Few people remember the time when Manchester United was more than just a football club. Speaking to SKWEEK, Jeff Jones revisits the fascinating story of Manchester United Basketball — a forgotten chapter that featured European nights, trophy celebrations at Old Trafford and an unlikely meeting point between two very different sporting worlds.
There was a time when basketball in Britain seemed to be on the verge of something bigger. The sport was attracting major crowds, commercial interest was growing, and football clubs were beginning to see the possibilities of putting their names behind basketball teams. At the center of that moment was Manchester United Basketball, a project that, from 1985 to 1988, brought together one of the biggest sporting brands in the world and a generation of players who believed they could build something lasting.
Jeff Jones was one of them. One of the most iconic figures in Manchester basketball, and a key figure in the team during the ’80s, he experienced the European nights, the trophies, the packed arenas and the unique connection between the basketball court and Old Trafford. He also witnessed how quickly that promise could disappear. Almost four decades later, Jones looks back on a remarkable and often forgotten chapter in British basketball. In an interview with SKWEEK, he reflects on what it meant to play for Manchester United, the opportunities the project created and the reasons he still believes its potential was never fully realized.
Trophies in hand, walking around Old Trafford
Manchester United has a powerful football identity, a rich history and a huge global fan base. As a basketball player, what was it like to find yourself inside that world?
Obviously, it was a tremendous step change for the sport at the time. British basketball was going through what I would describe as a real purple patch. Television was playing a huge role in that. This was before the internet, streaming and everything else we have today. We had a regular presence on television. We had a weekly slot on Channel 4, or semi-live, and the sport was being marketed extremely well.
Basketball England did a very good job commercially, too. There were some very high-profile companies getting involved, and that gave basketball a level of visibility and credibility that it hadn’t really enjoyed before. You could feel that the sport was starting to become part of the mainstream conversation. For the players, that was exciting. We weren’t simply playing in front of people who already loved basketball; we were reaching a much wider audience.
Then the Manchester United opportunity came along.
A good friend of mine, who was a lawyer, was a good friend of Maurice Watkins, and they were involved in presenting the idea to the United board. The concept was essentially to recreate something you were already seeing on the continent — a major sporting club bringing different sports together under one umbrella.
For basketball, that was a significant moment. Manchester United already had an enormous profile, an incredible history and a huge following, so being associated with that name immediately created another level of exposure. We were still a basketball team, with our own identity and our own competition, but we were suddenly part of something much bigger.
And I think that was important because it gave people hope.
There had already been years of hard work put into developing basketball in the UK. Many of us had been involved for around eight years, and you sometimes wondered where it was all heading. Suddenly, you had television exposure, commercial interest, good crowds, high-profile sponsors and now a connection with Manchester United. It made you believe that basketball could genuinely become successful in this country.
For me, that was probably the biggest impact. It helped convince me that basketball had a real future in Britain. You could see the potential of the sport if all those different elements came together — good players, good organisation, television, commercial backing and, importantly, people believing in it.
And being inside Manchester United’s world was certainly a unique experience. You understood very quickly just how powerful the name was and what it meant to people. There was an expectation that came with it, but there was also a sense of opportunity. You felt that, if we could make it work, we could help take basketball to another level.
Unfortunately, it was a relatively short-lived period. But that doesn’t take away from what it meant. It was a great time for British basketball, and for those of us who were there, it was a very special chapter. Looking back now, I think the most important thing was the belief it created — the feeling that basketball could belong on a much bigger sporting stage.
Can you take me inside a typical Manchester United basketball game night back then? What was the atmosphere like, what did you see in the stands, and what did you feel walking onto the court wearing that shirt?
Yeah, I think one of the things that really set it apart was the way we immediately raised our level. We had a very good coach, Joe Whelton, who immediately elevated what we were doing.
We started getting opportunities to experience basketball at a much higher level. We went to Thessaloniki, when Giannakis and Galis were playing their preseason games, and we also went to Bayern for preseason. Those experiences opened doors for us. They gave us exposure to European basketball environments that we probably wouldn’t have had simply as a Manchester basketball team.
