<P> Basketball is a minor sport in the United Kingdom . The top level league is the fourteen team semi-professional British Basketball League with the English Basketball League and Scottish Basketball League below them . While following an American franchise format rather than using promotion and relegation like most European leagues, the majority of recent additions and replacements for failing clubs have come from the English league . The teams are professional or semi-professional but have modest resources . As with football, the home nations teams were encouraged to work together for the Olympics, while British international basketball teams have not achieved any major successes since then, FIBA officials stated that if they re-entered the European competition after the Olympics as individual nations, they will be treated as unranked newcomers . After meeting with FIBA officials, Basketball Wales voted against making the merger permanent citing amongst other things, the lack of opportunity for Welsh players within a United Kingdom framework (no players in either the men's or women's Olympic squad were Welsh) and for the advancement of the game domestically (The BBL announced intentions to expand into several United Kingdom cities but neither Cardiff nor Swansea had been suggested). </P> <P> In 2014 FIBA formally, expelled Basketball Wales recognising the British Basketball Union as the sole representative for the UK . The BBU attempted to reconcile by allowing Basketball Wales to continue to organise a Welsh league at a level below the BBL (alongside the EBL and SBL which have no plans to merge), admitting a Welsh team to the Women's BBL (though there are still no plans to allow a Men's team into the national league) and promising to stage an annual "Kingdom cup" between teams representing the four Home Nations . </P> <P> Currently, the only British player in the North American NBA is Luol Deng, a South Sudanese refugee who is now naturalised in the United Kingdom . Barring misfortune, OG Anunoby, selected in the first round of the league's 2017 draft, will join Deng in the league for its upcoming 2017--18 season . Anunoby was born in London, but emigrated to the US as a child . </P> <P> As with American football the NBA have arranged regular season matches in London for several years now, the most recent being a two - game series between the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons at the O2 Arena, London . NBA Commissioner David Stern, has enthusiastically discussed the possibility of the NBA expanding into Europe, at one point envisioning a new division of 5 teams based in London, Paris, Berlin, Italy (Rome or Milan), and Spain (Madrid or Barcelona). Though in 2012 . Stern went on to say that of the sites suggested only London and Berlin had arenas of the standard expected in the NBA, while Spain and Italy's domestic leagues had become increasingly popular . The idea of a single team or pair of teams relocating to London and Berlin was dismissed as uneconomical due to the distances involved for away fixtures . </P>

How many sports clubs are there in the uk