Blake relaxed about breakaway BBA.

REVOLUTION is once again fermenting in British basketball, if you believe the latest dispatches from the frontline, writes MARK DOUGLAS.

The arrival of the NBA in London last week was the catalyst for a fresh round of stories reviving the prospect of a new league being set up by breakaway group the British Basketball Association to rival the existing BBL.

The BBA and its charismatic chief executive Ron Scott have harboured ambitions to set up a new league for the past two years and are now talking of a 2010 launch with a set of franchises in all of Britain's major cities.

The new twist on the story is the BBA's intention to tap up American tycoons who have already invested in English football clubs, with approaches to the likes of Randy Lerner, Malcolm Glazer and Tom Hicks and George Gillett all on the agenda.

It is an ambitious project in the current economic climate and if they pull it off it would be a threat to the BBL, a league that sticks to the philosophy of careful book-keeping to keep them in business in the long-term.

The well-connected Scott was in talks with a delegation from the NBA last week but BBL and Newcastle Eagles chief executive Paul Blake remains "relaxed" about the prospect of a breakaway league.

He says that Scott is privately open to the prospect of a partnership with the BBL and believes there is "no chance" of a rival British league being established in the near future.

"We continue to talk to Ron Scott and we had a good long meeting with him on Tuesday night after the NBA game in London," he said. "His conversations with us were along the lines of feeling there was a need for partnership and we will continue to talk to Ron.

"As an organisation, the BBL doesn't think there is much chance of a new league - there is no room for two leagues and I think Ron knows that.

"But I have plenty of respect for Ron.

He's a tenacious character who is very well connected and at the end of the day, British basketball needs more people like him. The very fact that he met with the NBA on Tuesday shows that he is not a man who should be taken lightly."

The NBA retains a big interest in exploiting one of the few untapped markets in the world and believe there is plenty of interest in the game here.

Blake and senior BBL officials met with NBA commissioner David Stern last week and both parties remain convinced the game's popularity in Britain will increase in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics.

"Obviously anything that takes the league and the sport in Britain forward is to be welcomed," he said.

"The prospect of the 2012 Olympics in London is a big thing for the sport and we're hoping to make the most of that opportunity."