My All Time Team Of Teammates

Which one of these guys make my All Time Teammate list?

Every now and then I will throw out a comment about a former player in a blog to see if I get a response.

This week in my ABA Wrap I made reference to Cairns Marlin Rohan Grey becoming the next Grant Keys (former Razorback teammate).

The reference was made because he is putting up big numbers in the ABA, but hasn't quite gotten the chance to do likewise in the NBL.

Well, Keys was one of the easier fish I have caught over the last few weeks. He responded from China in a heart beat.

This got me thinking about who would make my All Teammate Team. Here we go:

PG: Ben Arkell - This guy is a footballer dressed in basketball gear. His body was calling out to be in the second row next to Nathan Hindmarsh. But what gets Benny on my team is the fact that he came to practice every day and did what the coach asked without batting an eye.

He would defend anyone from Derek Rucker to Bruce Bolden on any given day and gave 100%, knowing there would be limited minutes available come game time.

You have to appreciate and acknowledge guys like this.

SG: Michael Cedar - This guy has been quietly going about improving his game over the last three years.

Although quiet in demeanor, Cedar is cagey in the way he observes and takes it all in. I'm looking forward to seeing Cedar continue his development on the court over the next few years. He will become a nightly contributor for us.

What gets him on this list though is his poker game. Mick is always up for a game where ever we are and he even carries his own chips.

Michael, this year we have a YAP who will enjoy taking them off your hands and taking care of them for us on the road. You are no longer a rookie.

SF: Jason Williams - "Beaker" just loved being part of the 36ers squad. One season I bet him 100 bucks that he would not beat me in a one on one match up all year. Well, one miserable day this Muppet Show character beat me. I paid in 5 cent pieces, just because I'm a good sport.

How did I win my money back? Teamed up with Brett Maher and played Williams and Paul Bauer in the shooting game called "tips".

If you don't know the game,... each team gets to shoot five 3's with defense allowed to do anything to throw the shooter off bar touching him. (It is amazing how creative you can get to put someone off.) If the shot misses, the team on defense can have one tip per player to get the ball in. A tip must be with one hand only. After your five 3's, you rotate offense and defense. The first team to 21 wins.

Maher and I went the entire season without losing a game to those chumps and Williams had to refund the money.

Thanks Jason.

PF: Grant Keys - As I mentioned before, this guy saw limited minutes but he made Simon Dwight a better player by going hard in practice every day.

Keys was deadly from 17 feet and in, probably the best Australian born player I have seen at this range. Pick and pop to the short corner...MONEY.

This guy was a character too. If the trash talk got too heavy for him or he did not want to talk to you he would always remind us he was deaf on the left side.

This was until Coach Gordie McLeod called his number to play. Keys could be sitting at the other end of the bench with the crowd going crazy and Gordie would whisper "Keysy" and Grant would get to the scorers bench quicker than Maurice Green.

If you were wondering what he's is up to now, he has some swank government job in China.

C: Rupert Sapwell - A true team player in every sense of the word. One minute cheerleader, next minute psychologist. But my personal favourite from Sappa will always be the three ball off the glass.

Sapper is the guy every team loves to have as he always so happy. He can pick you up no matter how deep your funk is.

I learnt about karma by hanging out with this guy when we were driving to Horsham for a 36ers preseason game. In the middle of nowhere, Rupert gets stung on the arm by a bee.

I said, "Who gets stung by a bee traveling at 100km/hr in a car?" as I'm on the floor of the car in a fit of laughter.

Later that season, this incident came back to bite me in the a$$. As I was driving to my favourite spot for a pregame meal, I had my car window down and low and behold a bee found its way through the window and into the corner of my eye while the car was moving.

I played the sting off for as long as I could. I thought I had gotten away with it for about 90 minutes, as there was no sign of swelling. Just as I was congratulating myself on being the luckiest bloke around, I laid one foot inside the locker room and the swelling decided it was showtime.

By tipoff I was resembling something out of the movie Elephant Man.

