Brooklyn boy Tafari Toney making it big in GB basketball

Mar 13 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Tafari Toney had never been to Britain before he signed for Newcastle Eagles, but he is widely tipped to become a star of our national basketball team. Chief sports writer Luke Edwards found out why

IF there was one thing Tafari Toney knew about the British it was not their love of fish and chips, the Royal Family or even the quaint little red post boxes most Americans seem to find so amusing – it was tea.

Toney, though, did not need to get on a plane and cross the Atlantic to know that, he did not even have to leave the comfort of his apartment block in Brooklyn.

Like most things in his life, Toney picked up a taste for our national drink from his mother, Joan. A strong, proud and inspirational woman, it was Toney’s mother who not only gave him the strength of character to survive life in inner-city New York, but also the British passport which has made him one of the most talked about players in the British Basketball League.

“It says British citizen on my passport so that makes me British doesn’t it?” he said with a distinct American twang. “My mum was born in south London, Peckham, so that makes me half British and that’s enough.

“I was born and raised in New York, but she is a true Londoner who moved to America when she was 16. She drinks tea morning, noon and night, so she must be British.

“That was every day in our house when we were growing up. Nobody else was doing it, but my mum, she brought that little bit of England over with her. She brought me up on her own, she was so strong and I got my determination from her. She has kept on going, kept on going all her life.

“I’m real proud of her and I’ll always be grateful for the start she gave us in life. It was never easy for her, moving to a new country and then looking after three kids in the hood when my dad went back to Barbados.

“I remember when we were kids, when we got on her nerves, when she was going through all her struggles, she’d scream at us that she was leaving, that she was going back to London. But she’s never been back to the UK, not once. One day I’m gonna surprise her, get her a ticket and put her on a plane myself.” If he had been born in London, Toney is confident he would have made the grade as a footballer. A natural athlete, few Newcastle Eagles fans would disagree as the former Houston University prospect has made a huge impact in his first season of professional basketball.