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When will we ever get it right? Part I
TweetWHY can't we ever get it right?
Seriously. How many attempts do we think mainstream Australia is going to sit through before we get it sufficiently right to have the non-committed finally embrace basketball across the country?
Like it or not, in this country the folks at large don't judge basketball by how we did at a FIBA World Cup, how many guys and gals we have running around in the NBA and WNBA or how many participants we have in our sport.
Our sport is judged by the success or otherwise of the NBL.
Maybe not by you. Maybe not by me.
But by the community at large? They see the NBL as the sport's barometer.
Is that fair?
Doesn't matter. Fairness is irrelevant. How do you judge Aussie Rules footy?
By who won the International Rules series between Australia and Ireland? By how your state league is going? By how many kids are playing junior footy?
More than likely, the average punter judges footy by the AFL.
AFL doing great = footy is doing great. Pretty simple equation.
So judging basketball by the state of the NBL is just a fact of life.
And the verdict, consistently these days, is we are a basket case.
There's not much Kristina Keneally and I agreed upon when she was Basketball Australia's chair or CEO. But the NBL not being sustainable in its current form was certainly one.
Two years ago the NBL took the step to "demerge" from under BA's administration and Nick Marvin, Steve Dunn, Richard Clarke and Adrian Garrone did an exceptional job under difficult circumstances to keep the league going.
Not only did they keep it pumping, but ran a great Blitz in Sydney, Perth gave the league James Ennis - with Sam Young to follow at Sydney - the season finished with an awards dinner and the foundation appeared to be in place for the NBL to springboard forward.
Fast forward 12 months and Wollongong Hawks are in voluntary administration, the league CEO quits, there is no new CEO and its interim merely handballs anything of consequence to the new Chairman, as yet unproven but good at telling us how hard everyone in the office is working.
(Not sure on what, given Cairns and New Zealand will bear the brunt of all Grand Final promotions, the awards are being filtered out by carrier pigeon and the Brisbane Bullets bid is travelling on an invisible 3D roller-coaster which only the chosen few in the inner NBL sanctum even have the correct glasses to see. Maybe it's a new naming rights sponsor or TV deal? Who really knows?)
So once again we face a day, a week, a month of uncertainty where the only certainty, yet again, is that the NBL in its present form is not sustainable.
When this whole thing launched in 1979 - with BA's sanction (and little more) but with the work of volunteers across the Bankstown, Brisbane, Canberra, City of Sydney, Glenelg, Illawarra, Newcastle, Nunawading, West Adelaide and St Kilda clubs and/or associations, everyone wanted the same outcome.
A thriving national competition.
These were part-time players needing time off work to go on trips and with clubs supplemented by entertaining American imports. Sound a bit like the SEABL?
In that first decade of 1979-89, the game outgrew itself very quickly. There were 17 teams in two divisions by 1984. Sound a bit like the SEABL?
Best-of-three playoff series were introduced with the 1986 Grand Final and we definitely were on the right track.
The game was growing so fast it quickly became popular to believe that passionate basketball people who got it all rolling were suddenly languishing out of their depth.
We needed entrepreneurs! Watch us go now!
No?
OK. What we need is people with business acumen leading the game!
Where did that get us?
No, no, no. Here's a better idea. We need basketball people, with passion and vision!
Forget that. We need cashed up private owners! They'll know what's best for the game!
Um, no.
Here it is! The definitive answer. Let's get people running the game who started with basketball backgrounds but have "made good" in the real world? What do you think?
That's gotta work.
No. We threw out a few clubs? OK, how about this?
Let's bring in an American "commissioner"!
Didn't work?
Let's try this. We bleed each other dry, find ourselves on the bones of our backsides, are ready to go to the wall, and throw ourselves on the mercy of BA, our national federation, to take over?
Great plan! Fits in so well with the One Basketball concept, whatever the Hell that is.
Except now we're paying new fees and have lost control of our league. And when it comes to compassion and understanding in the case of allowing clubs to trade their way out of trouble, that's a straight "no dice". Pony up or ride off into the sunset.
Hmm. Damn. That sucks. Let's demerge!
Yes. We can self-govern. We won't repeat the mistakes of the past.
We'll work together and get it right!
Well, up to a point. The point at which we find our league labouring under lopsided television, live streaming, uniform, website and sponsorship deals that only make it look like amateur hour.
Got it! Let's bring in someone who knows how to run competitions and see if he can come up with a sustainable plan.
Oh. He has? Well some of us don't like it. We like the way it's going right now, self-interest is the way to go. Dump him.
So here we go with an interim CEO who has to run every operational procedure past the Board, while clubs, meanwhile, are struggling again.
Got it! Let's make an accountant our new Chairman!
A bean-counter with no basketball bias is what we need here!
So then ... how have the past 36 years worked out for us?
We have a popular, spectacular, family-friendly, indoor sport that fits perfectly into a two-hour timeslot.
How in Naismith's name can we eff it up so royally, so continuously, so inevitably?
Probably get a call shortly, informing me it isn't this bad and that the league is "working very hard and diligently".
Yeah? Tell it to St Kilda/Westside/South Melbourne Saints, Canberra Cannons, Nunawading/Eastside Spectres, West Adelaide Bearcats, Brisbane Bullets, Newcastle Falcons, Bankstown Bruins, Glenelg Tigers, Launceston Casino City, City of Sydney Astronauts/Sydney Supersonics, Coburg/North Melbourne/Victoria Giants, Forestville Eagles, Geelong Supercats, Frankston Bears, Devonport Warriors, Hobart Devils, Melbourne Tigers, West Sydney Westars, Gold Coast Cougars/Rollers, South East Melbourne Magic, Victoria Titans, West Sydney Razorbacks/Sydney Spirit, Hunter Pirates, Singapore Slingers, South Dragons, Gold Coast Blaze...
Good news! We've got TV cover on the ABC. We've upgraded to Channel 7. Ten has offered prime time on Saturdays - let's switch allegiances. We're being buried with screening times? Where's the ABC again? And/or Fox? Let's jump on pay-TV. Why? Well, cause we switched our seasons to Summer on some vague premise/promise FTA would be rapt to see us play then. So just Fox now? OK. And back to Ten/ONE...
This ongoing cycle would be funny if it wasn't true.
Sure, we all know it - Rome wasn't built in a day.
But it sure didn't take 36 years, either.
How is it, the NBL just cannot get it right?
Ever.
TOMORROW: Part 2
