN: Oh undoubtedly, I'd have given anything to have had a physique and body structure like Alex, that would have been the key to the real big time I think. With his physique and with how mobile he is and the fact that he's got that grit that makes him a sportsman I think he could have made an exceptional amount of money if he'd have taken up the sport, without question.
So you're in rugby, how did you get from basketball to rugby? They're not two sports which obviously go together It was a bit of luck really, I was in the North East,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], I had quite a serious job working for a university at director level and I'd finished up playing and I was asked whether or not I would help establish the team for Newcastle United.
Newcastle United were creating a sporting club; they'd bought rugby, they'd acquired ice hockey and they wanted to acquire basketball, they knew I'd retired, they gave me a call and said "will you set up our basketball team and help us maintain this?" Fantastic! I said "I'd love to do it. They said "well, will you do it full time?" I wasn't interested in a full time position, but as the involvement went on - just through enjoyment more than anything - I got offered the job as Chief Exec of their sporting club which was the three minority sports that they had, involvement in the football, and that's where you can say being involved in the basketball actually helped my career.
This was all part of Sir John Hall's 'Geordie Nation' dream wasn't it?KN: That's right, he did it and I was very fortunate to be right in the middle of that and help him construct it all and it was a fantastic time.
Are you still a shareholder of the Eagles?KN I am, yeah I own 26% of the Eagles and so I keep in touch with them and they're doing extremely well, they won the championship last year and I probably flattered myself with the thought that they want me involved, but they certainly don't need my involvement,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], they're doing fine without it, but it's just nice to stay in touch with the sport.
And how do you stay in touch with the sport down here? I've read somewhere that your coach of the Gloucester Blazers My son who's 17 asked if I would coach his team and he pulled some of his mates together. We're in the under 18's national league and we're doing okay and I coach them it's an opportunity to put a little bit back in I suppose. The lads are really responding,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Gloucester Blazers is a super club they were just formed 3 or 4 years ago, they've got women's teams, they're involved right throughout Gloucester - I'm flattered to be part of it.
A year ago they asked me if I'd be their Honourary President, I didn't quite know what that meant but I did that, and again it's just nice to be involved. In addition to all that I still play a bit, there's a bunch of old fellers that play in South West Division 1 and we've won it 5 out of the last 6 years, we get up and down the court at snail pace,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but between us we keep turning teams over - to the frustration of others.
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