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BA's chance to cash in
TweetTHE wealth of potential talent on Andrej Lemanis' Boomers' team for the Oceania Qualifying Series against New Zealand gives Basketball Australia a real chance to make headway with its WNBL television coverage.
I mean, BA now does boast a bit of leverage with FTA networks who realistically should be clamouring to show the Boomers-Tall Blacks match out of Melbourne on August 15, given the stated availability of our NBA contingent.
Yes, there's some chance we may lose someone out of Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Matty Dellavedova, Aron Baynes, Dante Exum or Cam Bairstow to injury or illness before tip-off. But the fact they have all committed to the series is huge.
Not to mention our Euro contingent David Andersen, Brad Newley, Ryan Broekhoff, Nathan Jawai, Chris Goulding... although I guess I just did.
It should mean BA can hit a network - Olympic network Seven would be a great starting point - and tie WNBL coverage on as a postscript to showing our star Aussie ballers in action in the Rio Olympic qualifier.
Surely the networks are aware of the rabid Aussie interest in all things NBA, as reflected in our NBA League Pass subscriptions.
And if FTA coverage post-Oceania means hiring a company to cover production, then let's do that.
First one to contact? McGuire Media.
Yes, it's run by Eddie Everywhere but McGuire Media currently is producing VFL, SANFL and WAFL telecasts.
It's an independent television production company specialising in sports and entertainment for all media platforms including Network Television at the highest level and is based in Richmond, Melbourne.
Imagine the cache of having such a reputable firm producing WNBL (NBL?) coverage.
Just a thought.
HERE'S something you may not know.
These days as FIBA gets more and more like FIFA - World Cup instead of World Championship, two-leg (home/away) formats instead of best-ofs - the Oceania Series presents an interesting tie-breaker situation.
If at the end of the second game, in New Zealand, the series should happen to be tied at 1-1 and the margins identical - say we win 88-80 in Melbourne and the Tall Blacks tie it 77-69 in NZ - then the teams will have to play overtime!
And if the margin remains identical at the end of the five-minute extension - for example in this instance, eight points - they'd therefore still be tied so would have to play a second overtime. And a third. And another ... You get the picture.
How much of an advantage does that give New Zealand at home for the second leg?
The irony here, of course - and it isn't lost on Lemanis - is that he helped build New Zealand basketball through his long involvement as head coach of the NBL's Breakers.
Three successive championships with the Breakers helped him get his Boomers job.
Now his success across the Tasman may come back to bite him on the buttocks.
"Yeah, I do think about that sometimes," he admitted today.
Surely FIBA should have looked at more FIFA options and if the series was tied, had a free throw shoot-out ... with a seven-footer from the opposition trying to block the shot...
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