Basketball: Bullets make an impact

(First Edition)

BIRMINGHAM BULLETS broke the league attendance record by attracting 3,400 spectators to their debut at the National Indoor Arena last weekend, but a more reliable indicator of their future success will be how many watch tomorrow night's Budweiser League game against the Manchester Giants, writes Duncan Hooper.

The Bullets' coach, Peter Mintoft, is hopeful. 'I believe the club have the right ideas, but the secret is to keep working as hard as everyone did to draw in last week's crowd.'

Harry Wrublewski, whose brother Mike has helped the Sydney Kings to success in the Australian national league, has seen his development plans in the three years he has been with the Birmingham Bullets take a significant step forward with the move to the National Indoor Arena.

One of the cornerstone's of Harry Wrublewski's approach has been to project the personalities of the English players instead of promoting only the American imports, as many clubs do.

Mintoft, who fully supports that philosophy says: 'Individual Americans come and go, so it makes sense to promote the personalities of the local players with the local communities.'

Bullets' players even worked shifts behind the counter at McDonald's in the run-up to last weekend's game, against Leicester City Raiders, which Birmingham won 90-87.