A year ago, Manchester looked like a good team in search of a club. This season, the investment, the European push and Kaiyem Cleary’s return made it easier to see what Manchester were trying to be.
Manchester reached the SLB Cup Final and the ENBL final in the same season. The team was good enough to make that vision feel real, but it never became a trophy.
Gorton
Kaiyem Cleary grew up in Gorton and came through Manchester Magic. His last game at Belle Vue came before he left for America.
Cleary was good enough to sit at the centre of the project: a GB international returning from professional basketball in France. Putting a player from down the road at the heart of that made the project feel more rooted in the city it was meant to represent. A knee injury in February took him out for the run-in, and Manchester went into the biggest games of the season without him.
On Their Day
With Max Jones, PJay Smith and Jordan Johnson, Manchester had guards who could create shots, change pace and decide games quickly. On their best nights, they looked like one of the best teams in the league.
They just did not hold that level often enough. At the start of February, they beat Cheshire Phoenix in Ellesmere Port on a Max Jones three from an inbounds play at the buzzer when they trailed by two. Two days later, they lost at home to Caledonia Gladiators, who finished bottom of the table.
Manchester could be a team that beat anyone. They could not be that team often enough.
Manchester in Europe
Announcing the club’s entry into the ENBL, owner Ben Pierson said:
Being able to bring European basketball to Manchester has been an ambition of ours since taking over the franchise less than a year ago.
Manchester became the first professional basketball franchise from the city to play in Europe since the 1990s. They then reached the ENBL final, becoming the second SLB club in two seasons to do so.
The quarter-final against Dinamo Zagreb showed exactly what Gabe Osabuohien could do for Manchester. Four points down on aggregate in the final quarter, they turned the tie when he checked in with seven minutes left. He forced turnovers, took charges, created transition, hit the offensive glass and helped swing Manchester from four down to four up.
The final against Dziki Warszawa showed the risk that came with it. Osabuohien fouled out in four and a half minutes and Manchester lost. He was one of the clearest examples of the roster Manchester had built: talented enough to change games, volatile enough to lose control of them.
After the ENBL final, Manchester limped to the end of the season. Second place in the Championship slipped away. Lower-seeded Bristol took them to a close first-round tie, and Cheshire blew them out at home in the opening leg of a semi-final that never looked competitive.
Close Enough to Hurt
Last season, the team got there before the club around it. This season, the club started to catch up. Manchester looked more ambitious and more rooted in the city.
They were no longer falling short as a new club still trying to make itself real. They were falling short once the club and team had started to make sense together.
