Basketball On The Internet.

IT doesn't matter if it's Lindsay Gaze building the South East Conference in the 60s, John Raschke igniting the NBL in the 70s or Ted Powell initiating the WNBL in the 80s - Australia's success in devising appropriate leagues to carry the game forward has never had squat to do with Basketball Australia.

Individuals representing clubs, clubs wanting more than their domestic leagues could provide - those were the drivers and desires that spawned leagues we now take for granted. (Except the long-lamented SEC/SEABL which, after giving its administration over to BA, now finds itself rebranded as NBL1 South, along with a bunch of other NBL1s.)

What BA has been solid at is endorsing leagues as they have evolved. But setting them up? Running them? Forget it. It is the sport's governing body and has so much to do already.

BA may be many things, but as an administrator of a top-level weekly elite competition - and at the risk of having my wrist slapped again on social media by WNBL Head Christy Collier-Hill - it is a routine failure.

News Corps' reporting that the BA-run WNBL had its clubs losing close to $5million last season should come as no real surprise to anyone with more than a 10-second attention span.

When the NBL was in trouble more than a decade ago, BA "bailed it out" by running it and though its commitment to the elite men's league was commendable, beyond former CEO Larry Sengstock and his hand-picked helpers, there was little real will to give the league its proper priority.

So the clubs eventually reclaimed it. You remember when then-BA CEO Kristina Keneally proudly introduced us all to a new word - "demerger" - as the federation and its NBL clubs consciously uncoupled?

Eventually, a white knight in the form of Larry Kestleman rode in on his figurative white horse, doffed his lance and said: "Give me a shot at this."

It's been pretty impressive since today's Larry took off with the vision of yesterday's Larry.

Now BA is asking him to take a run at the WNBL, its clubs anxious to get out from under the federation's apron strings.

Meanwhile free agency, the collective bargaining agreement and the tip-off for next season all remain ensconsed in limbo.

LOOK OUT: Michael Randall risked a nasty turn from Christy Collier-Hill on his socials!

Not so very long ago, as many will recall, Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart, withdrew a $15million sponsorship for netball.

Rinehart withdrew it after Indigenous player Donnell Wallam requested her uniform not carry the Hancock Prospecting logo due to comments Gina's father Lang Hancock made in the 80s.

Grossly offensive as those comments were and remain, and not disputing Wallam's right to protest, there seemed to be ways to have resolved the issue over something said 40 years ago.

But the issue remained unresolved, Rinehart withdrew her sponsorship and netball was saved by the Victorian Government.

When a sport such as basketball, which has had its WNBL established for 43 years, finds itself in a $5million crisis, would a phone call to Rinehart have been worth consideration?

Too risky? Too potentially controversial? Or just too hard?

It seems it will fall again now to Kestelman to consider what is in both the NBL's and his best interests, before buying into the WNBL's BA-coloured blues.

Meanwhile the WNBL's free agents sit around pondering what their futures hold.