1996–97 British Basketball League season a bye into Quarter-finals. Birmingham Bullets vs. Leicester Riders Leopards vs. London Towers Thames Valley Tigers vs. Chester Jets Worthing Bears vs. Sheffield Sharks Chester Jets vs. Leicester Riders Sheffield Sharks vs. London Towers 1996–97 British Basketball League season The 1996–1997 BBL season was known as the Budweiser League for sponsorship reasons. The league retained a total of 13 teams, playing 36 games each. The main change featured the long-awaited return of Crystal Palace after several seasons of rejected applications. Palace replaced Doncaster Panthers following the liquidation of the South Yorkshire club. The League's two London-based teams dominated throughout the
London Lions (basketball) London Lions (basketball) The London Lions are a British professional basketball team based in London, England. The Lions compete in the British Basketball League, the top tier of British Basketball. The team was founded in 1977 as the Hemel Hempstead Lakers, and have been based in Hemel Hempstead, Watford and Milton Keynes. Since 2013, the team have played home games at the Copper Box Arena in Stratford, East London. The franchise that would become London Lions initially started out in the town of Hemel Hempstead, as the Hemel Hempstead Lakers. The team was named after one of the NBA’s most