Then there was the whole question of the facilities. They were nowhere near what you see today. We were playing in what I would describe as a local leisure center. But every time we had a home game, they would bring in another 1,100 seats and build the arena up. That gave us a capacity of around 2,200, and we were selling it out.
That, again, was a significant step change for the sport. And seven miles down the road, you had another team, the Manchester Giants, playing in front of crowds of 1,600 or 1,700. So, you had around 4,000 people watching basketball every other week.
I’d describe it as a golden era for the sport at the time. There were other football clubs getting involved in basketball, and it genuinely felt like we had an opportunity. It felt as though basketball was going somewhere. There was a real sense that it could become something much bigger, and that was probably the most exciting thing about being part of it.
What was your relationship with Manchester United supporters like? Did they come to watch you because they loved basketball, because they loved United, or simply because they wanted to see what this unusual new team within the club was all about?
I think it was a combination of all three. Initially, I’d say there was certainly an element of curiosity. But as time went on, we became, I’d say, a thread of the football club.
There was a real sense of connection between the two sides. Some of the football players came to watch us, and obviously we went to watch them as well, which was a completely different experience for us. Everything was branded in the same way. We had Sharp on our shirts, the same branding and the same identity, so you really felt that you were part of the wider Manchester United family.
And the basketball players became quite recognizable. We did a lot of promotional work, and when you have six-foot-ten or seven-foot guys standing next to five-foot-eight or five-foot-nine footballers, it makes for a pretty dramatic picture. Those were the kinds of images that really stood out and that the club could use in its promotion.
I also remember winning trophies and then walking around Old Trafford with them. Those were special moments. You realized that, although we were a basketball team, we had become part of something much bigger.
So, as I said, it was a great experience and a great time.
There was a real feeling that basketball had a future
In your view, could United’s football brand genuinely have helped basketball establish a stronger position in Britain? Or was football simply so dominant that it inevitably overshadowed everything else?
Oh, no. Football will always win out in the UK. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind when it comes to spectatorship, brand awareness and everything that comes with it.
Where I think basketball has grown, and where I believe there is still a huge opportunity, is through participation. I’ve been involved in building facilities and helping develop basketball in Manchester, and to me, that’s where we’ve missed out: creating opportunities for mass participation and, more importantly, a clear pathway for young players to develop.
Whether it’s under-14s, under-13s or under-12s, we need to give young people the opportunity to play in a structured environment, progress through the sport and, ultimately, become fans of basketball.
I think that’s something that’s really important for us to achieve in the future, and the Greeks are a great example of that. In Greece, basketball is almost ingrained in the culture. You play basketball, and you support a team, whether it’s Olympiacos or whoever it may be. That connection is established very early.
We have a small minority of people in Britain who do that, but we don’t have an exceptionally large basketball fan base. And I think that’s where we’ve missed an opportunity. We need to create that connection between participation and support, so that the kids playing the game today become the fans who sustain the sport tomorrow.
And yet, looking back at that period, it sounds as though basketball was genuinely gaining momentum in Britain.
How big did the sport actually become at its peak, and what do you remember most about that era?
Obviously, Manchester United drove a lot of it at the time. It was the name, the profile and everything that came with it.
But if you went to Wembley and played at the Arena, there wasn’t a spare seat in the house. There were 11,000 people who had actually bought tickets to watch the games. Nobody was giving tickets away. That tells you something about where the sport was at the time.
And this is an old guy looking back, obviously, but it really was a golden era for the sport. It was so much more than just the basketball itself. There were the sponsors, the commercial interest, the exposure, the crowds and everything that surrounded the game. It felt as though the whole sport was moving forward.
So, up until 1988, everything looked pretty rosy. There was a real feeling that basketball had a future and that we were building something that could become much bigger.
Take us back to the British basketball landscape of that era. Which teams stood out, which rivalries defined the game, and how significant was the involvement of football clubs in shaping the sport at the time?
Yeah, there was Portsmouth, who were involved, and Glasgow eventually got involved as well. Tottenham were involved to some extent, and Sunderland were involved too. I’d say there were probably four or five football clubs that were on the fringes of it. And when Manchester United got involved, everybody thought, “Oh, well, this is the answer.”
Aston Villa, I think, were also involved to a certain extent through Birmingham. So, from that perspective, there was certainly an opportunity for something good to develop.
