It’s the final weekend of Paris 2024 and we’re living through the biggest moment in the history of British Paralympic basketball. In fact, I believe it’s the biggest moment for British basketball, period.

Great Britain play the USA in the men’s wheelchair basketball final on Saturday and we have never won gold, either in the men’s or the women’s. What we have here is something that has taken decades. It is the work of the generation before me, my generation and those who came after, and now here we are; GB and the USA are by a wide margin the two best teams in the world.

So I want the whole of Britain to watch on Saturday; to support the British team, to cheer them on like you do the England football team, the Lionesses and the rugby team. We need you. We need your support. We need it because these guys have given everything. They have put their whole lives on the line for this moment.

For me it’s a personal thing of course. I have a connection with so many players, I’ve either played against them or been on the same team. Terry Bywater and I started together in Sydney 2000. Phil Pratt and I played wheelchair tennis doubles together and got to the final of the Lithuanian Open (a bit of a coincidence, I know). He’s now one of the best basketball players in the world and is on the verge of leading Great Britain to a gold medal.

It’s surreal, it’s emotional, it gives me a wonderful sense of pride and I also know that the work is not done. But what they are doing is representing at least five generations of British basketball players and a sport that has virtually no recognition in the UK. And we are playing against the USA – that is their Sport.

Most Brits started basketball from scratch. When they got injured or disabled and started playing wheelchair basketball, they had to learn how it works and how to understand it. It’s not like America and Europe where everyone plays basketball at school and learns it like a second skill. So it’s all the more remarkable for our boys to be where they are.

You also have to remember that a lot of them are coming from grassroots teams that have almost no resources and rely on volunteers to even keep going. So this is a real fairy tale story, a rags to riches script – we came from nothing to get this opportunity; 28 years, man, it was so hard.

A gold medal in basketball would cap off an incredible ParalympicsGB Games. At the time of writing we are second in the medal table and that is despite not doing as well as we would have liked in athletics, which has traditionally brought us much success. To be where we are is testament to the strength of our squad and we can be really proud of our achievement.

It kind of reinforces my opinion that we’re probably the leading Paralympic nation. Yes, we’re not top of the table. It’s hard to beat China. The last time China weren’t top of the table was in 2000 when Australia beat them and that was at home. Since then they’ve done great. But in terms of our achievements both on the field in a whole range of sports and off the field in breaking down barriers and perceptions of disability, when you look at the whole thing, we’re the No. 1 nation in the world.

There’s a lot to be proud of, but I also think these were good Games for France. I was definitely worried about how much the French would embrace the Paralympics. But in the end, the only sad thing is that they didn’t get enough finals, because every time I’ve seen the French compete in any competition, the crowd support has been immense. It’s so invigorating to see how much they support their athletes. And if they had gotten more finals, I think these Games could have potentially surpassed London.

The French had the support they needed but unfortunately they didn’t have the team to get them to the level they were at in London. And maybe that’s the catalyst. I know from talking to people during my time in Paris that there’s still a long way to go before French athletes get the tools they need to really compete with the best in the world. But now they know what it’s like, they’ve had a taste of it and there will be French children with disabilities all over the country, parents who have disabled children, who will be inspired by the Games and think, ‘My child needs these opportunities.’

I have felt that sense of legacy. My three-year-old son has come to these Games and it gives me particular pride to know that the Paralympics is his first experience of a major global sporting event. He learned the word Paralympian before the word Olympian and sees no difference between the caliber of athletes at both Games. That is where we need to be. Now we just need to bring home the basketball gold.