It is true to say the London Towers basketball club no longer exists, but a former coach still has fond memories of the Crystal Palace-based outfit.

Nick Nurse returned to London last Thursday to help his Toronto Raptors side complete a thrilling 106-103 overtime victory over Orlando Magic in NBA Global Games in front of a sold out crowd at The O2 arena.

The 48-year-old American was a well-known figure on the British basketball circuit, successfully winning two BBL titles with Birmingham Bullets and Manchester Giants, during the early part of his coaching career before landing a lucrative assistant coach role with Canada’s sole NBA outfit.

Nurse coached the Towers in the 2000-01 season and remembers the EuroLeague campaign during his one year in charge extremely well.

He said: “It was cool. You never really knew what was coming. You would get different levels of teams and then you would get the really good teams.

“We played against Pau Gasol when he was a youngster at Barcelona and Andrei Kirilenko when he was at CSKA Moscow.

"It was neat to play against the best players in the world outside the NBA at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, they were special nights.”