NBL Thread

by **Fresh8** on Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:19 am

Who's Brisbane playing?

by **Arcane** on Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:17 pm

Bullets vs. Breakers Brisbane Convention Centre Sun, Dec 16 6:30 PM AEST <---- my 26th bday game

by **McDwyane** on Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:26 pm

One question:is marquin chandler in the nbl?Thanks.

by **The X** on Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:17 pm

I'll give your birthday game a mess....I'll probably be playing for Irish that night, & last thing I'd want to do Sunday is that....Friday night or Saturday night is better for me....

by **Arcane** on Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:28 pm

ahh crap true i never really checked it was on a sunday just copied and pasted the info

by **Fresh8** on Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:50 am

haha... when i think of weekend games, i think they are usually saturday.

by **Ty-Land** on Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:58 pm

Orion Greene signs with the Breakers. Waived from Sac-Town to wind up in NZ. I expect he will tear it up in this league, and score at will on most nights. Should be interesting to watch his progress.

LINK

by **Dan's Brain** on Tue Nov 27, 2007 6:50 pm

That was really, really quick. Wasn't he waived about a week ago? You'd figure that he'd try to get some NBDL or CBA minutes before throwing it all in on an NBL stint.

by **The X** on Tue Nov 27, 2007 6:58 pm

As long as he can feed the ball to Kirk Penney & Phil Jones on the wings, & get it inside to Rick Rickert, he'll be fine (Y)

Go Breakers 8-)

by **J@3** on Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:05 pm

Did anyone watch the all-star game? It was pathetically low budget as far as the presentation goes, it looked as if it was being played in just some random stadium in the middle of nowhere. The three point shootout was rubbish, except for Andrew Gaze... holy shit, he would have won the whole thing if he was entered.

The game itself was great I thought, by NBL standards anyway. They butchered alot of tricks and fancy plays but Nathan Jawai/Larry Abney were awesome to watch.

by **Arcane** on Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:07 pm

did they have the dunk comp this year ?

by **J@3** on Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:11 pm

Nope no dunk comp, just the three point shootout.

by **The X** on Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:23 pm

I saw a bit of All-Star Game & I preferred it over the NBA version....at least the NBL one, they seem to play a little defence....in the NBA they play none....

who won 3pt shootout? Penney?

by **J@3** on Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:04 pm

Penney beat DeVries or something, the score was like 14-8... really bad. Andrew Gaze scored 19, the 2nd highest of the night behind Penney's initial 20.

by **Carmo** on Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:59 pm

I got box seats to the Dragons v Tigers this Saturday! Should be a bit of fun even if the Dragons lose......
Apparently it give access to a function afterwards as well in which the players will be there. I'll have to have a chat to Shane and see if I can get a gig with the Dragons!

by **Fresh8** on Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:03 am

Is anyone else here concerned about the state of the NBL? Singapore just withdrew to make the league a 10-league team. Although people say it's nothing to worry about, a 10 league NBL and seeing we don't have the Kings or Bullets anymore looks fairly dismal/pathetic.

Even the A-League is doing better than the NBL. I think they really got to market the league a lot better and this would happen if they put it on free-to-air TV. The game is very popular amongst kids but I agree with the sentiment that the league more exposure and needs to get parents to take kids to the games.

What do you guys think?

by **CMJ3** on Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:53 pm

I guess its just the following it receives in different states, There is quite a strong basketball following here in Perth so if someone had the money they could possibly start another team like Victoria did.

They need more dominant AUSTRALIAN players, no one really wants to see washed up Americans dominating here when they cant hack it back in their home town. I'd rather watch some top Aussies battle it out. But in the end it comes down to the quality of basketball, its low, very low and im not sure how they are going to get out of this hole they are stuck in.

Most Likely the NBL will fold im assuming and a new league will be established much like what the Netball did.

by **Fresh8** on Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:00 pm

That's if they have any money to do so.

Perhaps if Aussies do well at the Olympics, basketball will be back on the rise. It's a shame it has had to slip to this level. I thought the game was in a good state last season but obviously, it wasn't financially.

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:56 pm

The bulk of the sponsorship dollars seem to be tied up in the various football codes (including soccer) which doesn't help. In any event, it does look a little bleak for the NBL with so many teams folding which affords local players less of an opportunity to play pro ball in Australia. Perhaps we'll see more young players in US colleges and trying their luck at the NBA or perhaps players going to Europe.

The league does a pretty woeful job of marketing itself as a serious sports league so I think we really need something like a surprising finish at the Olympics to spark interest in the sport and make it more respectable. A lot of Australians will probably always have a dim view of the sport but it doesn't help when we don't do well in international competition.

by **The X** on Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:26 pm

the NBL is dead....as soon as they let both Sydney & Brisbane franchises fold, that was the NBL gone....the NBL needs the Kings, the Bullets, the Tigers & the Wildcats....they have to have teams in the major capitals (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth & Adelaide)....

