Why I loved the lunch
TweetGROWING up in Adelaide and amid SA basketball we had our heroes and our villains, but then there were those almost mythical superstars from across the border who we only fantasised about as we shot on our driveway backboards.
I'd been lucky enough to be spellbound already by the mightiest pint-guard - yes "pint" because in those early days, teams didn't have so many specific player designations, just guys who played guard, forward or centre, or guys who couldn't play - from New South Wales, the dazzling Denis Kibble.
Kibble was darting around everywhere, laying down the blueprint for the next generation's Gordie McLeod, proving even men of smaller stature could be superstars.
And of course, there was Western Australia's Rick Longley, who went to Melbourne to fine-tune his game - the first real Aussie "big" I ever saw.
But Melbourne was Mecca.
(Many would argue it still is in terms of producing more great players than any other state on a consistent basis.)
Back when I was growing up, Melbourne was the land of the giants - not necessarily in terms of size so much, though that too existed in abundance, but in terms of giants of the game.
Watching Lindsay Gaze hitting jumpshots from the elbow and Rocky Crosswhite having his way with Brian Kerle as Melbourne Church was on its way to the first Australian Club Championship title in 1970 was something else.
Church's guard Billy Wyatt shut down St Kilda's prolific scorer Eddie Palubinskas in the tournament final and the Saints were staring down a 19-point barrel midway through the second half.
That was when Kerle intercepted a pass meant for Crosswhite, took the ball the length of the floor and slammed down a dunk!
A what?
A dunk.
Yes. It was a shot we hardly knew existed it was seen so rarely.
So when Kerle did it, Albert Park Stadium's jampacked Court One came to absolute life. And so did St Kilda.
Ken Cole started hitting shots, Bam Bam West and Frank Massuger handed out some "treats" and the Saints came firing back.
In the end, Church had to dig deep to survive a thriller by three points, Toli Koltuniewicz and Ray Tomlinson also playing their roles.
For a kid from Adelaide, these guys were playing basketball on a level we didn't experience. And it was no doubt true for a kid from Sydney, or Brisbane, Canberra or Perth too.
We knew we had stars in South Australia - Werner Linde, Michael Ahmatt, Andris Blicavs, Mark Lampshire, Rick Hodges and a hundred others I loved watching as I grew up - but if you could make it in Melbourne, you were truly a star.
That was how we knew Ken Richardson was the best American import we had ever had in South Australia. Because after he arrived in 1974 and dominated SA for two years, he realised Melbourne was where he had to be for the best basketball.
He went to St Kilda and in 1976 and 1977, continued his mastery of the sport by dominating in Victoria. It was much like Bill Palmer, who was originally playing in Canberra before he realised mecca was Melbourne.
When Richo came "home" to his beloved West Adelaide in Adelaide, we now felt we could compete on a national stage because we now had the best player in the game. He had proved it.
In Melbourne.
Kenny and many of the men I have already mentioned, were my inspirations growing up, as were those great women's players such as Karin Maar and Maree Bennie.
For me to be invited to be on the guest panel to address the annual Pete's Bar Lunch last Friday in Melbourne was quietly very rich in its significance for me.
I understood the privilege to share a panel with Basketball Australia CEO Kristina Keneally and former interim NBL CEO Steve Dunn to talk about this game we love was quite the fillip in itself.
But to be able to look out into an audience with Lindsay and Andrew Gaze, Eddie Crouch, John Bines, David Moore, Darren Smith, Tracey Browning, Lori Chizik, Ray Hunt, Bill Mildenhall, Chuck Harmison, Jenny Gay, Julie Tester, Karen Blicavs, Brian Longstaff, Mal Cooper, Darryl McDonald, Chris Anstey - many of them who I hold in sincere reverance and who are part of the tapestry of my basketballing journey - was humbling and richly personally rewarding.
Pete's Bar was the watering hole at Albert Park and now the name of the annual fund-raiser which helps basketball's sadly growing list of needy.
The Free Throw Foundation is performing the same function in Adelaide now.
It's kind of a shame our sport has become so expensive for the average family that such organisations have to even form but it says so much about the people in basketball that its own community can and will assist with such erstwhile organisations springing up.
Can I just say, social media rumors of me shaving off my moustache today if Adelaide beats Melbourne, or of Chris Anstey shaving his head if the Tigers lose are the machinations of one Nigel Purchase.
(If you look at my preview page on Thursday, I actually selected the Tigers to get this one so shaving off the mo if they do makes no sense!)
Nigel is another great mike operator our sport has created, efficient, sharp, knowledgable and witty. Brett Maher is becoming much the same - a pro - here in Adelaide.
But Melbourne, in basketball, is where you have to go to "make it".
I can only again thank the Pete's Bar Lunch folk for thinking of me.