The NBL has traditionally had its fair share of bad publicity, thanks in part to poor management and a serious lack of on-court talent.
However, in recent years I am glad to say both the league and Basketball Australia have really got its act together and the results can be seen on and off the court.
Crowd numbers have shown that the competition is healthy with increases over each of the last three seasons.
The Perth Wildcats are moving to the 14,500-seat Perth Arena to accommodate their large fanbase. Do not be surprised if we see the New Zealand Breakers do the same thing by moving permanently to the 12,000-seat Vector Arena.
The NBL now has a free-to-air presence on Ten that will show one game live on Sundays and one on OneHD on delay on Fridays for next season. The league is also looking into getting more games live through Fox Sports for next season, meaning more revenue and exposure for the growing competition.
We have nine teams currently competing: Sydney Kings, Melbourne Tigers, Adelaide 36ers, Perth Wildcats, Gold Coast Blaze, Wollongong Hawks, Townsville Crocodiles, Cairns Taipans and New Zealand Breakers. Many criticise the competition for a lack of big market presence with the main sticking point being no Brisbane team.
However, people need to understand that once the League becomes more stable, which appears to have been happening for some time, the big markets are going to follow. Brisbane and a second Melbourne team are up for inclusion for the 2013-2014 season.
Also, let us not forget the noise that has come out of Newcastle and Wellington over recent years. Potentially, by 2015 the NBL could be looking at a 13-team competition.
Outside of the league and off the court, Kristina Keneally was appointed to the position of chair of Basketball Australia in December of last year. This was huge news for the sport as a whole, thanks to the political muscle she can flex in pushing for government funding.
Just recently she made comments about the large amounts of undeserving cash the government was pumping into football, saying, “This sort of major expenditure cannot continually be made on behalf of a select few sports at the expense of other high participation codes like basketball.” Hopefully she can continue to push for more funding to benefit Australian basketball.
Lastly, the Boomers have a strong chance to medal this year at the London Olympics. As we have seen with football, international success can trickle down into popularity for domestic competitions. Just ask the FFA how the Socceroos 2006 World Cup success affected the A-League – the two seasons after the World Cup were the A-League’s best attended.
However, Olympic success will only fast track what I believe will eventually happen: the NBL becoming a mainstream league just as it was in the 1990s.
I realise that most of what I have said may be old news to the basketball followers. I am here just to remind everyone that the good is just going to keep coming.
The giant that is the NBL is soon to awake. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.
Get A Grip On Reality
Guest
Can we please get something straight? The NBL was on Fox Sports, as opposed to free to air TV, for all of those years for two very simple reasons. Neither of those reasons was because the NBL chose pay-TV over an FTA offer, so all of the people commenting here, please listen up. "THERE WASN'T A SINGLE FTA NETWORK THAT WANTED THE NBL. THEREFORE THE ONLY OPTION WAS FOX SPORTS". Did everyone get that? Was it clear enough to understand? It was pay-tv or NOTHING. The second reason the NBL liked Fox Sports is that they tipped in significant $$$$ through right fees that kept the NBL alive through some very, very, very lean times. Those $$$ came despite the fact Fox knew they had no competition for the NBL, so give them their due credit for keeping this league alive when they didn't have to. NBL fans should be thanking them, not criticising them. Oh, and things are about to get very interesting in the next year or so when the ONE HD deal finishes. When that deal was signed, ONE was a sports channel. Now it isn't. Do the math on how much leverage the NBL has to get a new deal, let alone a single dollar in rights fees. That leaves ... Fox Sports. Think they will pay much in terms of a rights fee after the NBL ditched them? They can have it all back for just the cost of production. One point on Summer vs. Winter. The networks don't want the NBL in Winter because they are overloaded with sport during that time, and that includes Fox Sports. Move to Winter = no TV anywhere. The networks have said this. No TV = no NBL. So you can put forward all the benefits of a season shift that you want, but unless it comes with a national TV deal as well, then all of your points are moot. If it wasn't for that stumbling block, the NBL would have changed season many, many years ago.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
I think the NBL and broadcasters will be looking at Perth Arena anxiously. If they can regularly put that thing to near capacity it will be a *great* image.
Michael
Guest
sorry james but anybody that really believes that asia can be competitive against the boomers cant be taken too seriously. New Zealand as average as they are is still better than any Asian team and considering that development of future prospects is probably greater in new zealand than anywhere in asia other than china its a sign that Asia as a whole just doesn't embrace Basketball as a sport like it should be. Boomers have an exciting core right now and really with emergence of specialised academies worldwide we will struggle in the future to be competitive against the top 5 or 6 teams, so it will be in our best interest to make our path to the finals (Olympics or world champs) on the quickest and relatively easiest path which is still Oceania, as our greatest chance to win a medal is right now. Take Canada for example they are hardly a powerhouse at the moment but they already have an incredible foundation for future development of their national team something the boomers do not have in an organised manner. Canada's future playing talent is jaw dropping.... anthony bennett, cory joseph, kyle wiltjer, tristan thompson. All of them are either in the NBA already or lottery picks in the future years. Thats not mentioning Andrew Wiggins who is supposedly the next superstar to enter the nba when he decides to (only 17). Problem is on talent alone we are a country mile behind them and now with Canada's new re organisation of its national basketball teams structure it is going to be that much better than us in the future.
Sav
Roar Rookie
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.
Sav
Roar Rookie
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.
Sav
Roar Rookie
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.