I think CMJ might be on to something....in the end, a new league will sprout....a more sustainable one....

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:15 pm

Will there be the interest and sponsorship dollars though? Perhaps the NBL will need to go the way of the NSL or at least go into recess until the problems are ironed out and the league can be relaunched, similar to the A-League. Something will have to reignite nationwide interest in basketball though for any pro league to truly succeed here today.

by **The X** on Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:32 pm

Andrew wrote:Something will have to reignite nationwide interest in basketball though for any pro league to truly succeed here today.

Pretty bad when having one of the best women's player in the World & having the former number 1 pick in the NBA draft can't even help the game in Australia even marginally....that's pretty bad....I haven't even mentioned that the women's team are the current World Championships....

all it took in NZ for game to get a bit more coverage was beating Australia & qualifying for & finishing 4th place in 2002 World Champs....although no doubt it will fade back into relative obscurity, given that rugby is God over there....

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:58 pm

Those things should help the game in Australia but I think when it comes down to it, they're achieving at a sport the country doesn't care about instead of making people care about it. The Opals being the reigning world champions should have sparked some interest too but women's sports don't seem to garner as much attention and I'd go so far as to say their success, in a way, reinforces the ridiculous stereotype that basketball is a girl's sport and that men who play basketball are wimps.

Sexist as it may sound, I think it's going to take the men's team having some sort of Cindarella run to really grab people's attention and care about the sport. More exposure for the league wouldn't hurt either...some more coverage on free-to-air in addition to what we get on Foxtel, magazines, trading cards, promotions, anything to get the game and the names of the players out there. Getting a little more NBA coverage out there wouldn't be a bad idea either since it could spark interest in basketball again which could then turn to the local competition.

by **The X** on Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:12 pm

I agree on a medal at Beijing (or London at latest) being vital....I also agree that some NBA coverage would be nice....I remember what got me into bball was the Saturday NBA Action followed by the game of the week (& it was always a good game of the week too), then stuff like trading cards & NBA Jam & NBA Live on Sega Mega Drive re-inforced it....once I started playing bball at 13, I fell in love with it & that has never changed....I have found with most players who still play bball at my age (a crazy 27), is that we're all bball junkies, & I bet you are the same....we all got into game at similar time, early to mid 90's when it was free to air....I think once you play the game, it sticks with you....I guess it's a game where you can go down to court & shoot on your own, or you can play it as team, or casual pickup, serious or casual....

I know soccer is similar to that, which is why it's so popular....not the same for sports like rugby....either way, I think the rugby codes are slowly sliding....the passion seems to have fallen out of State of Origins, to the stage, where it has gone from a must watch to a game you'll watch only if other people are watching with you....

but I don't think basketball is dead in Australia....I just can't imagine it....I play at my local competition in Brisbane, & there are so many closet bball junkies out there....heck, the "young" 20 year old undergraduate at our work is a former Qld U16 rep bball player....you wouldn't pick it, only found out by chance when discussing the Fighting Irish....he ended up blowing his knee out twice, but that's a different story....he still plays uni U23's, but not as seriously....

as for bball being a sissy sport, my former rep rugby union brother found out that was the furthest thing from the truth when he joined the Fighting Irish....he told me he thought there was suppose to be no contact in bball....I laughed....I told him if the ref didn't see it or call it, there wasn't any contact....

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:47 pm

Definitely, I think anyone from our generation who fell in love with the game is still hooked in some respect. You're right, basketball isn't dead but its popularity is a shadow of its former self. Amusingly, the NBL is listed in the latest RALPH Magazine as one of the top 50 wankers in Australian sports, though its blurb identifies it as being great in the 90s so it's not just generic basketball bashing as many people do.

The thing is, the people who aren't into it don't give it much of a chance. I know a lot of people who say it's "slow" and "boring" though they've never really explained why. I just accept my close circle of friends are not big basketball people and don't press the issue with them but I think a lot of Australians do hold a negative view of the game. As for it being a sissy sport, well, we all know it isn't but I guess anything that doesn't involve flat out brute force and tackling people to the ground is considered "soft". If only they knew, right?

That's something soccer's always going to have over any other sport...go down to the local park or reserve, find something to mark the goals if need be and go for it. All you need is a ball, you can improvise the rest with trees, caps, jumpers etc. Same goes for footy to a certain extent. Basketball on the other hand requires more equipment, if there isn't any handy then it's pretty tough to do much more except practice dribbling and passing to one another.

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