Basketball On The Internet.

MIKE Kelly may have been the only person last night who did not realise he was coaching for his NBL career when his wayward South East Melbourne served up more dross and another loss for 0-5. Most of the coaches sounded out on the quiet knew if the Phoenix fell to 0-5, the trigger would be pulled on Kelly's tenure.

Yet there he sat in the post-game press conference, in his customary gentlemanly way, reminiscing about all that went right and blissfully unaware he was not going to have another chance to show he could pull this disparate but talented group into a cohesive unit.

His assistant Sam Mackinnon, who previously took on the interim poison chalice at Brisbane and was soon replaced, again takes on this unenviable "interim" job while SEM scrambles about, trying to find someone to take on this basket case.

It shouldn't be this way but ever since this club's birth it has been a consistent disappointment. It started with the Phoenix moniker when so many Victorian basketball lovers were hoping they revived and revitalised the Magic nickname of the league's two-time champion.

At the time, club general manager Tommy Greer said: "We received hundreds of names but eventually chose Phoenix, a name that represents the rebirth of basketball in South East Melbourne.”

Sadly, it did nothing of the sort.

Instead it represents repeated injury-riddled seasons falling short of expectations, a reliance on Mitch Creek to be the face of a failing franchise and an inability to turn off-court good faith into something genuinely tangible.

Recruiting not three as previously suggested here but in fact FOUR past Sydney Kings championship winners in Derrick Walton Jr, Jordan Hunter, Angus Glover and Tom Vodanovich, hopes for a positive shift in culture were rightly anticipated.

Matt Hurt was a fine pick-up and returnees such as Matt Kenyon, Owen Foxwell and Ben Ayre are the types who will bleed for an organisation that believes in them.

Bringing in Nathan Sobey was a risk. He is an irresistible talent but his presence and attitude can make or break a team.

His best is incomparable but his worst is a long way apart from it and time has shown there seems to be little middle ground. He was 1-of-7 last night and maybe starting him against his former club might have been the better strategy. Doesn't matter much now though, right?

Whether a patient gentleman such as Kelly was going to have the requisite experience in drawing the best more often than the worst from Sobey always was going to be challenging.

With last night's 85-87 home loss to similarly incompetent and winless Brisbane, the Phoenix powerbrokers decided Kelly's time was done and dusted.

There were actually moments when the Bullets looked like an NBL team, Tyrell Harrison (21 and 17, including 12 offensive boards) looking like a Ray Borner Medallist and much-maligned import James Batemon (20 points 6-of-9 threes) producing important contributions.

Bullets coach Justin Schueller tried hard to blow it, continuing to confuse interfering and over-coaching with good coaching, at one point subbing out Josh Bannan to ensure Jarred Bairstow got his vital 3:41 of action in.

Just silly shite you'd expect from someone finding his way while instead pretending he knows the destination and has the only map to get there.

Walton's last play, a crazy drive hoping for a foul call when Matt Hurt was wide open and might just have knocked down a 3-pointer for the win and thus the preservation of Mike Kelly's job, was an ending befitting this muddled mess.

Mike Kelly is one of basketball's finest human beings. He is a nice guy. But you know where nice guys finish and SEM had enough of that last season.

In the words of Mr. T in his role as B. A. Baracus of the A-Team South East Melbourne may never be - although he first said it as Clubber Lang in Rocky III - "I pity the fool" who takes this on.