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
British Basketball merger in 2012, so the new governing body was initially formed by just England Basketball (now Basketball England) and basketballscotland. Wales eventually agreed to join the new federation in 2015. The merger was formally completed in October 2016, and the home nations gave up their individual memberships of FIBA. Great Britain national teams now compete in all age groups from U16 to senior, with Scotland and Wales still able to field separate teams in some lower division youth competitions. The federation is based in the offices of UK Sport. British Basketball The British Basketball Federation, known as British Basketball, is