I don’t think this is being critical, but I don’t think the football hierarchy in the UK fully understood what they had in basketball, particularly in terms of what the sport could do for community engagement.
We saw that ourselves. We did things with Bobby Charlton. We ran basketball schools and football schools, those kinds of programmes. If you put their name behind a basketball camp, you could have 150 kids turning up. That’s the power of the name and the recognition that came with it.
So, for me, that was one of the biggest opportunities. It wasn’t simply about putting a football club’s name on a basketball team. It was about using that profile to engage with the community, bring young people into the sport and create something that could have a much wider impact.
That’s where I think the football clubs could have done even more. The potential was there; I’m not sure everyone fully understood just how powerful it could have been.
Looking back, do you think Manchester United fully understood the potential of the basketball team and what it could become within the wider United brand? How seriously was the club thinking about building something that could last?
Yeah, I think they did take it seriously. When I signed my two-year contract with them at the end of that year, everybody was taken into the boardroom, and there was a model of an 8,000-seat arena in one of the car parks.
So, they had clearly thought seriously about that side of it. They understood the power of the brand, but they also understood facilities, stadiums and how you could make use of them. They could see that you had something on-site where 2,200 people were coming to watch basketball, and that could potentially become 6,000 or 7,000. You could have basketball on the weeks when the football team wasn’t playing at home, giving people another reason to come to the club.
There were a lot of factors behind why that arena was never built. When I say they used being kicked out of Europe as the reason why basketball didn’t stay and ultimately wasn’t sustainable, I think you can take that with a pinch of salt and make your own judgement about why they decided to drop it.
I think there were two things happening. First, basketball had become very, very popular with Manchester United supporters. We were also winning trophies and doing well at a time when the football team wasn’t. And then you had the transition from Ron Atkinson to Sir Alex Ferguson. The focus of the football club changed completely.
This was only about 15 months after they had taken ownership of the basketball club, so the priorities were suddenly very different. And, as it turned out, they were absolutely right in terms of what they went on to achieve as a football club.
But I’m a firm believer that if they had bought the basketball club in 1993, after the Barcelona Olympics, there would still be a Manchester United basketball club in the city today. One hundred percent.
Did you and your teammates ever talk about how far this could go? Did you genuinely believe Manchester United could become a major force in British, or even European, basketball?
Oh, yeah. I mean, there were always reality checks around the finances and the sustainability of it, but we certainly talked about what it could become.
I remember the 1988 season, going to Cádiz with the team and playing their ACB side. We beat them by 30 on back-to-back nights. It was a really, really good team, with a mix of British talent and some very good American players. So, you could see the level we were capable of reaching.
Joe Walton and I were, and still are, very close. When he was over here, he lived near me, and we’d sit in the pub after practice, have a beer and talk about all of this. We’d talk about where the team could go and what it could become.
But I think that’s like anything. When you’re involved in something that’s going well, you tend to make the most of it while you’re there. You don’t necessarily think about the consequences if it doesn’t work.
For us, the travel was a big part of it. Getting to play European games and being involved in European competitions, like the Korać Cup, was really, really special. So, you always hoped. You always believed it could continue.
I was thinking about staying here for 12 years. I’d already played for 12 years, we’d just had some kids, and I remember thinking, “It’s going to work. It’s going to work. We’re going to stay. We’re not leaving.”
But, to be fair, Manchester basketball has been a roller coaster ever since. The United period was obviously a big part of that, and it’s been very difficult to maintain a consistent approach and strategy around the sport.
So, yeah, hopefully this time around, the investors and the people involved see things differently. Hopefully, they recognise the potential and understand the importance of taking a long-term approach.
When Manchester United played against Dražen
When you told someone with no real connection to sport, “I play for Manchester United,” was there ever that little pause before they realised you meant basketball? How did people who weren’t particularly into sport react?
Well, it was exactly what you would imagine. The Manchester United brand drove the initial interest. Even if someone came along for a one-off visit to watch a game or to do something around basketball, as long as the product delivered what it needed to deliver, people bought into it.
Whether that was through the entertainment value, the level of sporting performance, or simply giving people a good night out, if you delivered a good experience, people were happy.