For anyone interested I did drop one three on the Hawks that game. Pure luck, especially with one eye shut.

I wish no one the fortune of a bee sting to the eye.

Thanks for teaching me about karma, RUPERT!

When you have played professionally for 14 years, you are bound to come across all kinds of people for teammates. The five that I noted are truly no fuss guys that make a team fun to be around.

NBL News:
The NBL is holding a press conference Thursday morning. The topic will be about the Kings and extinction. Will the Kings share the fate of the dinosaurs?

Auckland Stars win their first playoff game. Oh what a second chance can do for you.

Wollongong Hawk Lindsay Tait talks about the NZNBL troubles and his timing.

D-Mac and Shanahan suit up in the NT.

Nathan Jawai to workout with the Jazz.

NBL gives thumbs up to camp. Now can the youngsters of Australia put on a show and become Pros.

NBA News:
The Los Angles Lakers are on the board. They avoided going down 0-3 to the Boston Celtics today by winning by 6 points in LA.

And for all the Kobe Haters, I hope you watched the last 90 seconds and saw how Kobe controlled the game to get the Lakers over the line.

We have a series folks!

Ref goes after the NBA...is it sour grapes or is there truth to the rumour? A good read for those that love to fuel those conspiracy theories in sport.

Daily Dime

Scoop Jackson on Ray Allen

How twin brothers Brook and Robin Lopez prepare for the draft.

Check out "Rubberman"....

Indecision In New Zealand Finally Ended

I think a little of this has been consumed in the NZNBL office of late!

This is quite an interesting story that developed over the past few days in the world of the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL).

On the eve of this year's NZNBL playoffs the Auckland Stars have been reinstated after being "kicked out" of the competition yesterday.

In the space of a day Taranaki had got the "call up" to fill the void in the playoffs that the Stars had left after their expulsion from the NZNBL competition.

So, today Taranaki travelled by bus to North Harbour and started preparing to make a fist of this unique opportunity they had been handed. This game is scheduled for tomorrow so it seemed all was settled until a few hours ago.

Somehow the Auckland Stars have won a battle of the fine print and find themselves back in the playoff picture. Thanks for coming Taranaki, get back on the bus!

Just in case you are dizzy from this, yes, no, wait scenario, the game tomorrow night will be between the Auckland Stars and North Harbour Heat, as originally planned.

Spare a thought for the Heat who are trying to prepare for a run at a championship. It may be safest for them to keep preparing for both teams as it is amazing what can happen in a 24 hour period.

Here in Australia we are having our moments with the Sydney Kings and the Brisbane Bullets, but this one has me scratching my head as to how administrators making these decisions allow themselves to have teams hanging on like a yoyo.

Some players were ready for vacation until they got the 11th hour phone call.

In the end this could become a very costly mistake by NZNBL.

On the Basketball Australia website there is a good review of what happened at the first Boomers team camp in Canberra. Bill Baxter breaks down each position and has included audio interviews of several of the players.

If you couldn't be at the camp, it is a good insight into what happened.

Just in case you are thinking the same as me after you read and listen, Brad Newley played in Greece for Panionios, not Italy. Also Mike Dunlap is an assistant coach (associate head coach - just a fancy name for head assistant coach) at Arizona. Lute Olsen holds the title of head coach.

Click here to check out the write up from Camp 1.

Wollongong Hawks fans may have something to cheer for by the end of the week. Glen Saville may be headed back down the coast if his payments are not rectified. I'm sure Hawks fans will be very happy to see their traditional enemy Kings have to see the back of one of the Hawks all time favourites.

The 'Gong is on fire right now. Youngster Brad Simpson is hoping to be playing in the American college system by this time next year.

A little life story on Celtics captain Paul Pierce.

Michael Curry to coach the Pistons, while My Cousin Vinny (Del Negro) can accept the vacant Bulls job.

It's official..Terry Porter is Suns coach.

NBA Draft Talk...Mayo on the rise!

Sam I Am (Cassell) interview.

Are the Miami Heat about to trade D-Wade?

