BBL Trophy Final celebrations – The Twitter Edition
Yesterday saw the Sheffield Sharks win the BBL Trophy by beating the Leicester Riders, 71-69 in front of a full Emirates Arena in Glasgow. The nail-biting victory by the Sharks was only their second-ever Trophy win and came without leading scorer, Micah Williams, who was ruled out through injury.
BJ Holmes was awarded the MVP thanks to his game-high 25 points on 5/7 three point shooting.
Following the on-court celebrations, players, clubs and fans took to Twitter to express their feelings on what was a magnificent day for Sheffield but a disappointment for the Leicester Riders, who started the day as favourites as they sought to win their second piece of silverware of the season but just fell short.
Sheffield Sharks:
The Sheffield Sharks announce the win, as the buzzer sounds:
Game over!Sharks win the #BBLtrophyfinal 71-69!
— Sheffield Sharks (@SheffieldSharks) March 9, 2013
Sheffield Wednesday, the Football League Championship side, wasted no time in congratulating their fellow professional side:
Massive congratulations to @sheffieldsharks on their British Basketball League Trophy Final win over Leicester Riders! #BBLTrophyFinal
— Sheffield Wednesday (@swfc) March 9, 2013
Former 2011 BBL Cup MVP winner and Shark guard, Steve Dagostino, tweeted his support:
Congrats to my former club @sheffieldsharks on there trophy final WIN. #champagne
— Steve Dagostino (@DagsBasketball) March 9, 2013
Another former Shark gave props to the guys:
Congrats to the @sheffieldsharks for the Trophy win. More last second dramatics just like ’98. Another one for the cabinet. @toddcauthorn
— Todd Cauthorn (@ToddCauthorn) March 9, 2013
Sheffield’s Andrew Bridge figured last night was going to be a big one and so told his Twitter followers he’d have to get back to them:
To everyone that messaged me I will get back to you but right now I got to go and take care of these first time winners #turboshandy
— Bridgey (@andrewbridge6) March 9, 2013
Zach Gachette was hyped about the whole occasion:
6,000 ppl turned up… Was live on sky… And we got the win… BBL Trophy champs 2013!!
— Zachariah Gachette (@Zachariah_GoGo) March 9, 2013
Leicester Riders:
The Riders praised the Sharks for their hard work in the win:
Sheffield take the win 71-69. Hard fought game from the Sharks!
— Leicester Riders (@RidersBball) March 9, 2013
Leicester-born ex-pro baller, Andy Betts, had encouraging words for the guys in defeat:
Tough luck to the guys today. Heads up there is still a lot to play for this season. @drewsullivan8 @barry_lamble @robpaternostro @ruslev1
— Andy betts (@Bigab51) March 9, 2013
Sharks Director, Steve Shore, was impressed by Paternostro’s class in defeat:
@robpaternostro , you are a gentleman, sir. Great sportsmanship to come over and congratulate us when it must have hurt to do so.
— Steve Shore (@SheffSharksDir) March 9, 2013
Paternostro had words of thanks to their travelling fans:
Thanks to all our fans who made the long journey to Glasgow, the support was fantastic and much appreciated
— Rob Paternostro (@robpaternostro) March 9, 2013
Riders captain, Barry Lamble, documented his post-Finals status from Trophy Final loser-to-service station winner, beautifully in this trio of tweets:
Can’t lie…that hurt! #hatelosing
— Barry (@Barry_lamble) March 9, 2013
Onwards and upwards, still plenty to play for this season. Just a small glitch in the long season. Time to come back stronger. #chinup
— Barry (@Barry_lamble) March 9, 2013
Not a good weekend but I suppose every cloud has a silver lining! #services #fruitmachine #winnings instagr.am/p/Wpwl0bOvzG/
— Barry (@Barry_lamble) March 9, 2013
And finally, Demon FM did a solid job capturing the raising of the Trophy and the on-looking runners-up:
The trophy is handed over to the @sheffieldsharks #bbltrophyfinal twitter.com/DemonSport/sta…
— Demon Sport (@DemonSport) March 9, 2013
The @ridersbball players after collecting their medals. #bbltrophyfinal twitter.com/DemonSport/sta…
— Demon Sport (@DemonSport) March 9, 2013