Darrin Smith meets Drew Sullivan
I picked the perfect day to catch up with GB captain, Drew Sullivan. Celebrating his birthday with an impressive haul of 18 points and 8 rebounds in Leicester Riders’ blow out win at Durham Wildcats, Drew was in great form both on and off the court.
After last year’s successful yet turbulent campaign at Mersey Tigers, Drew is enjoying life at his new BBL club and relishing the prospect of the summer Olympics on home soil. Laughing off my suggestions that he might have wished to spend his birthday in a more glamorous location, Drew said “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else on my birthday, playing basketball with my family here. It’s what I do.”
Drew posted some eye catching numbers in the stat boxes against Durham, but he has been vocal in the past that he sees basketball as a team effort rather than a quest for individual statistics. “That’s the way we are as a team. I had a good game today. To be honest with you I think the guys really wanted me to have a good game for my birthday. They really looked to put me in positions to do that, especially offensively. At the end of the day, numbers don’t really mean anything if you’re not performing well as a team and that’s what we did today. If this was a loss and I had those numbers we wouldn’t be talking!”
On how he’s adapting to life with Leicester Riders, “I’m settling in pretty well and getting on with all the guys. As time goes on I’ve been getting more and more responsibility. Not just because Rob’s got more trust in me but also that the team are getting to know each other better so like tonight I was fortunate enough to have a good game, initiating our offense, and next weekend it will probably be someone else.”
Despite Riders being out of both the BBL Cup and Trophy I feel that they are the only side who can stop Newcastle Eagles quest for a clean sweep of BBL silverware. In the League in particular, with all 3 games between the sides still to come I asked Drew if he, like I, saw Riders as the only remaining side capable of picking up the Eagles gauntlet. Unsurprisingly Drew wasn’t willing to make such a definitive prediction, “I wouldn’t say that. There are still quite a few games left and you never know what will happen. We could play Newcastle and win which brings us right into it but equally one of the other teams like Worcester might go on a run, then you could have a number of teams fighting for the number one spot. I wouldn’t say were the only team but we’re definitely a contender. We’re happy with our position and its one we’ve worked hard for. We’re just disappointed with ourselves that we dropped a couple of home games or we’d be right there with Newcastle now. We’ll just keep going, trying to win games and see where we end up at the end of the season.”
Something that has raised its head recently is the criticism of the current state of the BBL by a small but often vocal minority of fans and members of the basketball media. I personally feel the standard of the BBL is good with some real high quality performers in the League at present, something Drew wholeheartedly agrees with, “I don’t believe the standard has dropped. You know the only good critic is a quiet critic. People can say what they want about the League, they criticise it but the players will just play. That’s what we do. We’ll leave them to it. I think the standard of the League has been pretty good over the last couple of years. Explaining how competitive the BBL has been, an unfazed Drew said, “Last year at Mersey Tigers we won the League with seven losses. You can win with more and more defeats. When I was first here, in Newcastle, it was two or three. The League is a much more competitive place. We’ll just leave the critics to it and keep doing what we do.”
I asked Drew the question all British basketball fans want to know. How are the preparations going for the Olympics for both him and the GB team? Drew laughed, “As you can see from today, pretty well!” Not just Drew doing well but success stories around the squad with Luol Deng becoming the first British player to make the NBA All Star team and Joel Freeland setting Spain alight to name but two. Drew continued, “The guys are doing well, doing their part. The best thing is that there are no injuries. We want to have our best players at camp. We understand that here’s only twelve that can. If we can all get to camp we are all three or four steps ahead of where we could be. If players are hurt it makes camp harder. We need to get everybody in from day one and ready to go, fit and healthy.”
On whether Drew expects all eligible GB players to be available for the Olympics, “That’s not really my responsibility but from what I understand everybody is committed. You’ve seen the guys who were there last summer. Unfortunately Pops (Mensah-Bonsu) wasn’t there but I know Pops very well and I know how bitterly disappointed he was that he couldn’t be there due to injury, so camp’s going to be absolutely fierce. I’m really, really looking forward to it.”
Exciting times for Drew and GB basketball.
