Last month, in an interview with OregonLive.com, it was said of Marshall Glickman - the American behind the GBB League that has controversially been awarded the licence to run the men’s professional basketball league in this country by the British Basketball Federation - that he was CEO of a group launching a new top-tier men’s basketball league in England.

So far, so good. Or, so far, so controversial, depending on which way you lean in British basketball’s civil war.

But the red flag was waved when the author of the article went on to write: “Ten teams will start play in 2027.”

Hang on a minute, didn’t the British Basketball Federation award a 15-year-licence to the GBB League - an illegal process in the eyes of the previous licence-holding Super League Basketball - from the start of the 2026-27 season, which would mean a tip-off of September 2026?

Yes, is the answer to that one. 

Now, this could have been a typo on the part of the journalist from OregonLive.com, (Lord knows I’ve made some whoppers in my time). And it wasn’t a direct quote from Glickman, the one-time president of the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA.

But it was still left there for all to see and a month later hasn’t been taken down. Now, in a vacuum of silence which is what we’ve had from the GBB League since much earlier in the summer when Mr Glickman confirmed what The Yorkshire Post had seen in the investor sheet, that they wanted to “disrupt traditional formats” in British basketball by “migrating 25 per cent of games away from local venues”, something like this festers.

So in mid-August, I put it to the communications professional who has been acting on behalf of the GBB League in the country they’re set to launch a league in in 12 months’ time, asking him for comment on behalf of the new venture. Was it a typo? Or is the GBB League pushing back its start date, I asked? This gentleman had been very helpful in the past in promptly procuring responses to my questions from Mr Glickman.

But no reply came this time. It’s August, I said to myself. He’s on holiday, just as I will be for the next two weeks. So I emailed him on my return to work on August 31, to either get clarity, a response, or even him laughing off the matter as a typo.

No reply again. I emailed him for a third time on Monday of this week and waited 24 hours to hit publish on this newsletter. Still nothing.

In between times, I emailed the chief executive of the GBB League, whose name is on the investor sheet, and who I had emailed back in June and who I am surmising got the English communications professional to contact me when I sent over my first tranche of questions about “disrupting league schedules”.

Nothing from the senior executive in the GBB League, either. No response. Nada.

I’ve emailed the British Basketball Federation for a response/clarity but they have yet to reply and have so very rarely replied to any of my recent questions about other elements of this ongoing saga that I may as well email LeBron James asking for courtside tickets to the Lakers’ home opener. 

So what are we supposed to make of this?

If the phrase “Ten teams will start to play in 2027” is a typo, why not ask for the writer to amend it to 2026/27? Again, if it is typo, why has the GBB League not taken one of the four opportunities I’ve given them to say as much? 

Or is it not a typo? Is the GBB League now going to start in 2027, and has therefore been delayed?

Is it going to be a summer league? Is that a choice they have made and Mr Glickman accidentally slipped it into conversation with a local journalist back in Oregon, because of the huge backlash they have received from the majority of the existing basketball ecosystem here in Britain, clubs like Sheffield Sharks, Newcastle Eagles and Leicester Riders, who each have an 11 per cent share in the league they play in and are pillars of the basketball community?

It’s all speculation of course, but speculation that has been allowed to grow because the GBB League have not taken the ample opportunities to nip said speculation in the bud.

In 10 days time the new Super League Basketball season begins, one that goes ahead outside the approval of the British Basketball Federation. As The Yorkshire Post revealed last month, they nearly got a new franchise off the ground in Liverpool but are understood to now be waiting to do that next season.

In 12 months’ time, supposedly, the new GBB League begins, but since early summer, the basketball community has been told very little more of its plans for how to take their game forward, a noble challenge the governing body in this country has entrusted them with. There is no information, or any leaks for that matter, of any new franchises and the SLB clubs remain steadfast in their refusal to play ball.

Whether it was a typo, or whether indeed the GBB League is delaying its launch, the basketball community deserves answers.

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Nick