Bermuda's professional basketball players have both been on the move over the summer.

Sullivan Phillips has moved from Birmingham to Brighton and swapped the Bullets for the Bears, while David Patrick has moved even further afield, joining Alcora of the Spanish Second Division.

The 24-year-old Phillips has joined the south coast Bears after one season with British Basketball League rivals Birmingham Bullets.

"We have signed a player who is extremely athletic and has a ton of potential," said coach Nick Nurse of the 6ft 5ins guard/forward. "He can really develop into a top level basketball player. He can play point guard, he can rebound and he can finish. He is also very coachable and hard working. He is what I call an all-rounder in that he can play four positions."

Phillips led the Bullets in steals and assists, whilst also being their second top rebounder last season. He averaged ten points and six rebounds per game, and placed among the BBL's best in assists and defensive rebounding.

"He can handle the ball well and I like his assist-to-turnover ratio," Nurse added. "Being a great defender means he fits in well with us. All three players I have signed so far fit into that category.

"Sullivan is probably along the same lines as Philip Perre . . . in that they are two of the brightest young players around. This shows our commitment to young English talent and underlines the fact that Brighton is the place for up-and-coming players to come and play."

Prior to joining the Bullets, Phillips attended Columbia Union College in NCAA Division II, where he averaged 13 points and seven rebounds per game in his final season.

The Bears have begun pre-season training and are in action at lower-division Bognor Pirates today. The season proper starts with a visit from Thames Valley Tigers on October 4.

Patrick, meanwhile, is hoping to put a bad experience at the Chester Jets behind him following his move to Spain and Alcora, a small town on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, close to Valencia.

"My agent had deals for me in Germany and Spain," Patrick said from Spain yesterday. "At first I was leaning towards Germany, but when I looked further into the situation Spain was better in all areas, especially from a financial standpoint.

"They (Alcora) saw me in February at a camp I attended in Chicago after I left England where I played well enough to have a few offers."

Patrick is hoping the move will put his career back on track.

"I pray, yes," he said. "I have been in bad situations from organisations who have not been financially stable, like Canberra (in Australia) who went bankrupt.

"In England there were a whole lot of promises but nothing was actually true. As a result I think I have learned a lot, as you do in professional sports. I now think I have finally fallen on my feet in a good situation. I am finally starting as the point guard after three years of learning the position from a professional standpoint and I think the fact the management seemed very sincere in looking after my wife and I made it a perfect fit."

Patrick says he is ideally suited to the style of play of the Spanish league.

"All of Spain is a very fast-paced style," he said. "Spanish basketball is one of the top two leagues in Europe so they are all very good players, as seen from the recent European Championships. The coach's style is exactly the way I play."

The season begins on Saturday, but the signs are already looking good for Alcora.

"We played in a nationwide tournament which finished on Friday where we made it to the final, but lost to a Valencia-based team," Patrick said. "It was the first time in the club's history that they had made it that far."