Townsville Fire's Rohanee Cox is a step closer to the Beijing Olympics. Coach Jan Sterling axed three after the Cairns camp. Here is the team that was selected to tour Europe.

Check out Chris Bosh on Jayo Leno

It's A Day For Updates - ABA, NBA, NBL and the Women

The Celtics may be getting ready to upgrade this poster!

Although it was a long weekend for most, not all hoopers were fortunate enough to enjoy the three day break. Take a look at what happened in your favourite ABA League.

Queensland: Is Cairns Marlins Rohan Grey becoming the next Grant Keys? Can light up an ABA scoreboard but will struggle to make the jump to the NBL level. I must say though, I did enjoy watching Keys and the Landlord (Simon Dwight) battle at practice in the early Razorback days.

Waratah: The Cockroach's had the weekend off. Must be using the time to mentally get ready for a Maroon onslaught on Wednesday.

Big V: I cannot believe the home of Australian basketball took the weekend off. Lindsay Gaze, you need to have a word to these people!

Western Australia: Geraldton's Michael Lay goes for another triple double. I need a little help WA people, is he worth a look at the NBL level?

South Australia: The Croweaters had the weekend off too. We all know these guys do not need much of an excuse to have a day off!

SEABL: Another league that took the weekend off. How many off these players would even know what the long weekend was for, let alone been alive when "God Save The Queen" was our national anthem.

Jawai Update:
Suns see him as a first round sleeper.
Jawai up against guys at his position at Suns workout.

The Ultimate Nathan Jawai Highlights:


Aleks Maric fans: Mr Maric must of honoured the long weekend in his homeland as there is nothing to report on him.

NBA News:

The Boston Celtics went up 2-0 on the Los Angles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

After watching the game I have come to the conclusion that it is the Celtics "role" players that have secured them this early series lead.

In Game 1 it was PJ Brown that came up huge for the C's. Today it was Leon Powe's turn to shine. The second year power forward gave the Celtics some unexpected offense, 21 points in 16 minutes to be exact.

It was just not Powe either. Point guard Rajon Rondo controlled the tempo for the Celtics and added 16 assists to his statline.

Once again James Posey hit some timely threes and played solid defense on Kobe Bryant.

All is not lost for the Lakers though. The next three games will be played out west on the Lakers home floor. The Lakers are deadly at home and the Celtics have had their troubles on the road during the playoffs.

The Lakers need the likes of Derek Fisher, Vladimir Radmanovic and their bench to lift their productivity so they can match the Celtics in this category.

There is no doubting that the Bryant's, Odom's, Garnett's, Allen's and Pierce's of this series will have their say but right now the Celtics are getting a better contribution from everyone.

Kobe needs some friends to help in Game 3 otherwise they may be getting the brooms out in Beantown.

GAME 2 Boxscore
Daily Dime
Suns get their guy.
OJ Mayo signs with new agent...I cannot believe I didn't make the article as one of Rose's clients.
Nene will not be in Beijing.

NBL/NZNBL News:

Stephen Weigh heading west?

Miles Pierce speaks his mind..gets him fired!

NZNBL axe team on the eve of their playoffs.

Kingma puts his feet up after three.

And For The Ladies:

Opals are in Cairns for a camp. Check out what Belinda Snell and Abby Bishop have too say about it all.

Euro stars return in pursuit of gold in Beijing.

Stirling honoured!

Leon Powe's Road To The NBA

All Things Jawai and Kings Can Share Sydney

There is enough room for both these food groups in Sydney and the NBL!


The 2008 NBA draft is fast approaching (June 26th) so I thought I would step up my updates on Aussie hopefuls Nathan Jawai and Aleks Maric. Until the draft is done I will keep a daily spotlight on these guys and provide sufficient information to serve your Jawai/Maric sized appetite.

Nathan Jawai:

Kings (Sacramento) works out the Bamiga product.

Suns will be Nate Dogg's next workout.

Bleacher Report - check out pick 17 by Raptors!

