It was when Finlay Erskine began being recognised by strangers within the basketball world that he realised he just may have more of a talent than he realised.
Erskine has developed into one of the most promising young wheelchair basketball players in the UK and having already earned GB caps at under-23 level, is preparing to mark another significant milestone in his sporting career.
The 20-year-old from West Lothian is one quarter of the men’s wheelchair basketball squad that will represent Team Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and he will, he hopes, add further to the impressive reputation he’s building within the sport.
“This is a big milestone for me,” he says.
“it was when my former team, Lothian Phoenix, won Division Two a few years ago that people began to know who I was but I didn't know them. That’s when I started to think that maybe people are recognising me as a basketball player.
“And, from the general public's point of view, the Commonwealth Games is one of the biggest sporting events they'll see so this is a great platform to show people our sport.”
Erskine is joined in the men’s squad for Glasgow 2026 by Tyler Baines, Shayne Humphries and Ross McConnell while the women’s wheelchair squad is comprised of Kayli English, Robyn Love, Lea Smith and Jodie Waite. And Erskine's first taste of a multi-sport Games shows quite how far he’s come after being born with a disability and initially focussing his energies on becoming a swimmer.
“I was born with something similar to club foot and when I was six months old, they amputated my foot,” he says.
“But then when I went into primary school, they brought the amputation further up my leg so that I could weight bear better.
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“I used to swim but stopped enjoying it. And I went to a sports event where they had loads of different disability sports and I tried wheelchair basketball and since then I've been stuck on it.
“And now, I wear a prosthetic and I'm only in a wheelchair for playing basketball.”
Scotland has never sent a men’s wheelchair basketball squad to the Commonwealth Games but, with the advantage of being on home soil this summer, Erskine believes he and his compatriots have the ability to make an immediate impact and, at the same time, show people just what their sport is all about.
“They wheelchairs we use are like a little race car and it’s a non-contact sport, but just for your body. You can't go into the back of someone, or hit them in the side in certain ways, but you can smash them front-on and so you do end up on the floor a lot of the time and people go flying,” Erskine explains.
“As a team, initially we hope we to make the semi-finals, although you really need to make sure you do the right things to get there. And then meddling is the bottom line. That's what we want.
“We're going to see how far we can go but I believe we can get onto the podium so the big thing is sticking together and getting it done because there'll be a good few teams also believing they can medal.
“For wheelchair basketball in Scotland, it would be a huge thing for us to win a medal.
“We’re a young team but we're playing well, playing fast, playing physically and so I've got confidence in ourselves.
“We want to show off the sport and hopefully get more people into wheelchair basketball.”
