I feel your pain Brad (Davidson).
Last week Adelaide journalist Boti Nagy briefly touched on why the NBL holds a roster spot for an Australian who is under the age of 23.
I have had many an animated discussion with various people in the basketball fraternity, so it is time to share my thoughts on this topic.
First and the most obvious point to me is, the NBL is a professional league and has to be striving to put the best available talent on the court. By restricting one of the ten available roster spots per team, every year you are going to lose talent just to fulfill this age limit obligation.
Let's use the Adelaide 36ers as an example to highlight my point. It looks as though veteran point guard Brad Davidson is going to lose out so the 36ers can make good on filling a roster spot with a wet nose kid who has not earned his stripes.
I'll highlight this example a step further. Final game of the season and the 36ers need to win to make the playoffs. No playoff birth for the 36ers and Head Coach Scott Ninnis is out of a job because someone in the front office believes they underachieved with the roster they have put together.
Does Ninnis feel more comfortable looking down his bench and seeing Brad Davidson or some kid who has the right date of birth (that allows him to squeak a year or two out in the NBL until he turns 23..another point I will get to later) when import John Gilchrist fouls out of the game?
The answer is a no brainer.
I use the 36ers as purely an example. I can go through nearly every other roster in the NBL and make a similar case.
For now I will end this post here because I have just wound myself up just writing about this topic. Sorry, but I have a passion and desire for this game to succeed in this country. When basketball has the audacity to call it "professional" sport but we put so many restrictions on players, it really leaves me shaking my head.
If I have cooled down by tomorrow, I will express my feelings on the AIS/US college part of this argument.
News
- Australian Boomers name squad to tour South America. There are six new faces that will pull on the green and gold for the first time. Young guns Jason Cadee and St Mary's bound Matthew Dellavedova will make their debut.
Washington State grad Aron Baynes has decided green and gold is more to his liking than black and white. another win for the Aussies over the Kiwis.
Utah Ute grad Luke Nevill gets his chance to impress Head Coach Brett Brown.
New Adelaide 36ers centre Matt Burston has done well to overcome some horrific injures and get the chance to represent his country.
Last tour's captain James Harvey and Washington St bound Brock Motum were not selected due to injury.
- Former assistant coach of the South Dragons,Guy Molloy, to head to Ballarat.
- Former St Louis Billiken Kevin Lisch is bringing his defense to Perth.
If he brings more defense than offense to the west, the janitor at the Wildcats practice facility will not be changing the nets too often. Between Lisch, Brad Robbins and Damien Martin, someone will need to put points on the board.
Oops, I forgot Martin Cattilini has returned to the west.
- Look for former New Zealand Breaker import Rich Melzer to be teaming up with a fellow Minnesota native on an NBL roster this season.
- Just sniffing around You Tube and found these two Aussie NBA stars (Andrew Bogut and Nathan Jawai) shooting some interesting (low budget) commercials.
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10 comments:
"- Look for former New Zealand Breaker import Rich Melzer to be teaming up with a fellow Minnesota native on an NBL roster this season."
Does this mean the Taipans have signed him?
Can't agree with you on the under 23 roster spot for the Boomers. Let's be honest, how often does a 12th man make an impact onthe boomers squad on the floor. Our nation has never run that deep. Heck, many nations don't, with the exception of the US team. It is imperative to blood the youngsters and keeping a spot open for a junior is the right thing to do. However, the onus is on the coaching staff and selection team to make sure that the junior is one who is going to play a legit role in the future Boomers lineup and not a fly by nite who is getting some experience just for the hell of it, type choice.
his is better the nbl.com.au thanks mate. While I am in the states I can get the low down on everything Australian Basketball. Any chance of getting a commentators job on FOX that would be hilarious
Well Bundaberg Bulls import Matt Hanson is trialling with the Blaze and he is from Minesotta. Melzer and Hanson to the Blaze lol.
This sounds like JA (aka JR) is getting the shit with this u/23 rule, didn't JA get booted because of this too?.
LMAO.
Where's JA playing at this year?. Thank u!.
And the saying "no brainer", OMG, you use ya brain 4 EVERYTHING, even thinking. Its impossible to think with out using your brain.
JR,
Not sure that I agree 100% on your under 23 argument. In short, we have a tremendous pool of young players that we need to develop. Why not develop them in the NBL... it is the best comp in Oz. The only other alternative is the US College system, which does develop excellent Oz players, however you need to have brains and be smart to get to the right College and survive. If we are serious about getting our boomers team in the top 4 countries in the world then we need to tap into the tremendous junior talent around this nation and give them a chance to show what they can do and lift the standard of an ailing competition. No offense, but there are too many older players in the NBL that just hang around far too long. They need to step aside and allow Oz basketball get to where it is capable of getting.
There should be two U23 players in the 10 !!!! and two development players in the 12.
so it should be a semi-professional league then?
Do the NBA make their teams have 2 players on their 14 man roster come from the D-League?
Of course not... your competition, to be valid, must include the best talent available, without restriction.
The under 23 rule is not ready to be implemented in Australia yet. Think about it, our system does not offer them GUARANTEED education, we don't have enough players WILLING to stay in Aus that are actually good enough for the nbl, so all we are doing is giving some young kid never good enough a 2 year thats it career, cutting a veteran or upcoming 26-28 year old players career short,and not really benefiting our sport.
The best option for under 23s is to secure a scholarship in the states, get a free degree, work on their game and come back to aus with another alternative to basketball if it doesn't pan out.
look at steve broom, zac carter, eric burdon, tariq someone from dragons. where are these kids now, one and done.
BA has not thought this idea through, they have just placed this in to meet a criteria setout by either the australian sports commision or federal goverment that is meant to place BA in a better place for funding as they are seen to be developing junior talent in the country.
its a joke.
I agree with JR about the U/23 rule. A good example of this is the AIS who has the top players in the nation but seem to not be able to be successful at the SEABL level.
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