Aleks Maric:

Below I have listed Maric's scores when he tested at the Orlando Pre Draft Camp last week. Without boring you with stats, he was neither the best or worst in all categories.

Vertical Jump (no step) - 23inches Vertical Jump (max) - 28 inches

Bench press (185lbs) - 15times Lane agility - 11.76sec

3/4 court sprint - 3.35 sec

Maric works out for Pacers.

Hoopsworld has scoop.

Now to the NBL and Mike Wrublewski saying that Sydney should have only one team in town, and that team should be the almighty Kings.

Well Mike, if the NBL season was to start tomorrow, that one team would be the West Sydney Razorbacks and not your beloved Kings. The purple and gold that you bleed is doing its best imitation of a "Violet Crumble" as we speak unless you can save the "Purple Rein".

Now that I have that off my chest I will try to speak some sense about this situation.

I believe there is a place for both teams in Sydney but they cannot be living in each others pocket.

West Sydney looked at playing at Penrith but the latest has them moving back to the $hitlam Centre. I call it that with much respect as I am a huge fan of the facility and look forward to making the drive out the Hume Highway and lacing up the boots for another game there. Talk about home court advantage!

If the Pigs remain out west I cannot see how this will impact the Kings and the marketplace they are trying to attract to their games.

I praise the Pigs for moving back to the Whitlam Centre as now they can really work on maintaining a bigger fan base. Homebush may have seemed like a good move at the time, but as we have seen the crowds struggle to find their way to the Olympic site.

By moving back to Liverpool you have a residential hub (170 000 pop) to draw from and the fans do not have to waste half their day travelling to and from the game.

Sure the Whitlam needs a little TLC but the size of the arena is ideal for where the sport of basketball is at in Sydney.

It will be interesting to see if the Razorbacks can find new corporate money to inject into the franchise. I believe that they will see an increase in fan numbers by moving back to Liverpool.

I honestly believe the Pigs are on the right path to capturing their slice of the Sydney market by moving back "Home".

Now the Kings. Providing the NBL board approves Mr Wrublewski and his people the Kings will definitely see and increase in corporate support. Wrublewski has a great track record in this area and I'm sure that trend will continue.

Where I see the Kings having to improve is their complete game night presentation and you must start with your oncourt team.

The Kings used to sell out the Entertainment Centre regularly when they had zero titles to their name. Why is this? They had characters!

Everyone remembers Dwayne MacClain (D-Train) and Steve Carfino for their flashy play and breathe taking moves. But to go with this, they had the "hard nuts" in The Dalton Gang, Tim Morrissey and Three O (Damien) Keogh.

Why I highlight this point is Sydney is a fickle market. You have to have some style and swagger about yourself so people will take notice and attend.

There is no doubting that Brian Goorjian led this franchise through its most successful period (3 titles in a row) on the floor but there was no one there to witness it. (This goes back to a previous blog, where I talk about measuring success in the professional sporting world.)

I feel the Kings fans could never get a read on their team as they always had a high turnover of personal. There was no intimacy between fans and the team.

I ask you, would Sydneysiders have a better recolection of little used pint sized guard Brad Rosen or three time championship winner Brad Sheridan?

What else needs to happen for the Kings is they need to find a better sized facility. The Entertainment Centre can play host to the bigger drawing games while a 4-6 thousand seat stadium would be ideal for the majority of teams that come to town. (The Tigers play out of a 3500 seat arena and make it work.)

The facility cost would be one of the biggest expenses incurred by teams so when your true crowd numbers are low, that is a lot of money that cannot be recovered. I hear all you Sydneysiders, where to then Smartass? Good question, and I do not have the answer. State Sports Centre is the best size venue I know of but has turned into a white elephant and its location I question.

There is no doubt Sydeny has the toughest job as far as getting the recipe of success right but with Wrublewski at the helm again I hope they can turn their fortunes around.

Sydney is more than capable of providing two successful teams in the NBL and I feel with the respective moves each franchise is making this can happen in the near future.

NBL News:

NZNBL playoff teams are set.

Razorbacks fire back to Kings comments.

