Oscar Baldwin’s name is hot in Sheffield right now coming up through Hallam University’s 1st team onto now Sheffield’s BBL team (Sheffield Sharks).
We asked how he thinks wages impact UK basketball standards, what he thinks could improve for UK basketball and where he wants his career to go.
The average wage of a basketball player in the UK is lowest worldwide. “It means some people have to have jobs on the side which can mean players have less time to do extra-curricular things like gym, physio and well being exercises”. However, players do get benefits instead of higher wages such as a house, car, spa and steam rooms for recover after games.
Some would argue that all of these benefits would cost more than the wages, but a lot of players would want to have the money. “Higher wages would attract better players like it does down in London, but it does interest some higher quality players such as Deandre Liggins who has an NBA championship”.
It is interesting that a player who has a lot of selections of leagues to play in would take the BBL over any other, it is clearly on its way up the rankings.
Basketball isn’t just a sport but “A culture.” This being all things ranging from clothes, what you see on social media and even people you see and become friends with. “I don’t think the lack of money in basketball will affect the culture we have in basketball.” In a lot of basketball communities the friends you meet playing end up being friends you keep for life “People who are the same age, younger or older all playing at courts having fun.” Considering the culture behind basketball it is interesting to see sports like Badminton, Netball and Hockey getting more funding from Sport England, sports that seem to have a lot smaller of a following than Basketball does.
In Europe it is known that Spain, France, Germany and Italy are the more elite leagues hosting a lot of international and mainly USA talent. They also hold some of the highest wages outside of the NBA. Personally, I would love to play in Spain, that has been a dream of mine for a while now. Not just for the basketball but the lifestyle… Lets be honest who wouldn’t want to be chilling on a beach with hot weather on their rest days”.
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