Basketball On The Internet.

DEAR Mr Carfino. How have you been? Enjoying the sun? Slip, slop, slapping merrily away? Or focusing on just slapping away? 

Whatever works best for you to keep the stroke from getting too much.

Now I recognise that over the years in many and nefarious ways, I have become something of a sore point for you.

Perhaps it was referring to you as Ron Burgundy. Or maybe the faux quote: "Research? Que?" - I "attributed" to you tipped you over the edge.

I'm not sure which. But for you to claim on national television, albeit in front of mostly only a handful of viewers, that one of the reasons Adelaide's crowd number was down for its match with Townsville was because "Boti Nagy told 36ers fans to stay away" is not only patently false, completely inaccurate, entirely without foundation or justification and marginally malicious, but also is luminously ludicrous.

Under normal circumstances, I would have let your customary "shoot from the lip without any basis in fact" outburst go through to the keeper and just shake my head, as many, many NBL fans consistently do whenever you are talking. 

But a few people have taken offence on my behalf so I felt it prudent to comment and also to assuage any doubts of those strangers who don't yet know to be entirely dismissive of most remarks you make allegedly based on "something you read."

It is clear you rarely, if ever, have read my newspaper/online articles or blog where I have been at pains to both explain the role of the media in sports coverage and also my position on why Marty Clarke is not yet suitable to hold the reins of a pro sports team.

Agree or disagree at your leisure and pleasure, but at least read the thing before you feel you should comment, based on ... what? Hearsay?

Something someone said to someone? Something you may have heard?

Because, dear colleague, I certainly defy you to produce an article, a story, a link to a story, or even a quote from me where I have ever exhorted anyone to stay away from a basketball or an NBL game.

You cannot.

It's never happened.

And never will.

Telling the truth - for example, that a team is playing a hesitant or indirect style which is unattractive - is simply that; telling the truth, not discouraging fans.

How you can make such an outlandish, bold-faced and entirely baseless allegation on national TV defies logic and I am sure would have a lynch-mob of solicitors pounding at my door if I was inclined to challenge the veracity of your ridiculous accusation in a higher court than on a basketball rectangle.

But I always prefer to settle differences as men, not hide behind guys in robes and wigs.

So let me first pose a question. What purpose would it serve to tell fans to stay away from an NBL game or a 36ers game, more specifically?

Who would that help?

Would it help me as a journalist covering a sport which is battling to again break through into the mainstream consciousness to provide greater coverage?

Would dwindling local crowds in Adelaide lead to greater local coverage? Or to less coverage Stevie?

If I am only allowed to give restricted coverage, does that help the 36ers, the league or the sport? Indeed, does it help me in my profession to be less regularly able to promote or produce work which will even be used?

The whole premise of your most recent stumble into the twilight zone of the absurd would have you earnestly suggesting, in effect, that I want less people to attend 36ers (NBL) games and therefore contribute to the sport's steady demise in my state.

Not sure how it rolls elsewhere but in South Australia, the fate of the 36ers largely determines the state's thinking about basketball. Sixers going well = basketball is going well.

Sixers going shite = basketball is back buried near the sports results page.

Lower crowds mean lower financial returns for club ownership until, in a fairly short time, it goes bankrupt, folds and gives back the license to the NBL.

No club in Adelaide, with its rich brand recognition nationwide, means a near-catastrophe for the NBL and the sport, as already explained.

It also means for me, personally, I have only the Lightning left to cover. How long do you think a daily newspaper, in today's oppressive financial climate and social-media-challenging times, would hang on to its basketball reporter if he/she is covering a women's game a week?

Basically, me discouraging fans from supporting the 36ers would be akin to cutting my own throat.

It is so mind-bogglingly stupefying a remark as to leave me in shock for a week now, wondering if you have lost sight of what your role might be.

You know, to commentate. To (occasionally but still very rarely) do a minute's worth of research so that you can offer something more insightful than "no kidding".

Yeah. No kidding.

Have I written that 36ers crowds are slipping?

Yes, because it is true and reflects a growing fan disenchantment with the club's direction - down. And disbelief from supporters that current leadership can take it in any other direction.

Fans are entitled to do that, though I doubt they are diehard fans. Even the word "fan" is derived from the word "fan-atic" and a fanatic sticks with his club through thick and thin, winter and summer, rain or shine.

But I do understand that people with limited disposable income might find prices too high and the entertainment-return currently too low to warrant their continued attendance.

I feel for fans in that boat but I have never and would never suggest they sail that boat away from the 36ers. That is just crazy.

By the same token, I don't and haven't ever condoned booing or jeering of the home team.

I again understand that it is the broken-hearted and angry fan's way of voicing his/her displeasure but have always felt it lacks class, is tacky, shows complete disrespect and has no place in a sporting arena.

Again, by all means boo and hiss the villains of the opposition - passion makes the game worthwhile and without passion, we have precious little. But your own team?

No.

Adelaide has always been noted for its "knowledgable" fan base. Isn't that what you like to call them, Mr C? So to hear them booing is to be dismayed on many fronts.

I have never encouraged that either, though I would say it has only happened during the Clarke era so it is a relatively new phenomenon in Adelaide.

(Perhaps THOSE "fans" could find alternate means of amusement but that's a discussion for a different time. Again, I understand their pain, just don't agree with their means of balming it.)

The sheer foolishness of your comment Mr C - I'm told even your co-commentator Brett Maher was flabbergasted - suggests to me perhaps you would like to see a coaching change in Adelaide and believe it will only happen if crowds continue to fall and management feels pressured?

Perhaps that's your view of the world so you might like to express that through something you can assert I have done, when I have done no such thing.

It reminds me of Channel 10's invitation to me in Year One of Clarke's coaching tenure. I was invited to appear on the ill-fated panel program "Overtime", flown over, put up in sweet accommodation and told when to show up.

I came on set and you opened the segment by saying I had been calling for Marty's head and here was my chance to vent.

Now my immediate instinct was to deflate the entire segment and merely ask you to produce a single article to that point where I had "called for Marty's head" because no such article or stories existed. They do now, but they didn't then because, like most, I was still giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Expressing doubt when a situation looks tenuous and analysing errors - like highlighting successes - is my job.

Yes, I should just have replied: "Well Steve, what articles are you referring to? Can you show them to the viewers?"

We both know if I had done that, you would have been stuffed and embarrassed (again) on national TV. {Though it will still take a colossal effort to beat bungling the MVP award dinner presentation in 2011 to reveal the winner - only the event's biggest moment.}

But rather than embarrass you on your program, I risked my own humiliation by endeavoring to rationally explain the misgivings I shared with the greater 36ers community regarding Marty's ability to make the transition from junior coach or quality assistant, to the main man.

I guess if I had pulled you up on that occasion, I wouldn't have to be doing it now.

My mistake.

Let me just say I always enjoyed watching you play Steve, in those whole four years you played NBL. You were a decent import, up there with Bennie Lewis and Marc Ridlen.

I have always enjoyed your company and thought your goofiness translated well in the early years of our league on TV.

Not so much now though because everyone can see NBA games, NCAA games, ESPN, Sports Center etcetera and tend to hold commentators and analysts to a higher standard.

Such as, for example, not passing off stuff you're guessing might be right as the truth.

No kidding.