Very depressing news, the reptile rumble is no more.

Whether you all like it or not South Melbourne Hellas will be back in the top tier of Australian football once again

Melbourne Heart shoud have never been given a license to begin with. The Southern Cross FC bid was unfairly overlooked simply because South Melbourne FC was behind it. Eventually South Melbourne FC will be in the A-League and they will reclaim the mantle of Australia’s glamour side.

They got a better point guard in Raymond Felton at a bargain price of 10 million over 3 years. The Knicks made the right move here both financially and personel wise. Felton is one of the best point guards in the league and plays the pick and roll game very well as he proved during his last stint with the Knicks a year or two ago.

This entire Gold Coast Blaze situation is just so dissapointing. This is a club that did fantastic work within the community in promoting not only themselves but the sport of basketball. They even had healthy crowds averaging 3493 a game last season. The reason for their demise was all financial and it was all due to poor management. The product on court was there, the community support was there, the brand was strong but upstairs in management they let everyone down.

However with all that said I still believe the competition is on the rise and call me crazy but the halcyon days of the late 80’s and early 90’s will be back with or without the Gold Coast.

I believe the imports rule is fine as is and as for the AIS joining the competition that just wouldn’t work. They were rarely competitive in the SEABL but regardless they have recently revamped the program and wouldn’t have the time to compete full time in a competition like the NBL.

I would like to see the player points system dropped. At the moment the teams have to fit under a salary cap of 1 Million plus have to fit all their players within the point system. I believe it to be too much. I’d like to know what everyone else thinks about it because I think it is ridiculous.

The USA are undersized at center not power forward. The reason players like Melo and Bron will play such big minutes at power forward for USA is because of the way the game is played internationally with power forwards being predominantly perimeter players. We have even seen that now in the NBA with some teams.

As for Spain, Pau will rarely be in a situation where he will be marking up on Lebron or Melo, Ibaka might find himself in that situation but not often. If Spain play with the Gasol brothers together against USA, expect them to be in a zone defence otherwise expect only one of them to be on the court and to be on as center.

I believe that to be a mistake of Coach K, to not take many bigs. It is a mistake which he hasn’t had to pay for yet (key word “YET”). They as they did in the 2010 WC are going to go to London with no low post offensive presence and with no low post defensive presence outside of Chandler and an inexperienced Davis. USA got away with it in 2010 WC and didn’t even play Chandler that much (only 8mpg) because of the opposition they faced. However, eventually lack of size will be an issue and I believe it to be in this tournament because when it comes to the Olympics you can’t luck out with the draw, everyone is going to give it to you.

If Spain or Greece face USA in a knock out stage game whether it be quarters, semi’s, bronze or gold medal game and Spain or Greece are fully healthy, it wouldnt be a bad idea to put $100 or $200 on a USA loss. It will pay up big and you’ll be laughing, trust me.

I wouldn’t go as far to say that the team sent by the USA to the WC was a C-team, that is just an insult to the calibre of players they had.

Kevin Durant lead the NBA in scoring the season before the WC and the season after. Derrick Rose won NBA mvp the season after the WC. Lamar Odom had just won an NBA championship and Chauncey Billups went into it as a former NBA champion and finals MVP. Danny Granger had just come off two seasons in which he averaged 25 and 24 points per game. Tyson Chandler the season after the WC helped play a big role in Dallas’ championship. Russel Westbrook and Kevin Love were a part of that team also and they without doubt will make the team going to London.

They had a really good team at the WC and as a basketball fan I like to see the best play the best and i was very dissapointed to see them dodge the likes of Spain, Serbia and Greece. I’m sure a lot of people were dissapointed. With that said it wasn’t USA’s fault they didn’t it was just the luck of the draw and how everything worked out.

This year I expect to see a very tightly contested Olympic games. I hope to see Australia play USA at some point, and I really hope USA plays the likes of Spain or Greece in the knock out stages. It is going to make for a great tournament and I hope I’ll be here at the end of August writing an article titled “I told you so.” If not I’ll write an article titled “MMMMHH… humble pie.” Regardless of what it is titled I hope your there to read it. Thanks for reading this one.

i completely forgot about this, i remember reading about it at the time. I however did not know Paul Pierce and Michael Beasley were playing though.

That was just an Asian based club competing in our competition. We’re talking about Basketball Australia entering into the Asian confederation much like the FFA did when joining the AFC. Our own domestic comp the NBL would still run as normal but our clubs would get the opportunity to qualify and then compete in Champions League like tournaments with some of Asia’s elite. Plus at international level our Boomers would play the likes of Iran, China, Lebanon, Jordan etc in Asian championships and WC qualifiers.

