Respect Due For Bridge After Retirement Decision

When the forthcoming 2013-14 season tips-off, one of the most decorated players in British Basketball League history will be absent.

It’s a statement that perhaps even Andrew Bridge himself could barely have predicted being made way back at the start of his career.

Playing for Mansfield, he was signed by former Great Britain head coach Chris Finch, who took him to One Health Sharks Sheffield. And, he learned plenty from the play-caller, someone he has since described as the most driven and tactically savvy coach he has worked with.

However, after fighting for court-time with Sharks, a switch to Tyneside more than a decade ago was to prove the true watershed.

It was a signing welcomed by the Newcastle Eagles faithful, although in truth, it didn’t exactly set pulses racing and barely registered on the pre-season radar.

However it wasn’t long before the Chesterfield-born guard showed his value to his new team as he slowly but surely, began to grow in influence.

Bridge rolled up his sleeves and underlined that his earlier arrival in the ‘Eagles’ Nest’ was indeed major news – even if most people didn’t recognise it at the time.

Bridge was to propel himself into the very heart of a basketball dynasty and go on to captain the most successful team in British Basketball League history.

Working with former team-mate Fab Flournoy, the guard bought into the heralded defensive principles of the Newcastle Eagles player-coach and found himself promoted to the role of trusted lieutenant.

Whilst Bridge didn’t always start games, Flournoy would inevitably turn to him during crunch time, valuing him as someone he needed on the court down the stretch of big games.

At times, it was a bumpy and fiery ride between the pair, but Bridge played the best basketball of his career with the north-east club. He became a bona-fide cornerstone of Newcastle Eagles becoming the dominant force in British Basketball.

After ten years of winning more silverware than Bridge could have ever imagined, the union finally ended last summer as he made the move back to Yorkshire to re-join Sharks.

And, if anything ever perfectly epitomised the achievements and value of Bridge, it was that he finished his time in the league by helping Sharks land the BBL Trophy – whilst the Eagles came up empty-handed.

Few could have predicted such a scenario, but then that also tells a lot about his career.

Not possessing particularly silky basketball skills or firepower and also seen as something of an unfashionable player by many, Bridge shames those with more natural talent who under-achieve by talking the talk instead of walking the walk.

Grumpy in the extreme and with a deadpan face even when he was inwardly enjoying himself, he freely admits he was a pain in the backside to work with. But he didn’t have time to suffer fools, because there was always more BBL silverware to focus on, or spending some time with the England team.

He also never bothered checking over the game stats too often, because he knew that only one stat ever mattered and that was the number of trophies tucked safely into the cabinet.

With strength of character, leadership qualities, a good basketball brain and an ability to squeeze every last drop out of the talent at his disposal, Bridge leaves the pro-game with a resume which is up there with the very best.

A real winner and great professional, it really is time that Andrew Bridge is given the wider recognition and respect deserved for his truly outstanding accomplishments in the game.