NBA News:

Gasol needs to lift his game.

Scoop Jackson on Paul Pierce's worth to the C's.

Terry Porter is Suns new coach.

Del Negro is on the Bulls radar now.

Preview to Game 2

Stuart Needs To Get With The Times

Sorry Ricky, but all players should be able to wear the green and gold!

Last week Australian Rugby League coach Ricky Stuart made some big calls by declaring that he would not pick players to represent Australia if they had chosen to chase the big dollars offered by clubs overseas.

Initially, I thought “Yep, I see his point” and to a certain extent I actually agreed with the stand he was taking.

I have had some time to reflect on the decision now and have changed my mind. Here’s why.

As I have mentioned several times in my columns, there are very few things that have made me more proud than pulling on the green and gold to represent my country.

I cannot think of one good reason why any athlete should be robbed of such a tremendous honour simply because they play in a competition other than the one available to them in Australia.

Not only can I not think of a good reason. I cannot name another sport that puts such a restriction on potential Australian representatives.

In fact, some athletes move away from their country of origin because the competition is better. Basketball and soccer immediately spring to mind. Athletes who excel in these sports strive for the opportunity to go overseas to chase better competition and more money. They want to perform at the highest level possible. The fact is that they have to go elsewhere to do it.

As an athlete, the other factor you have to consider is the duration of your earning capacity. While some people are fortunate enough to make an entire life’s work out of their passion, any athlete has a used by date that is much shorter than your average professional in another job. If you don’t go for the best financial deal you can get your hands on, within reason of course, you are just plain silly.

Let’s be honest. There is no way an A-League side could ever come up with the salary Harry Kewl has been rewarded with overseas. And Andrew Bogut is about to sign an NBA contract rumoured to be worth around $80 million. There are very few sports in the world that could lay out money like that for one player. The finances of the NBL have been exposed over the past few weeks and we all know it is not going to compete with that type of money.

If either soccer or basketball tried to implement a policy like Stuart’s, the national representative teams would be left for dead. It would be a no brainer - players would have to forgo the honour of playing for their country in favour of being able to ensure their financial security, and that of their families, for the future.

Stuart eluded to the fact that a move like this would mean he was assured of picking players who were passionate about playing for their country.

This reasoning leaves me more than a little perplexed. I don’t think I would be the only one to say that it did not matter where in the world I earned my living playing basketball, the level of passion I would have about when playing for my country would never waiver.

For the sake of argument, let’s say Stuart was asked to coach outside of Australia for a couple of years, but remained the National Team coach. Would that mean he would lose the zest to do his best for his country as their coach? You would have a tough time convincing me of it.

Now, thankfully Stuart does not have the only voice in determining the final Australian team. He is only giving his opinion on how he would like to see players selected. There is probably a attempt of his own at keeping our best player on Australian soil.

I think it could be detrimental to the game of rugby league if the most talented country in the rugby league world lost the World Cup simply because we did not select our best players. There would be no winner in that type of situation and Australian Rugby League would pay the biggest price at the end of the day. It would lose fans, players, and dollars and would, in my opinion, find it difficult to recover.

You can find my column in the Townsville Bulletin every Saturday.

Game 1 To The Celtics

Paul Pierce was the "Truth" during the third quarter!

Although I have predicted that the Los Angles Lakers will win the Final, I have to give credit to the Boston Celtics. They were the better team tonight.

There is no doubting Paul Pierce's red hot third quarter swung momentum back in the C's favour but I have to say it was the intangibles by the supporting cast that was the difference in the game.

Rajon Rondo keep the Celtics in the game in the first half by knocking down three jumpers as the shot clock was winding down. The Lakers were going to leave him open and he made them pay.

In the second half both Sam Cassell and PJ Brown made plays that helped. Both these veterans were acquired during the season for just this reason.

Cassell knocked down some jumpers and added a spark when Pierce when down injured, while Brown was rock solid on defense, especially in the pick and roll situation as well as on the boards.

