Kevin Bartlett pulled no punches in his assessment of the NBL last week. The fallout, though, turned the whole event into a giant positive.
The Melbourne radio host’s comments anticipated the death of the NBL.
“The best imports are no longer attracted and the home-grown stars just can’t be satisfied,” Bartlett said.
“It’s lost its position in the minds of sports fans and that spells death unless a panacea is found.”
Now, about 3-4 years ago Bartlett’s comments would’ve likely been met with apathy from the NBL community.
Few would bother to pick up the phone and call him out because a lot of it would’ve hit home. That was then, though, and this is now.
Were there still no meaningful team in Sydney, Bartlett would be right.
Were there still no free-to-air games and the majority of games not shown at all, Bartlett would be right.
Were James Ennis, AJ Ogilvy and Mark Worthington playing elsewhere, Bartlett would be right.
Were crowds not up in each of the last four seasons, Bartlett would be right.
Were Perth not pulling over 10,000 fans to every home game, Bartlett would be right.
Were TV ratings not double in Round 1 this year what they were in Round 1 last year, Bartlett would be right.
But the landscape has changed. Bartlett is not right. The NBL is no longer close to death.
And that meant NBL people did, in fact, pick up the phone.
Melbourne Tigers captain Tommy Greer eloquently defended the state of the league on afternoon radio and outlined some of the recent positives, including the arrival of the NBA-bound Ennis (who added to his extensive highlight reel once again over the weekend).
His teammates and coach hit social media with their responses also and by the next day, KB was back-tracking. The message from basketball had cut through stronger.
To be fair, there was one line the NBL should not ignore from Bartlett’s bake.
“It’s lost its position in the minds of sports fans” is an accurate assessment. For all the recent positives, this remains the case.
That’s the challenge in front of the new NBL ownership and management that’s still assuming their new roles.
But for the first time in a while, the NBL community can say the league isn’t close to death.
And you could mount the argument that it took Bartlett’s words for the NBL community to realise they had the power to say this publicly. So, in that sense, the situation was a major positive for the league.
You can say what you like about the NBL, just don’t mention the d-word anymore.
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