James is joined by Mitchell team manager for the Caledonia Gladiators hot of their 73-70 victory over the Cheshire Phoenix which the ending in dramatic fashion. We discuss what this win means for basketball in Scotland to have the first trophy north of the border in 20 years ..read more

Grant joins us this week ahead of the British Basketball League Trophy Final which features the rebranded Caledonia Gladiators. We get in to the history of the franchise starting back in the 90’s with the Edinburgh Rocks and discuss the new ownership and the impact they have had in such a short space of time. We discuss the future of the franchise and what it means to have both the mens and women’s team fly under the same banner for the first time. Then we discuss the big one the final itself with Grant and James both covering the game in person so follow us for content throughout the final ..read more

On this special episode we talk about the role politics has played over the last week at BBC Sport with lead presenter for nearly 3 decades being suspended for expressing an opinion on immigration in a tweet. Which lead to BBC Sport programming taking a hit as presenters, pundits and commentators walked out in solidarity. What will be the fallout now the BBC have backed down, we have seen player power in the NBA are we going to see presenter power at the BBC? #bbcsport #bbc #garylineker #tories #immigration ..read more

James is joined by Daniel Sailofsky who is a Lecturer at Middlesex University in London. His academic background includes law, sports management and sociology. James and Daniel talk about the NFL and it’s teams in terms of the priorities they have, in public they are against woman being assaulted yet will Pay a quarterback a ton of money while having a number of allegations pending. We discuss the long term effects on athletes who play injured but also the reasons why some players may feel that they have to play to ensure they get paid. What some sports are doing now to avoid similar CTE is ..read more

James is joined again by NBA agent Stacey Leawood for the second part of this double episode. Stacey was at university and decided that her third year would be different so she up and left Newfoundland for the big city and while finishing her degree online started to look for the perfect job for her in the basketball industry. Getting on LinkedIn seemed to be a game changer and started to build a network of people already in the industry so took unpaid internships in order to build that network which would happen through LinkedIn. We hear how Stacey’s commitment to her clients mean long day ..read more

James is joined this week by NBA agent Stacey Leawood for the 1st part of this double episode. Originally from Newfoundland, Canada, growing up on an island her parents had to make sure she had some life skills that kids should learn such as swimming and figure skating. As well as a family vacation down to Orlando where Vince Carter was holding a camp and growing up playing against players like Kia Nurse who would go on to be a Canadien and WNBA legend. One of Stacey’s clients finds himself in a unique, Elijah Lufile is the only player in the G League who can’t play in the NBA, Stacey explai ..read more

This week James sits down with New Caledonia Gladiators team manager Mitchell Simpson On this episode we start by talking about how important it was combining both the pro womens and mens teams and bringing them under one banner and just how important the rebrand to the Caledonia Gladiators has been and what they are building for the future. Mitchell then takes us through what goes in to organising road trips and how the new owners are investing in the team even having a professional chef so players and staff are not relying on fast food. Please follow the Gladiators on the link below http ..read more

This week James sits down with New Caledonia Gladiators team manager Mitchell Simpson Part 1 of this interview we follow Mitchell's journey in basketball from 15 when he found the sport going through the Edinburgh Kings, Gracemount Panthers, West Lothian Wolves all as a player. The highs and lows of being a bench ender to a starter. Ending up with an internship with the then Glasgow Rocks who were the only pro basketball team in Scotland which has become the 2nd part of his basketball journey which you can hear all about in part 2 next week ..read more

In final part of our 4 episode special, James sits down with Samantha Card to talk about what she is doing to assist athletes as they transition in to the “real world". In this episode Samantha gives her fews on NIL and the dangers of this not being regulated and how that could lead to athletes signing contracts that sells them of for a couple of bucks. What could be the long term effects mentally further down the line when you have a plan out in front of you but you’re cut because the team feels another player is better and how do we deal with this especially with younger athletes. We disc ..read more

In this 4 part special, James sits down with Samantha Card to talk about what she is doing to assist athletes as they transition in to the “real world". In this episode Samantha talks about what went in to the book and being able to write the book in 11 days as well as driving to a studio recording the audio version and being back at work in the morning. The passion and drive to succeed “be all in” is at the centre of everything. We discuss the book, below is a link to the book which is available now both in written and audio forms. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Athlete-Advantage-Success-Beyond ..read more