Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I'm Hearing Rod Benson

I'm striving for the same cred as these guys.

In the world of basketball bloggers most know Agent Zero (Gilbert Arenas) and Rod Benson, from Ball Don't Lie. They both produce a good read every time their fingers run across the keyboard. (I'm hoping that one day I have a following like them.)

Yesterday Benson made an honest blog entry about how his blogging may be keeping him out of the NBA. It is well worth a read but I will paraphrase it for you.

All summer Benson has been trying to make an NBA squad for his rebounding ability, but he feels his blog has sent up a "red flag" when franchises are looking at him.

He was honest saying that while on trial with NBA teams he did watch what he was writing so it did not come back to haunt him.

It is a shame that it has come to this. Fans love character and Benson has a whole lot of good character in him. It would be disappointing to find out that a player missed out on a contract due to their creative side.

All the best to Rod Benson and his Movement. I believe he will be turning this into an international thing. Boom Tho!

This brings me to the NBL and this subject.

With the sport of basketball receiving very little good national media coverage I can't see why the league would not want to provide the Australian public with a lighter side of their players.

Go to the NBL website and their is no evidence that any of the league's players get to show their off court abilities and personalities.

We now live in a world where the Internet is a serious media tool. The NBL has 100+ players at their disposal for this. Fans love to log on and see what players have to say. Stranger things have happened, it may even become interactive to some degree. Wow, what an idea!

Now to why I actually began this entry. I have been plugging away at this blogspot for almost a year now (much improved I hope, but still plenty of room for improvement) and no one from the NBL has ever approached me about linking it or using it somehow on their site.

I'm not saying I'm this great writer or anything but I'm sure fans wouldn't mind reading some of my opinions, whether they agree or disagree.

Unlike Benson who may miss out on his dream of the NBA due to blogging, I feel the NBL should be using this tool to get their players and their personalities out there for the fans to see.

Let me know some of your ideas as to how the NBL could improve the use of the cyber world or how I could capture the imagination of the basketball world?

What's News
5'9 T-Dub, check this guy out!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're absolutely right about the NBL, and the lack of player interactivity and marketing.

It's a shame that the league doesn't seem to recognise that creating relationships -- even if superficial -- between player and (prospective) fan is so important.

You'd be a great addition to the NBL site. And who, for example, wouldn't be interested in reading how an import finds adjusting to Australia?

DJ LEON SMITH said...

The NBL just doesn't get it. This comes back to my old PBT argument when I was trying to get those NBL player diaries every week and the players were more than helpful to supply them - when I bugged the NBL or the teams to get me something (anything!). While the NBL weren't unhelpful, they weren't exactly proactive to get me any extra NBL content.

And what the hell am I doing up at 5:40am.

Anonymous said...

There is more info on this site than the NBL site anyway, plus it gets updated more frequently.

Well done JR.

Anonymous said...

and you would think that the players are the best asset the NBL has!

John Rillie said...

DJ Leon:

You must be up that late looking at all of Kobe's footage on You Tube or working on a classic PodCast for this week.

John Rillie said...

Anton:

Thanks for your kind words. I just think if fans can interact with the players this would become a great tool.

This is not for all players so the NBL needs to be wise in who they use to make it successful.

John Rillie said...

Anonymous:

It is something that I enjoy doing and the articles I read anyway so why not link them so others can read them without searching.

Thanks for dropping by.

John Rillie said...

DJ Rod:

I understand the clubs or the NBL wanting to be careful of what they publish but if you used others content, the NBL would hold the power to not publish it on their site.

Anyway, what is wrong with a little controversy.

Anonymous said...

Incidentally, the NBL should totally have player blogs, but the NRL should totally not.

They'd exclusively deal with getting on it at the Sapphire Club and Mens Gallery, and domestic violence. Good reading, sure, but Gallop wouldn't like it.