Will the NBL have to make rules for Twitter like the NBA?
Well, I have given the art of journalism a crack over the past four days so I better reward myself with a day off. Below you can read what the experts are saying about the world of hoops.
- Top End Challenge organiser Andrew Vlahov is looking to do it bigger and better next year.
He is looking at the possibility of it including tournaments that include local Northern Territory teams as well as WNBL.
- Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Scott Ninnis liked what he saw from his team in Darwin. Now they get ready to take on the In-form Wollongong Hawks in South Australia this week.
- Townsville Crocodiles Head Coach Trevor Gleeson believes that this NBL season will be the tightest season yet seen.
- Former Perth Wildcat Alec Loughton is heading back to Spain where he kicked off his pro career.
- Could Brian Goorjian be the next head coach of the Chinese National Team?
- Can Larry Sengstock become this country's Larry Legend?
- Captain Phill (Jones) to lead the Cairns Taipans.
- Former Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin finds himself back in Turkey.
- NBL players better get tweeting before Larry Sengstock comes down like NBA Commissioner David Stern.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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6 comments:
Umm people actually read NBA players tweets though....
BTW I have to take exception tot his comment from one of the links you posted to:
"Instead, the four-time Olympian and NBL hall of famer – who may become Australia’s own Larry Legend if he succeeds – is doing his best to resuscitate what many once regarded as the best basketball comp in the world, behind the NBA."
I must have fallen asleep for a decade or two, when exactly was the NBL considered the best league in the world outside the NBA?
Never
"Stephon Marbury(notes) recently hosted a bizarre 24-hour live webcast in which, among other things, he admitted to smoking marijuana".
Yes, the NBL was considered the best league in the world outside the NBA in the early to mid 90s when it was booming. Attendances may not of been as big, but the level of competition was.
Can somebody tell me ONE TANGIBLE THING that this so-called "reform" has changed other than shortening the games?
To start off, here is a list of sports that are more popular among the viewing public / sports media than basketball:
Aussie Rules
Rugby Union
Rugby League
Soccer
Tennis
Swimming
Cricket
The average Australian sports fan has never even heard of Chris Anstey or even Andrew Bogut. The main thing this reform is sorely lacking is perspective. Basketball in Australia will never be more popular than those sports. Also, the NBL has completely ignored the diehard basketball fan. First of all, reducing the quarter length to ten minutes has made all records and statistics from the past entirely redundant, which is basically like taking a big, greasy dump on the proud annuls of NBL history. What will result from this will be a low-scoring, Euro-style slogout, when the NBL should be looking to the NBA for inspiration, not Europe. Our game has always been more like a poor-man's NBA than the European game: fast, free-flowing, high-scoring, isolation-based, and (sometimes) exciting.
The other thing we need to admit before we move forward, is that Australians have never been particularly successful at basketball on an international level. We're getting better, but still play without aggression, don't know how to play defense, and rely too much on outside shooting. This is not very exciting to watch, and doesn't win games.
We've had two players in history successfully crack the NBA, and both of those have been seven footers. More than anything, we need perspective and real, attainable goals if anything is actually going to be "reformed".
I liked Larry Sengstock as BA CEO when I first heard about it, but he just hasn't done anything yet to earn his bread. Sengstock has never played in Europe. He never played US college ball. He too lacks perspective.
The saddest thing about this reform is that nothing has actually changed yet, and I can't see anything changing any time soon.
Nothing.
It's still called the NBL. It's still going to have the same, trite courtside entertainment and music from the early 90s. The jerseys will still look cheap, tacky, and terrible; the sponsors will be second-rate. The powers-that-be will still spend ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on advertising (the season tips off next month. Has ANYONE seen a LICK of NBL-related advertising? I certainly haven't, and I'm on the LOOK OUT for it...)
(as a side note, any player that has had their contract void this offseason would have a very reasonable argument in a court of law that they are owed a payout from their club. The NBL argues that since the contracts were signed in the "Old NBL", they are no longer valid in the "New NBL". I would argue that there is no "Old NBL" or "New NBL", just an unchanged, existing NBL, rendering all previously signed contracts sound and unbreakable.)
But, most of all, no one will be watching.
Why would we? I'll check out the odd game here and there, and keep loose tabs on my team, but I'm an enormously devoted, basketball-crazy fanatic for Christ's sake! Shouldn't I be watching every game? If this is what I'm going to be doing, how will someone with only a vague, passing interest in basketball engage with the NBL? Why does the NBL continue to sit idly by and wait for fans to come to THEM?
All of this rubbish reform talk is completely moot. It's simple guys. Advertise. Advertise hard, use a world-class ad agency, and keep doing it. For the next five years. For the next twenty years. Just advertise. Please! I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall just thinking about it. You can't just expect to be successful by "hoping", without spending any money on advertising. A twelve year old could tell you that. This is so frustrating.
It's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better...
Nice post Mick. I don't agree with the international success bit - aside from a medal, we've had quite a few fourth places - for a country of 20 million, that's not just "not bad" that's exceptional.
NBL may have had it's chance in the early mid 90's, crowds were huge (I remember being at Tigers vs Giants and Tigers vs Magic games that were packed out) however the NBL simply woke the sleeping giants of AFL and NRL to market more effectively and they reclaimed their market share. Now I am not sure if the NBL can ever get that back, but we don't really know what Sengstocks plan is long term. If the ads on the B.A website are anything to go by, it's going to be another decade of amateur hour..
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