Lions open quadruple defence as Super League Basketball tips off most open season yet
The champions start on the road. London Lions visit Bristol Flyers on Friday to open the third men's Super League Basketball season, with the defending winners of all four domestic trophies facing a league that expects to hit back.
The men's league tips off with 10 teams, up from nine after the addition of Liverpool Basketball. It launched in 2024 after the British Basketball League folded. BBC Sport
Newcastle Eagles owner Paul Blake, who is also a Super League Basketball director, said this is the most competitive it has been in his 30 years of involvement. That is a big call. London swept everything last season.
The Lions won the SLB Championship, which is the regular-season title, plus the end-of-season SLB Playoffs, the SLB Cup and the SLB Trophy to complete a domestic quadruple. The target is on London.
Europe will measure how far British clubs have come. London are in the EuroCup, Europe's second-tier club competition, for a second straight season after finishing eighth out of 10 in their group last time. They beat eventual runners-up Besiktas Gain during that run, then beat EuroLeague side Paris Basketball in pre-season earlier this month.
They have added guard Keenan Evans on loan in the summer after his 2025-26 EuroLeague title win. Then comes history. On 12 October, London will become the first British side to play an NBA team when they face the Portland Trail Blazers in a friendly in the United States.
Manchester Basketball have already made their own first. They became the first British team to win a qualifying-round match in FIBA's Basketball Champions League, the global governing body's continental club competition, by beating Germany's Wurzburg Baskets. Bristol Flyers will compete in the European North Basketball League, where Manchester finished runners-up last season.
The women's competition, SLBW, starts on Saturday, 3 October with Cardiff Met Archers hosting B Braun Sheffield Hatters. Sheffield are the defending championship and play-off winners.
For fans, this means more teams to track and more late nights worth staying up for. A deeper domestic race plus British clubs winning in Europe is exactly what the new league needed in year three.
