Basketball On The Internet.

THE news today came as a complete shock to many, a bombshell for an NBL still working to shake the shackles of mainstream preconceptions it remains a basket case.

When Fraser Neill, the first chief executive officer appointed who actually had a vision decides to walk away just 13 months into his tenure, you know something smells somewhere.

Well, at the risk yet again of raising the ire of that particular breed of blinded one-eyed fans west of Kununurra - the "we get 11,000-plus to our games so we are the greatest," might=right brigade - the whiff seems to be emanating out of Perth.

For Perth CEO Nick Marvin to STILL be the Chairman of the NBL Board and for the rest of that controlling body to comprise Paul Bendat (son of Wildcats owner Jack - that would be Nick's boss, Jack), Richard Clarke (NZ Breakers), Steve Dunn (Sydney part-owner) and Adrian Garrone (ex-Cairns, now "independent") in itself suggests the very ailment which forever has plagued our league - self-interest.

It may NOT be the case you understand. But sometimes perception can become reality when we're not careful to ensure independence.  

When the league tipped off in 1979, 10 club teams from around the nation got together in an aircraft hangar to launch this bold new enterprise and it was to be in basketball's best interest.

Thank Naismith they did.

But sadly, as it quickly outgrew its own expectations and private ownership was courted and engaged, we had incidents of owners going into locker-rooms at halftime and throwing a roll of bank-notes on the floor as a means of enticing stronger play.

Incidents of teams waiting anxiously on Monday morning to see if the owner's horses got up in Saturday's races so they would be paid.

Do you think people such as those cared what was in basketball's best interest?

So came the first round of self-interest tearing at the NBL, of clubs paying exorbitant amounts to players, necessitating a salary cap.

Then the era of the "brown paper bag" given to the star player post-match and no, it wasn't his lunch for the next day. Just a cap rort.

Clubs routinely went bankrupt and a league which captured the mainstream imagination, began to pale into insignificance to the wider community.

That jump from tin-shed stadia, into bigger centres and entertainment venues also was a jump into the chasm for more clubs as they spent beyond their means, the standard of play suffered, the fan-base diminished and the downward cycle spiralled out of control.

When Basketball Australia saved the NBL - and make no mistake it did - the NBL had to be saved from itself and its appalling management practices.

Self-interest running rampant and unchecked.

Along the route, one club won a title, realised it had spent $7million doing so - they could have bought a similar Championship trophy for a couple of hundred bucks - and once that realisation sank in, the club went south.

But while BA saved the NBL from itself, it had no expertise in running a national competition of this type.

It locked the league into a number of dud deals which looked great when they were boldly announced and spruiked, but when the dust settled, were deals done with cap-in-hand and which left the league hamstrung to this day in key fan areas.

When the clubs voted unanimously to "de-merge" - we can still thank former BA CEO Kristina Keneally for expanding our word power by introducing de-merge ... who says she didn't do much? - Marvin, Dunn and Clarke were three of the men who managed to put the Humpty Dumpty that was the NBL back together again.

I have nothing but respect and admiration for the job they did and for the fact the eight clubs stayed resolute and worked together for the elite game's salvation.

But here we are, some 14 months later, and the lessons of history STILL have not been learnt.

Self-interest apparently is back and booming.

Now don't misread me.

Marvin has had a lot to do with turning Perth from the No.1 club in the NBL into the, er ...No.1 club in the NBL.

OK. Amend that.

He has helped turn Perth into a blueprint for success.

Unquestionably.

Except his, like every other, is a unique market and not everything done in Perth translates say, into Cairns.

Enter Fraser Neill, from outside the bubble in which we, as passionate basketball lovers, operate.

Here is someone from the outside world - for "outside", read the "real" world - and someone who quickly can see what Keneally long ago said; that the NBL, in its present form, is not sustainable.

So Neill devises a plan to aggressively court free-to-air television, in combination with pay-TV and quality live streaming and to stage matches on week nights but in smaller boutique venues so they are readily fillable and the product looks good for its main market - television.

Television wants live sport on a week night and his scheme had a couple of rival broadcasters sniffing around.

Picture this, for a random example off the top of my head.

Monday night is home game night in Townsville, say, where Crocs fans can get used to the idea that they have their summer weekends back and they can go to Townsville RSL Stadium, pack it out and enjoy seeing their team in action with Monday Night Basketball.

Perhaps it is Tuesday night in Wollongong. Maybe Wednesdays in Cairns. Thursday night in Auckland. Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney on Fri-Sat-Sun.

Could it have worked?

Remember, this sort of plan was in concert with FULL television coverage - a match every night somewhere for us to watch.

Yet last month The Financial Review publishes a story quoting Marvin, as Chairman of the NBL saying: “In regards to television, we are in the final year of our deal with Network Ten and ideally we would love to stay with them for another three to five years."

Really? Why?

Will they invest in the product in any way?

The track record isn't that exemplary.

Of course, if, hypothetically, the Perth Wildcats weren't to endorse Neill's idea - not that anyone asked them to play outside the Perth Arena - then maybe the plan was scuttled on the launch pad.

And maybe Neill, as the man piloting this rocket into a potential new world rather than stay in this same atmosphere of eventual death by the thousand cuts of self-interest, now sees his ship is grounded.

The NBL clubs held meetings around the time of the Blitz in Brisbane. They needed then to show some foresight and move for a truly independent board.

Instead, they maintained the status quo.

So today we lose Fraser Neill.

And the league stays moribund, repeating the same mistakes, as we wait to see if tomorrow brings anything even remotely different to the usual morass the league continues to skim.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

But hey, as long as it suits somebody, what do we care about the rest?

TOMORROW: This week's NBL & WNBL wraps including why the B.O.T.I. Players of the Week are Jordan McRae and Leilani Mitchell.