Turns out Nigel Lloyd never wanted to be away all along.
The coach who spent the last eight years missing from local basketball said he felt the then Barbados Amateur Basketball Association (BABA) executive didn’t want him around after that council explained it was taking the national programme in a totally different direction.
Lloyd broke the air this week when he returned to Barbados for the first time since being unceremoniously sacked as the men’s head coach in 2006.
“I didn’t think they needed me anymore,” reasoned the British-born 53-year-old who was returned to the same post less than two months ago.
“We got to fifth at the Commonwealth Games and everyone thought maybe that was our peak and we couldn’t do any better so they needed to move in another direction, at least that’s what I was told.
“But it’s not because I wanted to [be away], but the people that were in charge decided they wanted to go in another direction, and that’s why I have been away to be honest,” he added.
It marked the startling end to easily the greatest era of local basketball, with Lloyd inexplicably replaced as coach despite leading Barbados to 2006’s historic fifth-place finish at the country’s only appearance in the sport at a Commonwealth Games.
And this was after he already played a pivotal role in both of Barbados’ regional title-winning teams in 1994 and 2000 as a prolific combo guard.
The country’s fortunes haven’t fared the same since, as the team came sixth at the Caribbean Basketball Championships later in 2006 before registering a couple sixth-place showings in the last two additions.
“It seems like for a couple years I’ve been watching what we’ve been doing and we’ve been down a bit so it’s just a matter of trying to give back again and right now I’m in a position to do that,” Lloyd said.
“I followed enough and obviously I still keep in contact with guys here like [chairman of the selection committee] Francis [Williams] so I know what’s going on, so I just want to help basketball progress in another direction.
“But it’s going to be small steps because we’re starting from scratch basically. What we built before, all that’s gone,” he added.
Lloyd, who was re-appointed to the post in April, is set to start national practice today with most of the members of a 22-man trial squad.
