The back to back champion London Lightning are primed for a three peat. They are currently in first place with a 11 and two record. They have been led by Jordan Burns, who is averaging over 20 points per game. A lot of the players joined the team about a week before the season. National Basketball League of Canada (NBLC) reporter Justin Prince says the biggest key is getting the players familiar with each other in time for playoffs.
“It takes time to build a winner, so let’s put it this way. I think the focal point if you’re London is, be ready for the playoffs. Get yourself in a position where your team is so cohesive, on the same page, working together, understanding the plays and getting to the point where they’re back to the dominating play so that once you reach the playoffs itself, you’re a championship contender.”
As a league, the NBLC is still recovering from Covid losses. Before the pandemic, the NBLC was an eight team league, now they’re down to just four. Commissioner Audley Stephenson says that it is just temporary. Stephenson plans on being aggressive in his approach to grow the league.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work with the CEBL and they’ve had rapid growth across the US. During the pandemic, they were very aggressive with their growth strategy and on the other side of the pandemic they had 40 teams. The methodology behind where they are and how they got there is something that we very much believe in.”
Stephenson claims there’s no reason why the NBLC can’t have 24 teams across the country.
Comments