Leicester Riders are ready for the crescendo of their season- the Super League Basketball Playoff Final at the O2 Arena.
They face their long-standing rivals, the Newcastle Eagles, on the sport’s biggest stage, hoping to take home the seventh title in the Club’s history.
Charles Thompson, the SLB Defensive Player of the season, played an integral part in getting the team there. He went off in the first quarter of the Semi-Final Second Leg to quickly level the 10-point deficit the Riders entered the game with.

He and the Riders have taken on Sunday’s opponents six times this year. Here, Thompson previews the action.
Riders fans fuel Thompson’s decorated rookie season
Thompson, the Riders’ rookie shot-blocking sensation, has enjoyed a decorated individual season. Thompson was named Defensive Player of the Year and was voted to the Team of the Year and Defensive Team of the Year by leading the league in blocks per game.
Thompson broke the Riders’ record for blocks in a season, emphasising the impact he has had on Leicester’s year. All that’s left now, he says, is silverware.
“I’ve accomplished everything I could have wanted to accomplish from my rookie season,” said Thompson. “Now all we have to do is tie the bow on the present.”
Thompson is a fan favourite in Leicester, having won the Fans’ Player of the Year award in the Club’s end-of-season awards. He tipped his hat to the community, which has embraced him in his rookie year.
“As a team, we love the fan base and the organisation, so we want to do them proud.
“We’ve all been impressed with how die-hard the fans are. They travel up and down the country to see us play, come back on the same day, and book hotels. They’re really in love with the game, and they want to maintain the league’s tradition, which is honestly amazing to see.”
Digging deep to overcome deficit to Sheffield
The Riders overcame all odds to get here. They were down as much as 20 points in the third quarter of the first leg after starting 1-15 from three, then battled back to make the difference 10 going back to Leicester.
From there, they tied the game through Thompson’s dominance, who had three jams in the opening stages, then, after a thrilling back-and-forth encounter, got the game over the line in overtime.
The final buzzer saw an explosion of emotion from the Riders, who had fallen heartbreakingly short of finals throughout the year, losing two Semi-Finals on aggregate. Thompson was visibly elated in the postgame celebrations.
“We had a bad record in aggregate games this season in semi-finals, especially at home, so it was nice to actually get one. We hadn’t won one all season, so now we have the chance to get ourselves some hardware.”
After the First Leg, with the Riders down ten, the pressure of falling in another Semi-Final could easily have affected Leicester. Instead, it bred confidence in the team.
“We felt like the pressure had shifted to them. When we were in Sheffield, they should have beaten us by 20 or 30, so the fact that it was only a ten point game and they hadn’t even received our best punch was a positive for us.
“I felt that they thought they were going to come into our building and we’d lie down because we were down ten. No, it’s still a game, so we gave it all we had.”
‘Resilient’ Newcastle pose perimeter threat
The Riders and Eagles have a storied history and have shared intense battles not only over the last decade and a half, but over the course of the season.
The Riders won the season series 3-1 in the league, winning comfortably at home but going to war with the Eagles in Newcastle. Leicester beat the Eagles on the road in their most recent visit to the North East in a game which Newcastle ended with only four players on the court.
But the Eagles bested the Riders in the Trophy Semi-Final, going on to win the competition, and have experience in the ENBL Final this season where they fell short to CSO Voluntari.
They have a roster full of dangerous players on the perimeter who are able to create their own shots. Mike Okauru, the league’s second-leading scorer on the season, had 17 in the first quarter of the Trophy Final, hitting five threes to start the game.
Thompson evaluated the threat Sunday’s opponents pose to the Riders.

“They’re a resilient team. They’ve played in two finals, the Trophy and the ENBL Final, and won some silverware already. They’re experienced, and they have close to 70 games under their belt, so what’s one more to them?
“They have some great dynamic guards, Trey Pulliam, Seneca Knight and Okauru and some pretty good forwards like Cole Long, so it’s an interesting matchup.”
Riding high on confidence after Semi-Final triumph
When the Riders beat the Sharks in the Semi-Final, they may well have played their best ball of the season. From the jump, they were suffocating on defence to subdue the Sharks’ stars, and ended the game beating one of the premier outfits in the league by 20.
That’s given Thompson all the encouragement he needs ahead of the big game on Sunday.
“If we play like we did against Sheffield in the Second Leg, it’s ours to lose as long as we play with the same amount of energy and intensity.
“We know we have to punch first, and when they punch back, we punch even harder. From the start, we need to bring our best effort and do our best to slow down their guards.
“It would be an amazing way to cap off my first professional year. I can’t even tell you how I would feel in that moment.”