Comments on: Can basketball in Australia bounce back?

By: Fly on the Wall

Fly on the Wall — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:41:36 +0000

ABC’s Coodabeen Champions call basketball “the nonsense” and I couldn’t agree more.
Start at 97-all and play for one minute.
Mindless repetition.
No wonder it has bombed – people saw through the hype after a while – it was really only Michael Jordan who kept the game alive here.

By: Republican

Republican — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:45:51 +0000

I believe the African American image that is integral to Basketball above all other US codes, has made it a very popular game amongst the youth of the west and Aust is no exception in this respect.

Perhaps ‘image’ is just not enough in sustaining a game so entrenched in US culture despite Australia’s obvious compatibility and affinity with most things American.

Cheers

By: Gaff

Gaff — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:40:01 +0000

or the mighty QLD cricket team.

I still live in hope that Basketball will reach the heights it did when I was in school. With 4 Aussies in the NBA and some of their games being shown live on free to air TV, it’s a start.

By: True Tah

True Tah — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:27:04 +0000

sledgeross

when I was at high school at the 90s, when you talked about Bulls, you could only mean Chicago Bulls.

Nowawadays, some people might think you are talking about a South African rugby team.

By: Simmo

Simmo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:23:13 +0000

But families are the most fickle part of a fanbase. They need the most work to get them to turn up the first time. They’re also far less likely to turn live sport into a regular habit than say late teens, twenty-somethings.

By: cosmos forever

cosmos forever — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:02:50 +0000

that’s rubbish – all major codes have spent the past 20 years repositioning their games to have a broader base. Pitching your entire code at aggressive tribalism might work if you have 120 years of history – not so smart for young competitions. Basketball was at it’s highest point in this country when it was one of the few codes that was a family outing. It was ahead of it;s time in that regard.

By: sledgeross

sledgeross — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:55:05 +0000

Jason Smith makes a good point. When I was in Primary school in the late 80s’ every year we had the likes of Steve Carfino, Tim Morrissey, Mark Dalton etc come and do a clinic at our school. They would do some dunks, spin the ball on their finger and show some dribbling skills. Most kids would then play basketball at lunchtime, and its the reason why me and my mates all started playing in comps down at bankstown basketball stadium.
As a result, I badgered my parents to taking to top the SEC to see the Kings play. Seeing the likes of Ken McClary, Leon Trimmingham and my fave “The D-Train” Dwayne McClain play some epic games against the quality imports such as Lanard Copeland, Adrian Branch, Bobby Locke, Steve Hood etc meant the games were fantastic to watch, coupled with a tremendous atmosphere. It was the hottest ticket in town.
Then Jordan retired (a few times), NBA action wasnt shown on channel 10, and Steve Carfino and Bill Woods moved on to pastures new. Arrogant administrators lost touch with the punters, and there were less bums on seats.
Its a shame, I like my basketball, and would still go to Kings games at least once a year.

By: Simmo

Simmo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:43:57 +0000

I’d say constant re-inforcement is needed. Through friends, family, TV, radio etc.

By: Gaff

Gaff — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:53:51 +0000

NBL needs to be shown on free to air TV. As there is not enough basketball shown to the masses. Live NBA games being shown on One HD, and all the NBA highlight type shows, will do good for basketball popularity, but we need to see the Aussies. There are plenty of people who play the game in this country, we just need to have those that play support our national league.

The WNBL have games on ABC, and I watch it (but I’m a basketball junkie who watches and records any basketball shown on free to air TV).

If you ask people from Perth and Wooloongong, they will tell you that Basketball is thriving. Both those teams do a great job of using social media sites to promote their team and the NBL and have sell out crowds who are pasionate.

By: Gibbo

Gibbo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:39:33 +0000

agreed – this promotion of the american domestic cometition over international matches really narrows the focus of bball and i reckon it’s hurt the sport.

but as a North Melbourne Giants fan i’m really enjoying the current season – sure, we’re still defunct but the Tigers are playing woefully!

By: M1tch

M1tch — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:39:27 +0000

Exactly, they needed to take a year off and rethink.
No Sydney or Bris team is simply crazy and they’ve lost many fans.

By: JiMMM

JiMMM — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:38:55 +0000

The problem as I see it is that the NBL will always be viewed as a second rate comp when compared to the NBA and college ball (the womens game has less of this problem as internationals are seen as the pinicle of the sport there).

It works well as a starting point to to feed of a bigger comp to promote the sport initially, but without a massive participation base like soccer it cannot remain as one of the first teir of professional sports, and it was that lack or ambition to improve the sport massively (mixed with quite a bit of overblown belief of where the sport stood in the Australian psychie) that led to the downfall of the NBL.

