Jalon Pipkins goes from Dallas, Texas to Sheffield Sharks, Yorkshire to continue his basketball journey

The comparison was made by Jalon Pipkins, Sheffield Sharks’ late season recruit, whose arrival in mid-February helped spark a revival among the squad that makes them dark horses for the BBL play-off title over the coming weeks.

Pipkins grew up in Texas, which is where his mind wanders when asked how he is settling in to life in Sheffield.

"It feels like home to me,” the 24-year-old point guard warmly offers.

"I grew up in a small city outside of Dallas called Paris, Texas. There, you’ve got the city and then straight out into green pastures and fields – and that’s exactly what I’ve found here. It’s a good balance."

For Pipkins, the working-class, sports-mad culture he has found in Sheffield draws another comparison to where he grew up. Sheffield and Texas are manufacturing hotbeds of their respective countries, long days for its workers leading to a myriad sporting options to escape to.

“High school football is the one back home,” says Pipkins. "It’s so serious over there, it’s crazy. It’s more football, but basketball is growing.

"You see a lot of athletes transitioning to basketball. But nothing compares to the culture of Friday night football.

"My dad’s a football coach, he’s old school, so he says it’s because high school players are becoming softer that they want to go play basketball.

"But in all seriousness, basketball is growing in the southern parts of the United States.”

Basketball is on the rise in Britain too. Participation figures among the youth are second only to football.

People like Yuri Matischen – Sheffield Sharks’ very own JR Ewing minus the cowboy hat and enormous cigar – have been promoting the game in a cluttered marketplace for decades, but the fresh investment coming into the league and appointment of a new CEO, feels like the cavalry riding over the hill.

Talent on the court is on the rise, so is the standard of competition.

Pipkins spent over a year playing professionally in Finland before deciding his career would be better served with a stint in the British game. He arrived two months ago into a team struggling for an identity and for wins. Their prospects of reaching the BBL play-offs for a 28th consecutive season, hung in the balance.

"I didn’t come into a struggling locker room at all,” Pipkins interjects. “They were just trying to find a cohesiveness as a team, figuring out what coach (Atiba Lyons) wants us to do, how he wants us to play.

“If you're a basketball player and you want to get better then you would love this situation because there’s that many good players to play with.

"It can be anybody’s night – you can’t just have one guy that you rely on. In this league you need seven or eight, and I think we’ve got that. It’s all coming together now.”

It certainly is. Sharks have won eight of their last nine games including scalps against new and old champions, London Lions and Leicester Riders, which makes them dangerous opponents in the two-legged play-offs.

They are three games away for the Sheffield Sharks, who play Manchester Giants on Friday night and then Leicester and Bristol Flyers in next weekend’s regular-season finale.

"These next few games are big because we play some of the top teams – we need to take this momentum into the play-offs. The whole organisation is excited right now.”

Tip-off at Ponds Forge on Friday night is at 7.30pm.