Basketball On The Internet.

NO, the pictures here are not from a teenager's bedroom. It's the loft where B.O.T.I. gets the work done and the reason blogs have been more spartan this past week.

Going through 50-plus years of basketball-related gear - guides, press releases, pictures, posters, photos, letters, videos, newspapers, magazines - stashed in drawers, filing cabinets, cupboards, under the bed etcetera, has been a fair-sized job.

AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS: About to brave it and enter the B.O.T.I. "loft".

Having retired from the newspaper/established media game, I felt it was time to clean out all that I no longer would need on a regular basis.

Trust this. It's a hell of a task.

But you know what makes it even slower and tougher? Is every few minutes, I come across something profoundly interesting and start reading it. An old BA report, an NBL press release, an old basketball newspaper front page. And next thing you know, I'm a half hour behind where I expected to be. Again.

THE VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE: Looking back across this cyclone-hit study...

And even though I am NOT a hoarder - I just hang on to stuff I think will be useful, that isn't a hoarder, is it? - I am amazed at how many EXTRA copies I have of documents, photos and media guides, be they NBL, WNBL, NBA, WNBA, SEABL, CVIBL, BA ... you name it!

So what I'm doing is this. I'm going to keep a single copy of anything important, useful or usable. (Cause, you know, how many old copies of the 1996 NBL Guide, with Andrew Vlahov raising his fists in triumph on the cover, does any person really need?)

CLOSE UP: A little close up of a random section of the floor. I am still sorting through it all.

I have already been in touch with Basketball Australia and plan to send them a lot of archival stuff I am sure they will be delighted by - for the meagre cost of shipping. I won't need it and maybe someone else can find pleasure in it, especially in conjunction with some of BA's Hall of Fame plans.

There may be a few other basketball junkies, journos and websites out there who also may covet some of this stuff. If you do, contact me at botirnagy@gmail.com and let me know what you may be after. If I've got it, I can send it on - but that's at your cost, OK?

It's also a case of "first in - first prize" and no correspondence will be entered into.

The other positive from this onerous but secretly very pleasurable challenge, is I have found a lot of other photographs so keep an eye out for the FLASHBACK blogs, if that's your go.

OK. back to work and thanks for your indulgence...