And short a massive revival of interest in the NBA, Basketball will at best remain in the second tier of pro sports in Australia.

By: Michael C

Michael C — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:38:37 +0000

Basketball disproves a lot of the pro-soccer rhetoric,

i.e. you need to be international,
i.e. vast grass roots must equate to elite domestic code success,
i.e. moving to summer can a sporting power create,
i.e. private ownership is a good thing,
i.e. the best theoretical geographic spread makes you a national power.

Obviously there’ve been mistakes along the way – but, theoretically great ingrediants haven’t made a terribly flash cake…..

….MacArthurs Park is melting,

and I’ve never have that recipe again……

Seriously though, having no Brisbane or Sydney team this year and losing the reigning premier in the Dragons was horrendous.

btw – soccers ever growing popularity is debatable given V4 and V5 from crowds perspective, struggling clubs and dubious business models (i.e. a given that private owners aren’t going to make money). The danger for soccer is that it’s trajectory seems to be trending more towards the post-boom basketball downward-curve.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:27:21 +0000

I thikn Bball made a mistake by basing itself as an American sport and making only limited effort to encourage support for the Boomers. They seem to have completely forgotten that Basketball is one of the biggest sports in Europe and that the Boomers have great games at World Champs and Olympic levels.

AFL & NRL aside I think too many sports think they need a successful league to be a presence. Cricket seems to be the only one that has accepted that people will not follow their comp but as long as they go for Australia that’s fine. Football does have its A League problems but still has open arms to those who will follow the Socceroos. Likewise the Wallabies. Bball never made this connection even though the Boomers are on par with a lot of strong European nations.

I think at the last Olympics the Boomers played the dream team in a QF and channel 7 prefered to show the Bronze match for Softball. If people don’t care for the Boomers how will you ever get them to go see domestic club sides?

By: Pippinu

Pippinu — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:22:14 +0000

That’s an interesting comment – noting that the A-League does attract a youngish clientele (broadly speaking).

The conventional wisdom once would have been that kids are indoctrinated into the game – and follow it for life – but maybe that model isn’t as rock solid as it may have been a few decades ago.

Or maybe, the indoctrination only works where there is a critical mass of concentrated support- the indoctrination isn’t as permanent if support for the sport is more diffused.

By: Savvas Tzionis

Savvas Tzionis — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:15:22 +0000

The problem with basketball is that it was too family oriented. The people want blood and guts!! The kids who turned on to it grew up and matured into adults.

Take note, FFA with your draconian anti-fun laws at games!!!

By: True Tah

True Tah — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:06:01 +0000

The NBL paid the price for having its teams associated with Tim Johnstone and Eddy Groves.

By: Redb

Redb — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:00:02 +0000

I was pleased to see the NBL survive as a Melb Tigers fan and will attend games over the season. Probably the most encouraging aspect is that the competition still managed to get up and running when all looked lost.

The halycon days are long gone but basketball can still sit in the 2nd tier in Australia.

Redb

By: Robbo

Robbo — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:30:48 +0000

The “new competition” didn’t really happen did it?

As far as I can tell they just kicked out the best team and changed the competitions logo.

By: bruski

bruski — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:49:49 +0000

I believe that bball as a sport is in a lot better spot than what it could have been and where it was in the off-season.

The product is great to watch, the games are close and there is a lot of skill on show! I think the game is on the way back big time and it will again be one of the premier sports in the country, no doubt.

I also agree that the last year has been handled badly but was primarly due to the Global Financial Crisis.

It was interesting to see your views on Soccer and Rugby. I would have to disagree with you whole-heartadly in regards to Soccer making an impact in this country. If you look at the latest fiasco’s wiith GCU and extremely poor crowd numbers the game in Australia is on the ropes with no end in site.

The only Soccer team that commands a crowd and eyeballs on the TV is the Socceroos..

Rugby is a different story, whilst the Wallabies are struggling and our Super 14 teams are not making the finals the crowds and TV audience also drops. This will be turned around though with a succesfull season, if only we could get one. It is also played in the bball off-season. (except for a handful of S14 games)

That leaves League and AFL, both popular but only one is a natural competition for players and that is the AFL, luckily for bball it is played in it’s off-season so there is really no competition for crowds.

The only competition that bball has is Soccer and Cricket and again, Soccer fans generally do not go to the basketball, they just stay at home and watch Euro Soccer.

Go the Blaze!!

Bruski.