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Positive NBL day on world stage
TweetIN the end, as always, it all comes down to dollars and cents.
Perth Wildcats' MVP James Ennis today formally inking a deal with Miami Heat was a huge positive for our NBL.
The great experiment of an NBA-bound prospect coming to Australia for a season instead of playing in the individually-driven D-League, could not have panned out better for the NBL.
Drafted at 50 in 2013 - the same number at which Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright was once drafted and one lower than Cameron Bairstow this year - Ennis was acquired by the Heat in a draft night trade with Atlanta Hawks.
Needing a season of seasoning among pro basketballers, Ennis was recruited to the Wildcats ostensibly to grow his game and earn some money for his family.
At Perth he averaged 21.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 31.7 minutes while shooting 46.6 percent from the field, 35.5 percent on 3-pointers, leading the Wildcats to the Championship.
The club's MVP, he finished third in league MVP voting and was named in the All Star Five, as his trophy at the bottom of the harbor in Melbourne atests.
In six NBA Summer League starts with Miami, before being kept out due to a groin injury, Ennis has averaged 15.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.33 steals while shooting 51.7 percent from the field, 48.1 percent from 3-point range.
While his performances and subsequent NBA contract point directly to the NBL being a potential launch-pad for other young players of his calibre, ultimately whether the league can take any advantage from it will boil down to money.
Even the new marquee player rule - innovative and daring for a league more noted for navel-gazing under its previous management - will only really be applicable for any club which has the money.
While club GMs and CEOs can rightly point to Ennis' success as a bargaining chip to sign other potential NBAers, the bottom line will still be the number of zeroes on a contract.
Ennis "making it" is great for the NBL.
The marquee player is another great innovation.
But right now, possibly only Perth, New Zealand and Melbourne can find the $$$ necessary to make it happen.
The NBL has one more year to, at least to some degree, tread water with its existing eight clubs and the final year of dud contracts foisted on it by previous management, Basketball Australia.
A rejuvenated free-to-air TV deal and NBL-TV package in 2015-16 will be when more clubs will be able to take advantage of Ennis' breakthrough and the marquee option.
As Wright put it recently when asked if the 36ers could afford to pick up Adelaide-born Euro star Joe Ingles: "We can't buy Joe's lunch, let alone offer him marquee money."
Not now, anyway.
Adelaide's resurgence last season under Wright saw the venue sold out during the Grand Final series and the club's fans slowly starting to return to the fold.
Attendances were the best in eight years.
Another year to build and the Sixers might be in the NBA/marquee game.
So too Wollongong. Will Sydney take long?
Coming up for the NBL is a season of consolidation, when even what appeared radical ideas such as tightening up the officiating - now being looked at worldwide! - ultimately paid off.
James Ennis has given the league a great plus.
It must continue that upward surge with better marketing and free advertising such as more visible merchandising so that those dollars and cents are available for all clubs to capitalise on.
PS
If you're wondering what Patty Mills and Aron Baynes have been upto today, check this out:
You have to love 'em!
