Yahoo News Probe starts after Plymouth City Patriots stars miss flight to vital away game
An investigation has begun after two Plymouth City Patriots players failed to board an aeroplane and missed a vital game in Scotland. It meant the basketball team only had five players available, as a sixth was injured, during their defeat by Caledonia Gladiators in East Kilbride.
Plymouth City Patriots has not named the AWOL players, but they have been named on social media as North American imports Tyrell Green and Jacob Wiley. It is understood the players were at the airport, in Bristol, but for some reason did not get on the flight to Scotland.
The club put out a statement following the defeat which said: “Unfortunately two of the Plymouth City Patriots players were unable to make the game against Caledonia Gladiators today as they did not make the flight with the rest of the team. The club will be investigating the matter upon the team’s return from Glasgow”.
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It is understood the team is still north of the border. A Patriots spokesperson today told PlymouthLive: “The club will be making no further statement.”
Caledonia Gladiators defeated Patriots 96-81 yesterday, April 14, to leave the Plymouth side rock bottom of the British Basketball League Championship. The club has won just seven of its 35 matches this season.
However, the Patriots' performance received plaudits from fans on social media. Even the BBL Daily independent news site praised the backs-to-the-wall effort.
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In a post on X, BBL News said: “Caledonia take the win, but the Plymouth City Patriots - who could only field five players after Jacob Wiley and Tyrell Green failed to catch their flight - deserve a huge amount of credit for a heroic performance in tough circumstances.”
To which Dale Cannon responded: “Amazing performance by Plymouth.” On Facebook there were other tributes, with Iain Mullett saying: “Gladiators fan here. An outstanding performance with only five on the court.”
Stacey Millard posted: “Looks like it hasn’t stopped them being awesome tonight, Go Patriots.” And Mary Andrew wrote: “An amazing performance from the five who played the whole game. Absolute heroes.”
Basketball teams are only allowed to have five players on the court, but can have up to 10 on the bench. Patriots fielded Elvisi Dusha, Joe Hart, TJ Atwood, Cameron Copeland and Spencer Levi, but had no subs after the only other player who made it to Scotland, Jules Dang-Akodo, had to pull out with a shoulder injury.
Tyrell Green, sometimes named Tyrell Bellot-Green, arrived at Patriots in October 2023. The 28-year-old Canadian had played for Gladiators briefly in 2021, and has also played in leagues in Luxembourg, Sweden, Finland, and the Canadian Elite Basketball Leagues and Canadian NBL.
Jacob Wiley joined the Plymouth team in August last year. The 25-year-old is from Texas, USA, and had previously played league basketball in Greece.
Some posts on social media were critical of the players’ no-show. Dan Horton wrote on Facebook: “Both players should be told to board a flight straight back across the Atlantic and forced to pay for the cost of the travelling fans’ expenses."
But others were a tad more forgiving. Jodie Lee Gray posted: “I feel there is a place here for a bit of forgiveness. It’s a shame but these things happen.”