You’re right in calling it a graveyard but I believe that a team based in Knox with a community based model will work. Victoria enjoys crazy good participation numbers in basketball, it would be wrong for the NBL not to try make it work.

They could play in the NBA if given an opportunity. Nikola Pekovic is a perfect example.

I remember watching the 2009/2010 Greek League finals, Olympiakos vs Panathinaikos, and seeing Kurt Rambis in the crowd. i was thinking to myself, what the hell is he doing there. Next thing you know a month or two or however long later, Kurt Rambis the head coach of the Timberwolves signs one of the Panathinaikos players, Nikola Pekovic, to a contract. At the time, I’m reading this i think “he’ll do ok, he is physically strong with a good back to the basket game and can play the pick and roll pretty well.” His first season he doesn’t get an opportunity, then didn’t get an opportunity this season until Darko went down injured. all of a sudden Pekovic is dropping huge numbers and finishes the month of January with 16ppg, 10rpg, 1bpg and continues those numbers for the rest of the season. I knew he was going to be good, but i had no idea he’d be that good.

What I’m trying to say is just because they are not in the NBA doesn’t mean they are not good enough. That last year Pekovic spent in Europe, Aleks Maric was all-euroleague. In Greece, Sofoklis Schortsanitis and Ioannis Bourousis at rival Olympiakos were always regarded better centers. My thinking is, if Pekovic can do that against Americans week in week out, then anyone else with the same skill set can do that and if thats the case I believe that this USA team with their lack of size are really going to struggle because outside the NBA are some very good big men.

I like you and i thank you for reading. feel free to comment on any of my writings on this site because you actually have substance in your arguments.

I got to be honest prior to the Eurobasket 2011 I didn’t expect much from FYROM but they surprised me. They beat Greece, Croatia, Slovenia and just when I thought they couldn’t do any more to surprise me they beat Lithuania in Lithuania to advance to the semi’s. FYROM were unbelievable that tournament and you shouldn’t call them a gift. They almost could have added Russia to that list of beaten opponents but they unfortunately lost on a buzzer beater.

– Definately should be played during Winter.

– Free to air is definately the way to go however if you can combine the two and have a presence on both plat forms and as long as you are making more money out of it i don’t see why you can’t do both.

– I like confederations so I’ll disagree with you here. We do however need to drag some of the big fish down under to play the Boomers. The Greek national team is actually coming here to play some pre-olympic warm up games in Melbourne and Geelong later this year.

– Grass roots is astounding, I coach a few teams here in Canberra and I see it first hand week in week out.

– Private ownership isn’t the devil however I like community based ownership models. I believe the Wollongong Hawks have some kind of community ownership going on, and I believe the rest of the league should look to follow suit.

I guess they want their team to hit free throws?

I don’t disagree with much of what you say you actually make a few very good points however I feel a need to jump to the defence of the Asian teams. Asian teams on many occasions have proven to be very competitive. Don’t forget the 2010 WC in which Jordan almost beat Australia and lead 75-70 with 1:10 remaining but eventually lost 75-76. They also gave it to Argentina in the same tournament and were within 5 during the 4th against them but eventually lost 79-88. My favourite though was Lebanon’s 74-73 win over an NBA stacked team France in the 2006 WC. The teams that qualify through Asia are not write offs and have proven to be of a pretty good standard. I still remember Michael Jordan saying that Fadi El Khatib of Lebanon was the best player outside of the NBA. Now we all know Michael Jordan isn’t the greatest judge of talents (Kwame Brown) but that is a pretty big statement.

Before I go just a hypothetical for you. If the NBL team nearest to you was competing in the Asian Champions Cup and the Beijing Ducks who are lead in scoring by former NBA all star Stephon Marbury came to town, would you go watch?

Yes I am Greek. The reason basketball is popular in Greece is thanks to Nikos Galis who dominated the Greek League and Europe in the 1980s. Thanks to him we managed to win the 1987 Eurobasket and for quite some time after that basketball was number 1.

Now why is basketball not so big amongst our Greek community here in Australia? It is a good question, I believe it to be a generation thing. The Greeks here in Australia migrated here in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s well before basketball was big in Greece. So when the children of these families grew up, they grew up in football loving families rather than basketball loving families.

