Basketball On The Internet.

BRISBANE-based journo and hoops junkie BRAYDEN HESLEHURST joins B.O.T.I. and says the NBL is overdue showing its cards on the Brisbane bid for 2015-16.

THE NBL has guaranteed a Brisbane team will return for the 2015-16 season, but what's new?

For the past six months basketball fans from around the country, and especially in Brisbane, have been all but assured there will be a team playing out of Queensland’s capital for the first time since the Bullets folded in 2008.

Despite NBL CEO Fraser Neill making a big announcement at the conclusion of the Blitz tournament at Auchenflower last month, no more information has been provided or made public for the Brisbane people to be excited about.

For too long the NBL has left the Brisbane community in the dark about the progress of the return rather than releasing whatever information it has to the public to keep them actually interested and excited about what is to come.

If there is a guarantee the team will be back, then what is the harm in keeping the very fans who have been starved of action for six years updated?

We don’t know anything about the possible groups vying for the license or who is behind it.

Tasmania's bid group made public a long time ago that former NBL sharpshooter Anthony Stewart is the man leading the charge to bring a professional outfit back to the Apple Isle.

Although Brisbane basketball fans are still excited about the possibility of a return to the NBL, some are growing more and more pessimistic about the idea since nothing new has come to light.

Neill has reportedly told potential bidders they have until November to apply for the license but by taking so long to release any information about possible groups, the NBL may face the threat of losing fans before the return has even happened.

The Blitz tournament in September showed Brisbane fans were ready to support NBL basketball and now is the time for the league to give back to fans, who have waited so long, by making things happen or not being so secretive about the people or groups interested in holding the license.

Also along with the return of a Brisbane team, I believe the return of the BULLETS name is a must.

With any talk surrounding Brisbane's re-entry into the NBL, the word "return" is always mentioned.

Without the Bullets name, made so famous by the likes of Leroy Loggins, it is not a return but just the addition of a new team.

The very thing the league struggles with, apart from in Perth and maybe New Zealand, is putting bums on seats and gaining the interest from the wider community.

If a Brisbane team returned without the historical name, that interest might not be there and success will be harder to come by.

Two weeks ago, NBL legend and former Brisbane Bullets championship captain Sam Mackinnon said he wouldn't pass up the opportunity, if approached, to coach the returning team.

Which also brings forth the question… When Brisbane does return who should be the candidates to lead a new era of basketball in southeast Queensland?

Here's my piece on that at News Corp: http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/east/former-bullets-captain-sam-mackinnon-says-he-wouldnt-pass-up-a-chance-to-coach-when-brisbane-returns-to-the-nbl/story-fni9r20i-1227078014026

*Brayden Heslehurst has been playing basketball 

for nearly 20 years since starting as a junior at 

Southern Districts Spartans (Brisbane) and

Sturt Sabres (Adelaide). He played four years

in the SEABL program with the Brisbane Spartans

in the senior and reserves team, has coached

rep and school basketball in Brisbane and been

a sports journalist with NewsCorp’s Quest

Community Newspapers since October, 2011.*