Basketball On The Internet.

IT’S always somewhat amusing when a coach compounds a controversial decision with an epithet along the lines of “no-one else knows what they’re talking about”.

Seriously now, when a coach falls back on that, he or she is taking the softest possible option, setting themselves up as the font of all knowledge.

Clearly, they know best and the great unwashed should go take a shower before daring to infer otherwise.

Ah to possess such wisdom, eh?

Come on now. No-one has the definitive answers and debate, disagreement, discussion are healthy and should not be feared or assailed.

“Some of those people making comments think they understand the game but they don’t,’’ Opals coach Brendan Joyce was quoted as saying this week before his team took off for Rio, a nation’s golden hopes flying with them.

Joyce has the team he wanted and that’s as it should be. But it would be far more prudent to simply say that the more controversial selections such as Natalie Burton or Tessa Lavey – though must confess haven’t seen much heat for the latter – were the players he felt best suit his preferred system.

Fine.

But again then, why screw around a 35-year-old superstar such as Suzy Batkovic? Tell her early she won’t be figuring in Rio planning and let her walk away with dignity and all the fanfare appropriate a triple-Olympian and four-time WNBL MVP.

You know. The way it was done for Jenni Screen who stepped away on an Asian tour. The same couldn’t have happened for Batkovic on the pre-Olympics European tour?

To infer Ian Stacker, Australia’s 22-and-under gold medal winning coach from that FIBA World Championship and a 10-year NBL veteran, or Hall of Fame bound Michele Timms, past Opals captains such as Lauren Jackson and Robyn Maher - all among those team selection critics - might “think they understand the game but they don’t” only does Joyce a disservice.

For him to additionally reflect on the final 12 selected and say:  “The toughest choice for us was Tess Madgen and leaving her out of the team. The rest of the decisions are always tough but the toughest one was the decision on Tess.”  shows Batkovic wasn’t even his hardest call.

Which strongly suggests the decision already was made. The fact the Opals staff informed Belinda Snell (above) early she was not part of Rio planning must have been hard but so be it.

The team Joyce has taken to represent us all is the one he wants and recalling the manner in which his young team dismantled everyone at the 2014 FIBA World Championship in Turkey and how much fun they were to watch, reinforces he has every right to choose pieces that best fit his style.

We’re all banking on a similar performance in Rio.

But to say the informed opinions of basketball people summarily should be dismissed because they disagree, is either arrogant in the extreme or just plain silly.

It's easy to get a bunker mentality when your sounding boards are assistants of like mind.

But to begin to believe you should be above analysis, scrutiny or criticism - a.k.a. the Marty Clarke NBL head coaching experience - suggests a bit too much sensitivity.

There's no time for that. The podium awaits in Rio.

Go Opals!