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Life of Brian should be revisited
TweetHALL of Fame legend and the man who once pumped the blood into Brisbane's NBL heartbeat, Brian Kerle was "in the house" for the Blitz at Auchenflower Stadium.
And possibly the best sight of all was seeing BK chatting with the NBL's CEO Fraser Neill not a long time before Brisbane's official 2015-16 big league return was formalised and publicised.
There are three faces any NBL team in Brisbane really needs to be successful in both the short and long term and Kerley belongs to one of them.
A dual World Championship Boomer in 1970-74 and a Munich Olympian in between, Kerle reached the pinnacle as a player before an extraordinary coaching career which saw him claim the inaugural NBL Championship with St Kilda in 1979 and back-to-back in 1980.
It most likely would have been a hat-trick too in 1981 when his Saints led the comp by three wins before accepting an invitation to play in the first World Club Championship in Brazil, and being then forced to forfeit their finals spot.
Yes. Politics complicating sport isn't a new phenomenon.
An assistant Boomers coach at the 1986 World Champs and 1988 Olympics - the first time Australia made it to a Bronze Medal playoff - Kerle was the driving force behind the Bullets becoming a household brand in Brisbane.
He was there when the team upgraded from Auchenflower to Chandler, then Chandler to Boondall in the club's halcyon days, every bit as much the team entrepreneur as head coach.
Kerle presided over Bullets' Championships in 1985 and 1987 after losing Grand Finals in 1984-86, making it back for another title tilt in 1990 which fell short in Game 3.
His star player through all that, three-time league MVP Leroy Loggins, is the second person who should be attached to any genuine Brisbane NBL return.
Loggins was and remains the face of the NBL in Brisbane, and frankly, rightly so.
I'd have Kerley back as GM/CEO and Loggins as club ambassador in a heartbeat, Loggins also a three-time Championship winner, with his first at West Adelaide Bearcats in 1982.
But he first was recruited by Brisbane and made his name there too and for mine is the greatest player in NBL history, with all due respect to the magnificent Andrew Gaze.
Big-Joe Tertzakian and his hardy crew showed what they could do with the off-court organisation of the Blitz and would be the third Brisbane-based face who needs to be attached to the new club.
As I wrote yesterday, Neill's announcement make it official, though the details of the new club remain very thin on the ground.
That, I am hearing, will change within a few days.
For what it's worth, I have been bombarded with Brisbane fans imploring I go to bat for retention of the Bullets name due to its already high recognition rate.
Just their passion makes me think that is the way to go.
Kerle still has so much to offer and it would be remiss for the NBL not to involve him in some capacity, hopefully a major capacity.
Every now and again, revisiting the past is the best way forward.
Here's today's News Corp angle on the new Brisbane move:
