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WHY wouldn't you involve Brian Kerle from the get-go in reviving a Bullets NBL franchise in Brisbane?

The man is identified as "Mr Basketball" in the Queensland capital and still knows anyone and everyone worth knowing in the business sector and, of course, the game.

Frankly, the Basketball Australia/NBL Hall of Famer knows everyone, period.

The story goes Kerley was visiting the Vatican in Rome many years ago on a Boomers tour and appeared on the balcony with the Pope.

A tourist asked Rocky Crosswhite who that was on the balcony and he said: "That? Oh that's Kerley ... Brian Kerle."

"Yeah, of course," says the exasperated tourist. "But who's that bloke in the robes with him?"

Sure, Brian wasn't in Brisbane back in 1979 when the Bullets initially were formed to represent the state at the launch of the NBL.

Having made his name in Melbourne, Brian was coaching St Kilda to back-to-back NBL Championships and it would have been a threepeat in 1981 as his Saints comfortably won the regular season championship, three wins clear of Launceston.

Instead, they accepted an invitation to represent Australia at the first World Club Championship in Brazil and the NBL, keen to break St Kilda's title stranglehold, continued its finals series without the league's best team.

(Yeah. Go figure. Incredibly dumb administrative decisions at basketball's higher levels. Thank Naismith that self-interest and shortsighted decisions are a thing of the past, eh?)

Brian was Coach of the Year in 1984 when he took Brisbane within a field goal of the NBL title and to the first of four successive Grand Finals.

The Bullets won in 1985, lost again in 1986, then won again in 1987.

OLD MATES: Brian Kerle, right, congraulates Ken Cole after the 1986 NBL Championship

He had Brisbane back for another Grand Final in 1990 where Perth Wildcats broke through to win 2-1, Kerley with another Coach of the Year season.

Kerle was in the forefront of the coach/promoter/entrepreneur, alongside Bobby Turner and later others such as Ken Cole and Cal Bruton.

He coached four Championships and enjoyed a 282-174 win-loss record. That was after a stellar playing career with St Kilda which included the 1970-74 World Championships and 1972 Olympics as a Boomers player.

A Boomers assistant coach at the 1988 Seoul Olympics - where Australia battled for a Bronze Medal for the first time - and at the 1986 Worlds, Kerle's resume is dazzling.

So now, as a retired "elder statesman" of the game with a passion for the Bullets, basketball and Brisbane, it is no surprise to find him banging the drums in south-east Queensland to see who emerges from the woods.

On Thursday, at the Pineapple Hotel, 706 Main Street, Kangaroo Point, Kerle has organised  an open Bullets Forum for his B.B.B.B. (Bring Back Brisbane Bullets).

It tips off at 6.30pm and anyone and everyone with an interest in helping put the Bullets back on the floor is welcome to head along and offer their thoughts, opinions, services.

Will the NBL pay any attention?

Who knows? But let's hope so.