The Bench Units Podcast

Nothing says the season is kicked into gear like a decent spread of close games and abject hammerings. The picture becomes clearer with each passing round of the domestic competitions, and this one saw two Spanish superpowers separate themselves from some new challengers, a German squad continue to only be able to play nailbiters, and Europe’s premier individual and team scoring shows continue to...

They don't get much bigger than this. With 3 Paralympic golds, 1 World Championship and 5 Champions Cup titles to his name, Joey Johnson retired from wheelchair basketball in 2012 but is now part of Canadian wheelchair basketball as perhaps the world's most accomplished assistant coach. Joey gives us a whistle stop tour of both his international and club careers, including a span that saw team Can...

Early season games means it's time for sweeping judgements that can be neither proved nor disproved. In other words, it is peak Bench Units content season. With 7 games in Spain and 5 in Germany, we get our first look at a handful of teams and now some specific early results may have a butterfly effect on the season's final standings. ko-fi.com/benchunits to support to podcast! Get full access to...

Fire up the basketball season treadmill and set it to marathon mode, or whatever other setting treadmills have to indicate that something will be long and some people will talk about it like it's a bigger deal than it is. Spain debuted it's new Supercopa (where the winner gets a plaque) to start the new season, while Germany's spread of games saw businesslike wins, nail-biters and convincing upset...

Well, nobody called this one. With just over 2 months to go until the 2022 edition of the IWBF World Championships, last Friday (9th Sept) saw an announcement that the event would be postponed until next summer, 9 months from now. A still-incredulous James and Mark hit the record button in an attempt to resolve some of the vague reasoning provided, and anticipate what the fallout of delaying yet a...

With the U23 World Championships 2021 set to tip off in Phuket, Thailand on the 7th September, James and Mark decided it was about time they were joined by someone who could make them feel old. With Spain projecting to be the favourites to bring the gold back from Thailand, we are pleased to be joined by Pincho Ortega. Pincho talks about his years growing and developing in two outstanding basketba...

What a summer it has been for Kady Dandeneau. The Canadian Women’s forward stops by Bench Units following a summer that has seen her bag gold medals at both the Americas Cup and the inaugural wheelchair basketball appearance at the Commonwealth Games. Kady takes us through everything from the moment she discovered wheelchair basketball, after an injury halted her career in the able-bodied game, an...

We've seen a huge rise in the popularity of 3X3 basketball lately, including the able-bodied version being featured at Tokyo 2020 for the first time. Wheelchair basketball is also about to make history, as 3X3 will be featured at this summer's Commonwealth Games. Jack Gibbs was onto 3X3 well before it was cool and, as part of the High Rollers, has just completed his second open-invitation 3X3 whee...

Having recently announced that he will be leaving the reigning champions of Europe, Kyle Marsh joins James & Mark to give us the scoop on what the future holds for him. Kyle talks us through why now was the right time to move on from Amiab, a club that he has been crucial in legitimising over the last 8 seasons, as well as what went into a family-orientated decision-making process that lead him to...

His Rollers teammates will tell you that it was either a return to Europe or a retirement from wheelchair basketball. Fortunately for us, it was the former. Earlier this off-season, Hannover United announced maybe the most surprising signing of the summer so far when they revealed that they would be incorporating Shaun Norris for the coming season. We caught up with Shaun to talk about his interna...

He's back! After a Bench Units appearance back in February where he was made to pick the bones of a tough defeat, newly-crowned Deutsche Meister Tommy Böhme couldn't say no to stopping in for a victory lap at our expense. Tommy talks about how, for RSV Lahn-Dill, a loss to their Thuringia Bulls at Champions Cup 2022 set them on a path to defeating their rivals in two straight games on the way to b...

If you're reading this, the news is officially out.  At the end of last season, Phil Pratt announced that he would be leaving Mideba Extremadura after four seasons. Phil represents a huge free agent signing for an Amiab squad that is going through some structural changes after being crowned Champions of Europe to close the 2022 season.  Phil talks about his decision to leave Mideba, join Amia...

