London United
| London United | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| League | EBL Division 2 | ||
| Established | 2002 | ||
| History |
London United 2002-present |
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| Arena | Harefield Academy | ||
| Location | London, Greater London | ||
| Team colours | Navy Blue and White | ||
| Ownership |
 Jack Majewski |
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| Uniforms | |||
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London United is basketball team from London, England, currently competing in English Basketball League Division 2. In 2006 they were elected into the professional British Basketball League to replace the London Towers as the sole representatives for the capital city. However, after achieving a Play-off place in their first season, the franchise fell into a financial crisis and withdrew but continued to field a team in the lower leagues of the English Basketball League.
London United basketball club was formed in 2002 following a merger between two local teams, the Ealing Tornados and the North London Lords. Ealing Tornados were themselves a very successful team in the lower leagues, having won promotion after promotion since their foundation in 1999. When the merger took place at the end of the 2001-02 season, Ealing Tornados had just finished as runners-up in NBL Division 1 (Now known as EBL Division 2) behind the Derbyshire Arrows.
Playing as London United, the successes continued with promotion to EBL Division 1 achieved just a year later, in 2003. United spent 3 years in Division 1 with their biggest success coming in 2004-05 when they finished as runners-up, again pipped to the title by the Arrows. The logical progression for the club was to join the fully professional British Basketball League in July 2006. However the decision was hastened when the London Towers withdrew from the 2006-07 season, leaving London without a professional basketball team.
For owners Jack Majewski and David Schiller, the step-up meant finding a new venue, as well as recruiting more able players and finding corporate investments to fund the venture into the BBL. Jacks first step was to hire coach Tony Garbelotto to control the team on-court and bring in Chris Morris (who works closely with Tony Garbelotto running the highly successful Hackney Community College Basketball Academy programme based at SPACe) to run off-court operations. Majewski, Schiller, Garbelotto and Morris are the Club Directors. Sponsorship soon came, in the way of international money transferers MoneyGram, and a suitable venue was found at the Space Centre near Hackney. A mass influx of British players strengthened the ranks of United, with major signings including internationals Chris Haslam and Tarick Johnson.
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