“I never in a million years thought I'd be in this role” - Drew Lasker on Sky, British Basketball League growth and Sheffield Sharks offence

“I was just taking everything year by year, and then you look up and it’s like ‘wow, have I really been here that long?’”

He has been here that long, 19 years in fact, 17 of those as a player through two spells with Plymouth, a year in Guildford and a trophy-laden 30s with Newcastle Eagles.

“Sixteen years on 16 one-year contracts,” he reflects. “When I think about it now it stresses me out, but back then - until I got married - it didn’t.”

He became so ensconced in the British game, made so many connections on and off the court, that when it came to Drew Lasker 2.0, staying in the game was a no-brainer. It was just a case of what would it be? As it turned out, the face of Sky Sports’ broadcast package, their on-court reporter for their live coverage.

“I never in a million years thought I would be in this role,” says the 6ft 2in former point guard. “But I was thinking about this industry more than I realised; as a kid I was interested in bloopers and focused on the creative and production process.

“This opportunity fell in my lap during the pandemic. I was asked to start a podcast by a parent of a kid I was coaching, but for two years I kept saying no.”

When he finally said yes, it led to a podcast with his former coach at Plymouth, Jay Marriott, and the opportunity with Sky.

“I remember my first game, I didn’t know what I was doing,” he laughs of the moment not two years ago. “I just showed up at Newcastle and realised I had a passion for it.

“I said to my wife, I could play four or five years in a Mike Tuck role as the leader of the locker room, playing five minutes a game, or I could get a headstart on my next career.

“Many people work their whole lives to get this opportunity, and this just fell in my lap, so I need to take advantage of it. I wasn’t the most talented player, everything came through hard work and going the extra mile - everything that’s required for this industry.”

Like all people working in sports media trying to promote a minority game like basketball, he is trying to strike a balance between educating newcomers and informing the established fanbase.

The league’s new financial backers 777 Partners have made the opportunities for growth of the sport in Britain more exciting than at any time in his two decades here - “there’s no ceiling on where this league could be in two years” - and with the use of social media clips and broadcast deals in the United States, have put more eyeballs on it than ever before. Lasker appreciates the importance of his role in that.

“They’ve given me the freedom to produce myself,” explains Lasker. “The first couple of weeks the CEO (Aaron Radin) was advising me to tell stories in my piece, because in order to get audiences to respond to players you’ve got to be able to tell their story. It’s about helping the audience relate.”

He will be on the mic this weekend in Birmingham for the BBL Trophy finals, when Caledonia Gladiators, Leicester Riders and Cheshire Phoenix will try and stop big-spending favourites London Lions from lifting the first silverware of the season.

“London 10 times out of 10 is going to win the league. Where teams can get them is on a one-off, at a neutral venue, where everybody expects you to win,” says Lasker.

“I’ve been there. In 2015 Newcastle were expected to win all four and when we won it, it was more of a relief because of all that expectation and all that pressure.

“London have all the expectation, everyone else is playing with house money.

“You’ve got to be aggressive, you’ve got to play with nothing to lose.”

His role also calls for him to be opinionated, which means sometimes offending people he has played with and against.

While never playing for the Sheffield Sharks, he has come up against Yorkshire’s sole top-flight basketball team many a time.

He has seen enough of them in his new role to know they are a team in transition, trying to play catch up in an increasingly competitive league.

Their record in the league of 11-10 (wins-losses) and the fact they were eliminated from this month’s BBL Trophy with one win and three defeats, suggests he is not far off the mark.

“I’ve been really critical of them in the media the last couple of years in regards to how they play offensively,” says Lasker of the Sharks.

“They’ve always been great defensively, but they needed to be faster, needing to adapt to the British Basketball League as it is now.

“I tip my hat off to Atiba (Lyons - head coach) because if you look at the roster at the beginning of the year it was more built around having small dynamic guards offensively that could play with pace.

“They’re also going through this at Bristol Flyers, who like Sheffield, have this slow-motion offence.

“I’m not a huge fan because if you scout it well you can take it away and that’s why if you notice, the last five/six years, the lowest-scoring teams were Bristol and Sheffield.

“Now Atiba has adapted with the personnel, the next step is to evolve the offence by making it more freer than what it is. So there’s been growing pains with that.”

More money in the league has created another challenge - filling out and managing deeper rosters.

At times in the last few years Sharks have played with as few as seven players. At one stage this year, Lyons had five players on the court and seven players on the bench to try and give minutes to.

“That’s the next thing he will have to adapt to, and a lot of coaches in this league,” says Lasker, “coaching with depth. This is the deepest I’ve ever seen a Sharks roster.

“It used to be when you had small budgets you’d got to get the best seven that you can get, now the budgets have been increased and coaches that have been in the league have to adapt to coaching with big rosters.

“I look at Sheffield’s minutes over the last couple of games, they fluctuate, which tells me that Atiba is still trying to figure out how to coach a 10-man roster, how to balance that roster, what is the best combinations, so it’s a learning curve.

“Once he figures that out I think this next era for Sheffield we’re going to see them take a big step forward because they already have the defence sorted. Once his offence catches up to the defence, they’re going to be one of the top teams in the league for years to come.

“This year is a learning curve for him, an adjustment. They always finish strong, so I wouldn’t give up on the season.

“Once he figures out the right mix they’re going to be strong and I think in the future they’re going to be consistent.”