The Most Celebrated Figure in British Basketball League History Is From The Bronx

44 year old Fabulous Flournoy, a player-coach for the Newcastle Eagles in the UK, is considered to be the most celebrated figure in the history of British Basketball was born and raised in the great borough of The Bronx.

Now of course you might be asking, “they play basketball in the UK?” and sure as the original article in the New York Times says that the sport is naturally behind soccer and might even be behind darts even but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s probably the biggest name and persona in the sport across the great pond.

Nor does it change the fact that he’s the first BBL coach to reach 500 wins.

Flournoy went to Jane Addams High School in Morrisania before heading to college where soon after headed to England where eventually he began his professional basketball career in 1996 with the now defunct Birmingham Bullets.

This past March, he became a Member of the Order of the British Empire in Buckingham Palace by Prince William according to the article in The New York Times.

The article is a fascinating look into the life of Flournoy who’s passion for living a healthy life borders on obsession. Perhaps this obsession with perfection comes from his early life.

Scott Cacciola of The New York Times writes:

“His speeches — to students, to law firms, to car dealers — are events.

“If you’re in a room of 500 people, I guarantee there’s someone in there that lost a loved one,” he said. “I guarantee there’s someone that got bullied. I guarantee there’s someone that got mistreated. I guarantee there’s someone that wants to be more than what they are. I guarantee there’s someone that’s just like me.”

Flournoy delivers his speeches without notes. He laughs. He cries. He might mention how his father abused his mother when he was drunk and how she eventually left him, working to provide for her four children while shuffling them from one ragged building in New York to the next, where Flournoy and his siblings would cram into one bed”

Read the full story: The Fantastical Adventures of Fabulous Flournoy

It’s always wonderful to read stories of Bronxites beyond our borders making a difference in the world.