BASKETBALL pro Sullivan Phillips has urged Bermuda to give the sport the backing it deserves.

He said basketball was one of Bermujda's most successful team sports but got little in the way of money or resources.

Phillips, speaking from the Czech Republic where he now plies his trade, told the Mid-Ocean News: "It is highly overlooked. No disrespect to any other sport but when was the last time you heard of any other team sport in Bermuda go away and produce?

"We have gone to three Island Games and come back with medals and the opportunities for sponsorship are unbelievable. Seven games in seven days is very, very difficult but we still came back with a result. I wish people would take notice ¿ this is a winning entity and if something isn't given to the sport it is going to fade away.

"You have a bunch of guys who are talented and can open it up for other people but it is going to be wasted.

"I would hope Bermuda is competing at the highest possible level and someone in the public sees we are winning and gives us some sponsorship so we can prepare more then."

Bermuda came second in the Island Games in Rhodes this past summer ¿ something which still rankles the competitive Phillips.

"The team we lost to ¿ we let them win. We gave them the game. It is definitely disappointing."

He said he never practiced with the squad more than a couple of weeks before a tournament but he hopes more can be done to prepare next time around.

"I hope to go and come back with a first-place medal."

It could mean a trip to the Aland Islands which is hosting most of the 2009 Island Games but Phillips is used to traveling the world with his sport since turning pro seven years ago.

He played in Brighton, England and in Switzerland and also in play-offs in France and Germany and had two years as a pro at London Towers in England.

Last year he played for Hungarian sides Kaposvar and Albacomp.

"The first team I had I loved it. It was the perfect set-up but they weren't paying me on time so I had to get out of there as soon as possible."

And this year he switched to Pardubice in the Czech Republic for more money and says he makes a decent living, better than when he was in London where the sport is a minority interest compared to football.

Phillips confessed he finds his latest team heavy on tactics.

"It's a tough adjustment ¿ new teammates, new coach and adjusting to a different style of play. It was kind of difficult.

"It is a little more strategic here ¿ more X's and O's. You have to pay attention."

But the work on the blackboard seems to be paying off. His side is now fourth-placed in the league after about a quarter of the season. "I think for the team that we have we are doing all right."

Pardubice is a town of nearly 90,000 located about 100 km from the picturesque capitol Prague.

"We have the biggest crowds in the country. Every week we get 2,000 at home games, if we play the top team we had like 4,000 people, not bad."

Czech crowds are very loyal and followed the team everywhere, even though football is the biggest sport in the central European country, said Phillips.

"We can play five hours away and you are going to see 50 to 100 people at that game who are going to scream your name. In London it's not the same, you got five Premiership football teams.

"If we are going away people can always go to a football game that's closer, so people aren't going to come away and watch us there."

Phillips admits the language barrier is a problem in his adopted country, aside from trips to Prague which is teaming with different nationalities.

"It's very cold over here but that is something you adjust to. The main barrier is the language which is the most difficult thing.

"I preferred London for the nightlife, we won a lot of games and they spoke English."

Now 28, Phillips believes he has up to four years left in pro basketball and he'd love a chance to play in America but thinks openings are few and far between. "You have to know somebody who knows somebody."

But Phillips, whose mother lives in Spice Hill, Warwick is not complaining about where life has taken him so far.

"It is the best job in the world. You work four hours a day ¿ it is a hard four hours but the rest of the day you have to yourself." He spends some of his leisure time studying for a behaviour therapy qualification to work in the school system. "I can get my summers off still. I would definitely come back to work. But Pardubice is a cool place, a nice lifestyle. My life is very easy compared to most."