Glasgow Rocks’ Gareth Murray hopes Scotland’s Gold Coast Games boosts domestic basketball

This year was the first time since the 2006 Melbourne Games that Scotland were able to compete on the world stage as an individual nation, something he believes was well overdue.

“Playing under GB does put Scotland to the side,” said the player from Arbroath.

“But we have a lot of talent and young guys coming through and getting experience of Commonwealth Games and these big tournaments will help us in the future.”

Basketball Scotland also say it is a “hugely exciting” time for the sport.

“Being the first Scottish team sport to reach a medal match was a testament to the players and support staff involved,” said their chief operating officer, Kevin Pringle.

“The sport continues to grow around the country largely thanks to the dedication of great people in the clubs.”

While players have to wait a little longer to pull on their Scotland jerseys, Murray and Great Britain and Rocks captain Keiron Achara are in contention to feature for the British team against Estonia on 29 June and Israel on 2 July, with both games at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena.

“Hopefully we’ve showed them the way to go and it’s possible to play on the big stage and that basketball has a future in Scotland and the UK,” said Murray.

“There’s plenty of kids coming to play basketball through our legacy and the community projects we do, so hopefully they’ll see us as inspiration and keep coming to watch as the clubs will start to grow and there will be more interest in basketball.”