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BA should get on the front foot - but won't
TweetIT IS a crying shame Anthony Moore doesn't take his seat as Basketball Australia CEO until October 13 because right now our federation should be showing some onions and seeking legal advice on Goran Dragic's defamatory tweet.
Be in no doubt, after Australia's loss to Angola at the FIBA World Cup when Phoenix Suns guard Dragic tweeted: "Basketball is a beautiful sport, there is no room for fixing the game like today Australia vs Angola! @FIBA should do something about that!” that's what set FIBA into motion.
Well if BA had a CEO right now instead of a vacant seat since Kristina Keneally sought greener pastures, it should IMMEDIATELY have responded by threatening Dragic with legal action.
That would have made FIBA sit up and take notice too, as it clearly was not when Croatia ran its bench in its intragroup loss to Senegal, the crime the Boomers committed in their loss to Angola.
What a shame Spain's NBA superstar Pau Gasol didn't tweet something along the lines of Dragic's tortured nonsense regarding Croatia. Then they too could have been subject of an absurd investigation.
BA only even responded to the allegations and FIBA's action when they were already in the public domain.
What it should have done is declared Dragic's tweet as offensive and insulting and referred it to their solicitors.
And equally importantly, told the world it was doing so.
I wonder then if FIBA would have investigated?
Maybe it is time FIBA was investigated and we got to the bottom of how teams earn "wildcard" entries into the World Cup.
Or maybe Slovenia should be investigated. After all, it was a mere seven down at halftime to the USA but lost its quarter-final by a Dream Team-esque 43 points!
Did they throw it in?
I see France repeated its feats of the Sydney 2000 Olympics to reach the semi final against Serbia by upsetting Spain today.
Were those darn Spaniards trying to avoid the USA?
I can keep highlighting absurdities, but why spoil you?
BA needs strong, aggressive leadership and it is a great shame we are a month away from getting it.
We still have the Opals at a World Championship in between - woe to them if they should lose the unexpected! - but there is some positive news on the horizon.
FIBA secretary-general Patrick Baumann, who will adjudicate on Australia's alleged tanking, was in Australia this year and came across as a sharp, intelligent man with vision and foresight.
He would be abundantly aware how basketball's stocks have been in the doldrums in mainstream Australia for quite some time.
He would note the NBL dragged itself up by the boot-straps last season - again with a positive new leader in Fraser Neill (even if his wings have appeared to have been clipped as of late) - and that Australia is getting more and more attention from the NBA.
He can see the game is back in an upswing so the last thing it needs is to be tainted and retarded by this ongoing show.
Fines, suspensions, sanctions - in fact any penalty at all would send the game backwards at a time when Oceania sent both of its entrants through to the Round-of-16 while Asia's teams, for example, went home.
The game is experiencing a rebirth and only Australia's complete exoneration would allow this hiccup to be forgotten.
It is time for wise men to show wisdom. Even if BA still lacks the courage to get on the front foot.
