Tees Valley Mohawks CEO Steve Butler "Teesside Lions are not a rivalry, our history outshines their's"

Tees Valley Mohawks finished on top of their D2 pool this season, gaining promotion to D1. Teesside Lions on the contary, they finished at the foot of their D1 pool and should be relegated to D2.

It is worth noting that basketball England reserves the right to deny promotion to a new division and therefore deny relegation if teams do not meet D1 standards.

As things stand, baring Basketball England intervention, Lions will be in D2 and the Mohawks will be in D1. Meaning the only way the teams will play will be the national cup. On the rivalry with the Lions and the prospect of facing off next season, I spoke to Tees Valley Mohawks CEO, Steve Butler:

"So, I don’t like calling it a rivalry to be honest. The Mohawks' history outshines the Lions. Lions did an incredible job getting promoted. Obviously, they’ve been relegated this year."

Butler added that their is ambiguity of next season with Basketball England reserving the right to deny promotion to a new division and therefore deny relegation if teams do not meet D1 standards.

Butler said: "Mohawks versus Lions always is a nice game to have home and away. At the current squads, I would say we’re stronger, but you just never know who you recruit over the summer and Lions are very good at recruiting very good players. So it'll be an interesting match-up if we do get to play them, but currently it is that they’ve gone down and we’ve moved up, so we’ve kind of replaced them. So that won't happen, but you just never know with Basketball England because they do some strange things."

Butler noted that the way the could play is the National Cup and that both sides came close to playing each other this season but Lions lost before they could come together in the bracket.

The club CEO said: "I would describe the relationship between the clubs as respectful but I wouldn't call it a friendly rivalry. It’s two good clubs within this area. A lot of people say, 'Has it diluted the area?' but I think it just kind of makes it more competitive. We’ll always have that rivalry and people will be looking to see who is at the top."