However with that said, and I can only speak on behalf of the Canberra community, basketball is played by a lot of Greeks here and most of them are aware of the current glories of Greek basketball. I believe there is a market for the basketball teams of Olympiakos or Panathinaikos to tour Australia. I’m sure Melbourne would be a great host for a Greek team, they would sell out an arena. With that said though the Greek national basketball team will be here in Australia to play the Boomers in a pre-olympic warm up game, this will be a good test to see how much the Greeks here love there basketball side.

agreed

Also I don’t believe the difference between the NBA three point line and the FIBA three point line makes for much of a difference. Just to give you an example Chauncey Billups in the 2010 WC shot 32% from three on 14/44 shooting. In the NBA season prior to that tournament he shot 39% and the NBA season after the tournament shot 40%. Basiclally what I’m saying is that the line being slighty closer doesn’t necessarily translate to it being easier.

You make good points, we will just have to wait and see as to how everything transpires in London.

About the players I mentioned above they are not just big bodies. Ioannis Bourousis, Aleks Maric and Sofoklis Schortsanitis are former All-Euroleague first team members (2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively) and all have and still compete for some of the biggest clubs in Europe. They are terrific post players especially in the case of Maric and Schortsanitis who have a lot of great moves down low.

That is a very good question and you have raised a topic that is up for discussion.

I believe the Perth Wildcats recently played against a couple of Chinese league teams but it is something that doesn’t happen often.

Asia does have a basketball equivalent to the AFC Champions League called FIBA Asia Champions Cup which the Middle Eastern clubs have dominated over the last decade. Sub continental tournaments like the Southeast Asia Basketball Association Champions Cup and West Asia Basketball Association Champions Cup exist also. However Australia unlike football is not a member of Asia, we are a member of Oceania.

Basketball Australia have floated the idea of joining Asia before however they believe the benefits of being in Oceania are greater. The reason for this is because of the number of placings Oceania receieve in the World Championships and Olympics. The top two Oceania teams qualify for WC and the Oceania champions qualify for the Olympics with the second place team getting a second chance through the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. Seeing as the only other team in oceania that even bothers to compete is New Zealand this ensures Australia have a place in every WC and every Olympic games.

Some might argue that even in Asia we would still qualify however with traditional power houses like China and Lebanon along with new powers Iran and Jordan standing in the way is it worth taking the risk? The WC and the Olympics are the biggest stages in world basketball and at the moment they are stages we are guaranteed to compete on.

I might actually do a little research and write an article about the potential benefits of joining Asia because I am someone who is for it. Thanks for asking such a great question.

Don’t forget Juan Carlos Navarro, Jose Calderon, Sergio Llul or potential Rubio replacement Sergio Rodriguez are in the Spanish backcourt.

We’re just going to have to wait and see to find out what this US team will do. I can understand your confidence within the Dream Team but after past failures in 2002 WC, 2004 Olympics and 2006 WC and the fact that the most recent of teams never played a Spain, Greece or Serbia yet was pushed to the brink by a weaker team in Brazil maybe you shouldn’t be overly confident.

Firstly, Aleks Maric is not a scrub. He is a Euroleague, Greek League and Greek Cup champion. He was also named on the all Euroleague first team in 2010. The guy is a beast standing at 6ft 11 and weighing in at 125kg, plus he got game.

Sedondly, did you watch the 2010 World Championships? If you did you would have seen USA almost lose (70-68) to Brazil in the group stage. Brazil did not have Nene in there squad and Anderson Varejão went down injured earlier in the tournament and missed the game against USA. Brazil missed a shot on the buzzer that would have won the game. What does this tell us? it tells us USA are not invincible.

If you watched that tournament you would have noticed USA avoided Spain, Greece and Serbia due to them three falling on the other side of the playoff bracket in the knock-out stages. Those three teams all would have beat USA. Spain knocked out Greece, Serbia Knocked out Spain and then thanks to the home court advantage Turkey knocked out Serbia because of the officiating being perhaps influenced by the crowd.

You can call that team a B-Team but remember they had Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler who are all going to be a part of this team. They also had 2011 NBA MVP Derrick Rose who will be missing this year due to injury. Also don’t forget Greece beat a super star studded USA in the 2006 World Championships. USA are not unstoppable, and only time will tell whether this article will hold true. Until then I guess we will just have to wait.

As Ryan said, Kevin Love fits that description but I do understand what you mean. Especially after i read what you said about the lack of Magic Johnsons and Larry Birds etc. I think what you mean is that the USA lack in the unorthodox players department. You don’t see guys like Magic just flinging the ball around the court as if it was an extention of his arm, you dont see people like Kareem Abdul Jabbar pulling up with sky hooks from around 15ft from the basket and you don’t see guys like Larry Bird who in the heat of a game can just pull out a falling backwards three point shot from the corner to seal the fate of his team. The NBA today is just full of fundamentally sound robots, that is why it is just such a breath of fresh air when you see players like Nowitzki come into the league or Rubio. They just seem to have an extra dimension to their games.