The National Cup final was a competition that the two versions of Leopards reached the final of five times – albeit in different formats. It was the first piece of silverware both Big Cats won, and a seriously impressive ad valuable piece of silverware that lived in my unused shower room for several years.
The 2001 final wasn’t quite as successful for Bob Donewald’s Leopards as they suffered an agonising defeat against Leicester Riders. It was a match-up that the BBL must have been delighted to promote as Leopards faced their former coach Billy Mims. While many Leopards fans still liked the man who’d coached them for the first five years of their history and won back-to-back league titles as well as the 1997 Cup, Donewald hated him – and the feeling was mutual.
What could go wrong?
Leopards' history 