Boss Mick McCarthy says he was glad he opted to coach rather than play in Sunday’s Hoopsaid charity basketball event at the Copper Box in the Olympic Park. The Town boss revealed that he was keen basketball player as a youngster.
He says he got involved after getting to know the organiser: "A met a guy called Lance Haggith, whose son Ellis is a good basketball player, he got a scholarship with Leicester Riders but he’s developed leukaemia and I went to see him up in Cambridge.
"His dad runs SportsTraider, which is charity which runs shops. The event was arranged by him and his lad Ellis was there having been pumped full of drugs to get there. That was my involvement with it.
"I didn’t do too much coaching. They asked me what they should do and I said, ‘Just catch it and put it in the net!’.”
He says he was pleased he didn’t play once he saw the skills and pace of the professionals and how some of the other celebrities fared: "I could have played but I saw one of the basketball players run at somebody and I nearly fell off my stool, they were fabulous! They were amazing, the pros.
"One of the celebs playing, Dane Bowers, he was carried off and I went into the dressing room and he’d torn his Achilles’. I knew it was a good decision not to get involved in that!”
McCarthy's SportsTraider All-Stars lost 88-84 to the Hoopsaid All-Stars in front of a crowd which included boxer David Haye and ex-Blues Liam Trotter and Kevin Lisbie and former loanee Aaron Mclean.
The Town boss says he enjoyed playing basketball as a youngster: "I used to play as a kid. When I was at school at 15 it was a bit like should I play basketball regularly or should I play football regularly.
"I was half-decent at basketball, so they probably thought I could, but I’m so glad I played football, because I’m not very big in that basketball world, they called me ‘wee man’ on Sunday!”