Australian basketball heat check with Boomer Mark Worthington

A few days ago, Aussie Boomer and Melbourne Tigers representative Mark Worthington gave The Roar a candid heat check interview on the state of Australian basketball and his own career.

This conversation arose because you put a call out on Twitter that you’re free to speak to media, what caused you to do that?
The NBL has been in the discussion with Kevin Bartlett proclaiming basketball is dead. I felt the opposite the way this NBL season has gone.

It was a wake-up call that we need to be open and let media talk to us free and openly.

The first few rounds attendance has been up. We’ve had sell-outs in Melbourne. I want the old NBL fans to come back to see the Tigers play – people who were maybe fans of the Giants or Dragons teams, anyone.

What has changed about the NBL?
Since the NBL de-merger the main focus has been to promote the game. They’re trying to promote individuals as much as teams.

Since Andrew Gaze left there’s been no replacement stars that people can relate to.

James Ennis in Perth is great for the league.

AJ Ogivy is phenomenal and could be earning more money playing in Europe.

The NBL has now officially broken away from Basketball Australia as a separate entity. Some people have wondered whether that is wise and how it can benefit the league, why do you think it happened?
The split means the league is driven by the owners. These are good business-people and want to see it thrive and are also competitive. They want to make good business decisions.

Basketball Australia has been run by ex-basketballers at times and that hasn’t always lead to great decisions. These owners want to leave their mark on the league.

Tommy [Greer’s] article says what we all know; that after the Gaze era of the NBL we dropped the ball. We now need to step up and make ourselves accountable.

Whatever we have been doing wasn’t working. This isn’t something that will be fully repaired by the time I’m done, but I want to start down that path.

NBL CEO, Frazer Neill, believes the NBL can double in size in the next five years . Is that a smart thing to do? Should there be more realistic expansion expectations?
I don’t think doubling is the answer currently – 10-12 teams in the next five years should be attainable and is realistic. There could be a second Melbourne team and second New Zealand team.

To be a national competition we need a team in Brisbane as well. That’s already close to 12.

Moving on to the NBL games, one of the main changes this year is the directive to officiate the matches to encourage a more open, offence-friendly game. Is that working?
There are obviously growing pains, especially during the pre-season. But now you can see what they’re wanting – games are opening up after teams get into foul trouble.

So points are going up on the board, which is fantastic. Athletes, such as Ennis, are able to shine in that sort of game which makes it attractive.

Is it fun to play with this new emphasis?
It has been so far. It depends a little bit on if you have the ball or not. But it’s certainly a more exciting game.

One little quirk I’ve noticed is that it seems hard to record an NBL assist compared to the NBA, do you believe that’s the case?
It’s definitely harder, the NBL calls assists harder than the NBA.

In the NBA you’ll see a person pass, then seven bounces before it’s put in and have it called [an assist].

But having said that, it’s easier in the NBL than Europe to get an assist, so you’ve just got to get used to it.

Which basketball city is the best to ‘champagne and campaign’?
Cairns was good, it’s sunny there more often than not. You can’t go wrong with Cairns. Perth is also great to soak in the atmosphere.

Not many people go west, but maybe I’m biased because that’s where I’m from.

Do you have a favourite stadium to play in?
I haven’t played in the new arena but Challenge Stadium used to be the best home in the league. There was nothing like it.

It had the best home court advantage and the crowd felt like it was on top of you.

In terms of your own career, what are the biggest highlights so far?
The two Olympics were huge obviously and so were the two World Championships.

I feel lucky to have been part of those and represent the country in big tournaments.

What about personally?
The college award was great, it was really special.

Winning Division II player of the year was amazing. And I was just named on the Kings 25 year team which was an honour.

Can you tell us about your quick dalliance with the AFL before you signed with the Tigers?
I got a message just as I landed in Singapore after London Olympics. I got the SMS asking for a try-out and thought there was no harm in giving it a go.

It was a fantastic week but age was a factor. I can say I had a go at the opportunity and have no regrets about it.

I played football as a youngster growing up so I just wanted to see how I went.

Do you see yourself a part of the Boomers in the next few years at this later stage of your career?
Hopefully I’m a part of it in the future.

With Neilsen retiring there is that spot [for an older mentor player] in the set-up.

There are lots of young guys and it would be special to go round one more time. I think I’ve found my niche there.

More generally, what do you think about some of the young Australian talent coming through at the moment?
I haven’t had much to do with Dante [Exum] or [Ben] Simons, but there is also Jonah Bolden coming through too.

There will be big things from Dante and Simmons – they’ll fit right in with the Boomers. Patty Mills and Joe Ingles are still young but have been through two Olympics now and they’re going very well – Patty just scored 20 for the Spurs in pre-season.

Hopefully Boges [Andrew Bogut] is able to come back too and we’ll have a really strong team.

Can you see the Boomers reaching the top three or four in the world consistently?
Look, we think we have the ability to get better results in big tournaments.

We beat Russia at the Olympics and they went on to claim bronze.

We felt we weren’t far away. It’s the small slip-ups that come back to get you after losing a very winnable game.

The next World Champs is the third major tournament for this group and if we can win that game this time maybe we can do it.

Anything else you want to say?
I just want to encourage basketball fans that haven’t been for a while to come back to the NBL.

If you have kids bring them and let them see the exciting product we have.