Alexander
Guest
This will probably offend the purists out there, but like Rahul Castro once said, "a tree that has grown askew, must be uprooted and replanted anew." By this, I mean that the heyday of Australian Basketball is beyond us now - if we don't do things to reinvigorate its standing against the Australian sporting Landscape. Now, to decide this, we have to look at what the audience wants. And if you look at the winter sports where 3 football codes compete and still do rather well considering, then I think we only have to identify what these sports have in common. And it isn't the shape of the ball. These sports are collision sports. Contact. Australians love it. Don't get me wrong, we love Cricket and swimming/athletics as well, but if you wanted to look at the most tribal supporters of their sport, it is the Football codes. You see I fail to mention Soccer, or Association Football. You think about it, they moved their competition to compete with the NBL as they knew they were going no where trying to compete with the other codes. So what does the NBL have to do? It needs to adapt. Adapt and adopt the concept of Slamball. I can't guarantee that this solve the NBL issues, but it would introduce the spectacle of the sport to the Australian sporting curriculum. Where does this leave the current crop of NBL players? well, again, adapt or go extinct. Many of our Basketballers formally played AFL of Rugby in their sports histories, adopting some of the rough play of slamball would ensure their continued success. I know this view may be unpopular with purists, but something fresh, new and exciting needs to happen to this game in this country or face the fact that its time is limited as a viable national competition.
koberulz
Guest
Playing in winter would mean competing with AFL (which, unlike in the NBL's heyday, now also plays games at night). As far as international basketball goes, there have been some changes made by FIBA a month or so ago that will mean the Boomers facing higher-quality international teams far more often.
mball
Guest
Asian involvement in Cairns Taipans preseason 2011/2012, as taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E2%80%9312_NBL_season 2011 China Intercontinental Club Championship 23 August 2011 Xinjiang Flying Tigers 66, Cairns Taipans 79 Jiamusi Arena, Jiamusi, China 24 August 2011 Cairns Taipans 88, Kentucky Bisons 63 Jiamusi Arena, Jiamusi, China Final 28 August 2011 Alba Berlin 84, Cairns Taipans 67 MasterCard Center, Beijing, China NBA players Paul Pierce and Michael Beasley lined up for Kentucky Bisons.
craig
Guest
Correct me if I am wrong but the NBL has already tried to break into Asia with the Singapore Slingers and look how that worked out.I think we need to make the current teams successful on and off the court bring in a Brisbane team and maybe 2nd Melbourne team.Dont try and grow to quick it will only lead to problems.
ManInBlack
Guest
oh dear - the optimistic talk of a second Melbourne team. That's been a sporting graveyard over the years!!
peeeko
Roar Guru
i hope you are wrong but i cant see the NBL ever getting back to its hey day of the late 80's and early 90's
Sav
Roar Rookie
- 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.
Sav
Roar Rookie
I guess they want their team to hit free throws?
Sav
Roar Rookie
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?
Johnno
Guest
add Launceston Casino to that too. Plus the great CBA was lost too a real shame fro Basketball in OZ, places like MT Gambier in south australia lost there team. Victoria and south australia have been the traditional powerhouse of producing talent in Australia and NBRL chmapionships too.
Bludger
Guest
As a long time fan of NBL and basketball, my thoughts. # NBL should be played over the winter time. Noone wants to sit inside during the warmer months with longer daylight hours. The policy has not worked. # Pay tv/Fox Sports almost killed off the NBL. Beware other sports, I see rugby union down that path. # Basketball worldwide should ditch this soccer confederation model. It stifles the international game. Cannot even recall the last time a decent international team was out here. Maybe the warm ups to the Olympics in 2000 when the US played Oz in Melbourne. Playing NZ just does not sell tickets or rate on tv. # The growth of the game played at grass roots is astounding. The game itself is loved. It just needs to be linked to a well watched national competition. # Private ownership needs to be dumped. It does NOT work! It cost so many towns their teams. Geelong, Brisbane, Hobart, Newcastle, Canberra. It needs to get back to club and member models. You won't make a profit owning a team. So why do they persist with this madness? Not sure what will become of the NBL, the sport of basketball will thrive regardless.
Aljay
Guest
James, whats with the cheering when their team is at the stripe?
Aljay
Guest
My main points are listed below, but just a quick note further to them, we are already above every country in Asia in playing standard, and well well above every country other than China. There would be zero to gain in skill development or public interest by playing Asian teams. A Boomers B team would be better competition (or New Zealand). We need to be concentrating on returning to the top 4 in the world consistently, through beating the best of Europe and eventually the US. Missing tournaments would be a tragic setback for Australian Basketball (See 2002 world championship), this is not soccer where qualifying counts as a success.
Aljay
Guest
Moving to Asia would be a terrible idea for Basketball Australia. A qualifying odessy against low-ranked nations that puts our entry to the biggest two international tournaments at risk? Really? We would gain nothing from playing countries ranked well, well below us in worn out, far-flung gyms. We have rarely lost to Asian teams in a competitive match (couple of losses to China in friendlies is it I think) with Lebanon currently ranked 34th spots and probably below NSW Metro in playing standard. It's also hard enough to get a full first choice team together for the games we do play, without asking them and the BA budget to stretch themselves across trips to minnow nations when a 3-and-done series against NZ will get us there. This is not soccer - qualifying is not a big deal, winning a medal is. Additionally, it would mean asking our women's team, the clear number 2 team in the world over the last 15 years, to have to qualify against countries that do not even have a national women's league. Better off with a short qualifying round through Oceania (The only Asian team that could trouble NZ is China anyway, and possibly Iran) and then spending the BA budget on a good series of warm up games against fellow top 5 countries. Much has been made of soccer's transfer to the Asian region but unlike us they have the benefit of a worthwhile regional championship, development opportunities against better opposition and the ability to turn a profit from home qualifying matches.