It was the same with the basketball camps and the awareness we created in the community. The name generated the interest, but the delivery had to live up to it. As long as you gave people what they expected, they bought into it and were quite happy.
So, yeah, it was a great tool for getting people engaged with basketball. I don’t think we’ve necessarily got better at doing that over the years, and that’s still a challenge. But over the last couple of years, we’ve had some really strong backing, and hopefully that can help us continue to use basketball as a way of engaging more people with the sport.
Tell me one story that, for you, captures the entire experience of being a basketball player at Manchester United.
Probably the first one would be winning at Wembley. I was fortunate enough to be captain, and then to lead everybody out at Old Trafford and parade a trophy around the stadium. That was a pretty special moment for me personally. It was probably one of the most memorable experiences I had off the court.
On the court, there were so many moments that stay with me. We played against Dražen Petrović when he was just 18 years old in a European competition, and I’ve still got a great picture of me, at 34, trying to guard this 18-year-old kid. That’s one of those images I hold quite close.
We also played against Oscar Schmidt in one of the games. And then there were Galis and Giannakis, playing against each other when we faced them in preseason, whether it was with United or with the England team.
Those are the kinds of experiences you want as a player. You want to test yourself against the best, and those opportunities came because of the Manchester United involvement, for sure. That’s a big part of what made the experience so special.
Today, it seems almost unreal that there was a Manchester United basketball team in the 1980s. When you look at old photographs of the team, does it feel like something you genuinely lived through, or almost like a story that happened to someone else?
Sometimes it does feel like a story that happened to someone else. My sons are now, geez, in their 40s, but when they were growing up, they had two team pictures on the walls of their bedrooms, both taken at Old Trafford on the pitch.
Even now, guys I played with back then will see James and Callum and say, “I used to play with your dad.” And they’ll say, “No, we saw you every time we went upstairs to bed.” Those pictures were always there on the wall, so in that sense, they’ve always been a part of our family.
I’m kind of a glass-half-full guy, so I try to look at it positively. It is a shame that the Manchester United basketball team is no longer there, because I think British basketball as a whole would be much better off if it had remained part of the landscape. It could have been around all these years, because people have always talked about the potential in the UK, particularly the athleticism and the talent that’s there.
But the infrastructure around player development has to improve. The coaching has to improve. Talent recognition has to improve. All of those things are important.
And that’s really what I’ve been involved in since I stopped playing. I’ve always stayed close to that side of the game, and it can be frustrating because, talent-wise, we’re getting much, much better, and coaching is improving too. But there’s always room for improvement.
So, it’s a different world now. The game has changed, the environment has changed, and it’s going to be very interesting to see where British basketball goes from here.
All these years later, what does Manchester United mean to you? Is it still primarily the football club, or is there also, somewhere within that story, a Manchester United Basketball team that will always remain a part of your life?
Well, my wife’s family are all United fans, so it was great during the Ferguson years. It was pretty easy to be a Manchester United fan then!
We still go to games and sometimes sit in the box, and it’s great. I guess that affinity has just carried on. Even over these last 12 or 13 years, it’s still there. It’s strange. You always feel like you’re part of it because you had that small taste of what it was like to be there and to be involved in that situation.
So, yeah, I guess it’s in my blood.
I’ve got a three-year-old granddaughter who goes around singing “Glory, Glory, Man United” every once in a while. So, there you go.
What was the strangest part of being a Manchester United basketball player? Was it telling people what you did, wearing the shirt, seeing the badge on a basketball uniform, or simply knowing that you were playing basketball under that name?
It was almost surreal. I remember one European night when we played Real Madrid in Madrid. After the game, we were all out at a restaurant. You had the Manchester United directors there, the Real Madrid directors there, and you were sitting in this restaurant having a really great meal. Those were the kinds of experiences away from the court that made you realize just how unusual the whole thing was.
When we won something, we went to Malta for a week and had to play a couple of games, but we also went to the United Supporters Club and did all that sort of stuff. I think that was what made it so special. It wasn’t simply that you were playing basketball for Manchester United. You were part of a worldwide brand, and that brought experiences that went far beyond what happened on the basketball court. So, yeah, the worldwide reach of Manchester United definitely made the whole experience that much more special.