When news of one of the first signings of the offseason breaks that quickly, it certainly does make you question how on earth you're going to keep up to all the transfers that you hope to cover this summer. We wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth, and Fabian Romo was kind enough to oblige. Fabian sits down with James and Mark to talk about the various stops in his career so far, from...

Following the announcement that the European chapter of his career is coming to an end, James & Mark are joined by soon-to-be-ex RSV Lahn-Dill superstar, Brian Bell. A two-time Paralympic gold medallist and 2021 Champions Cup winner, Brian sits down with the guys to reflect on his nine years playing overseas, split between Lahn-Dill and Briantea Cantu. Brian discusses the highlights and stagge...

BREAKING NEWS! Welcome to the first in our Inside Scoop series, where we will be releasing our pre-recorded interviews with wheelchair basketball players who have just broken the news of their signing with a new club. We are joined by a Bench Units favourite in Rose Hollermann, who has officially made the jump from Spain to Germany and will play for RSV Lahn-Dill after 3 season in Gran Canaria. Ro...

What an ending to the season.  Newly-crowned Copa del Rey champion, James MacSorley, and Mark break down a show-stopping weekend of actions as three domestic competitions come to a close in our final round-up of the 2021/22 season.  With two playoff finals being decided by a margin of just a point, the guys get into how Cantu and Lahn-Dill won their respective playoff series to earn the title of I...

With the season reaching the business end, every remaining weekend brings real consequences. James & Mark break down how the final Spanish league standings shake out ahead of next weekend's Copa del Rey, as well as what can be learned from some of the match-ups we've seen along the way and how much the season-long rankings actually matter when it comes down to a cup competition. The...

What. A. Weekend.  James gets back from Champions Cup and can't wait to break down everything that we saw across 12 action-packed games. The guys analyse all 8 teams that took to the floor, what can be taken from the final standings, the key matchups and a semi-final round that stole the show!  With Europe's premier club competition officially in the books for this year, the guys take so...

We bring you the busiest Weekend Round-Up in Bench Units history!  After getting his baby-name hot-takes off for the first 5 minutes of the show (feel free to skip), James & Mark dive into a week headlined by the Coppa Italia and the Coupe de France, as well as the regular slate of Spanish League action.  The guys react to some of the teams and players that are less familiar viewing to them, a...

Eurocup 1 is in the books! An 8-team field from Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Israel, Austria and Switzerland took no prisoners as it jumped straight to the knock-out rounds. James and Mark talk through Gran Canaria's weekend-long offensive clinic, the difficulties in maintaining execution when playing three high-stakes games in 48 hours, and how teams from less established leagues are able...

With a makeshift Eurocup 2 tournament in the books, James and Mark break down the strange, 5-team round-robin that saw Red Dragon's Metz be crowned Eurocup 2 champions. The guys break the tournament down one team at a time, covering the results of various clashes of styles and levels of familiarity between the opponents. We highlight the crucial match-ups in the biggest games, some huge indiv...

Fresh of Commonwealth Games 2022 qualification, James returns to show off his knowledge of 3 on 3 basketball.  With that taken care of, the guys get into breaking down a last-man-standing playoff series between Lahn-Dill and Hannover, as well as a full slate of games from the Spanish League over Easter weekend.  Eurocup 1 & 2 take place this coming weekend, so head over to www.ko-fi.com/benchu...

With a full weekend of action in Spain and a German playoff game now in the books, James and Mark take you through everything you might have missed or not yet concluded that you didn't care to notice. The guys talk through some not-so-clinical scuffling for position at the bottom of the Spanish League, a couple of clinics in putting the game away when it was called for, and a clinical masterc...

After a couple of weeks of James's handpicked co-hosts, we're bringing back the old original formula. Mark returns to the show to chop up the latest weekend of wheelchair basketball action from around Europe. The guys talk about some games in the Spanish League that will have a very real impact on the final standings, before digging into the playoff games from both Germany and Italy. For...

This week, Gaz joins James to talk about a wide range of topics including but not limited to: The Oscars, The Matrix, Wheelchair Basketball games that took place this weekend, and the NBA's dress code.  Listen in to hear James and Gaz's thoughts on everything that went on this weekend around the league and around the world.  Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subsc...