I am a little bias towards James Posey but once again he had his say in the game's final result. His consistent defensive pressure on Kobe Bryant did not allow the leading scorer during the playoffs any easy looks. Plus Posey knocked down a three late in the fourth to extent the lead out of the reach of the Lakers.

There is no doubting the Celtics "Big Three" (Garnett, Pierce and Allen) had their own individual moments but it was the "supporting cast" that was the difference in this game.

The Lakers need to get the same type of productivity out of their guys. Luke Walton, Ronny Turiaf, Vladimir Radmanovic and Sasha Vujacic have to give the Lakers productive minutes if they are to turn this series around.

I expect more of the same from the Celtics come Game 2 but I'm looking for Kobe to be aggressive early so they do not head back to LA 0-2.

Boxscore

Game 2 will be on Monday Australian time.

Other articles from the NBA

Pierce inspires Celtics to win.
Daily Dime
Kobe was not himself..can the C's keep him in check for the rest of the series?
Sonics court battle, especially posted for DJ Leon Smith

NBL News: Wrublewski wants the Pigs gooone.
Jawai moves onto Seattle for tryout.
Nathan Herbert is living the dream.
More on Jawai and his Seattle hopes.

Nathan Jawai - Interview before his Warriors workout...check it out!

King's Have A Saviour & Lakers Begin Their Run

Old is new again, Wrublewski is back in fashion.

Former owner Mike Wrublewski has put his hand up again in an attempt to breath life into a club that he loves with a passion, the Sydney Kings.

Wrublewski was the owner of the Kings franchise back in the late 80's and 90's when they were considered one of the best sporting franchises in Australia. Since Wrublewski had sold the Kings they have tasted great success on the court (3 championships) but have suffered greatly in holding onto corporate support within the Sydney community.

For the past twelve months their owner Tim Johnston (Firepower) has been running the club into the ground and has gained much media attention over the past two weeks due to his lack of paying his players their monthly salaries.

Enter Wrublewski. To cut a long story short, Wrublewski called Johnston and told him your doing the club no good. Give it to me before we have absolutely nothing to restore.

It is not as simple as that though. The NBL Board has to meet and agree that Wrublewski has a plan that is fit for the Kings and the NBL. Lucky for everyone the Board just happens to be meeting late this week.

He feels he has what it takes. "I need to come in with a clean slate, come in with some credibility, to come in with some statements that people will believe in and will support," he told Fox Sports

"In the past the one thing that I did leave the club with was when I said I would do something I did it and the corporate world backed me", he continued to say.

Obviously the man has the runs on the board so I cannot see the NBL knocking this on the head.

This is great to hear for the league and the Kings players. Finally some good news and finally maybe, some bums on those ugly purple chairs at the entertainment centre.

Although I did make comment that the league would continue with or without the Kings and Brisbane Bullets, I'm sure glad they are staying.

Kings are truly a sporting franchise that you love to hate and I think that will only be enhanced with Wrublewski at the helm.

Sydney, Sydney, Sydney.....I can hear Rodney O already!

Today myself and teammate Brad Sheridan made a visit out to the Children's Ward of the Hospital. It was part of a community project the Townsville Crocs and the hospital do together.

It is always a good time out there when you spend a little time with kids that are having a tough run with sickness or injury.

We just sat around a table with the kids helping them colour in and shoot the breeze. Yes, I had trouble staying between the lines but I'm sure I will get better.

Other NBL News:

Pero Cameron cleared of rough play.

Former Razorback Miles Pierce dumped.

Jawai works out for Warriors.

Young Victorian player shooting for the stars and college.

A reduced Boomers squad has been announced. (More on this in the coming days.)

Wildcats to get a "big" as second import.

Fox Sports will cover the Boomers/Iran series.

Maric works out for Pacers.

NBA News:

You can catch Game 1 of the Lakers/Celtics series on ESPN (508). It all starts at 10.30am.

What will win out? Celtics "D" or the Lakers "O".

Bill Simmons with his preview of the Finals.

Flip Saunders gone from Detroit.

Former Piston player to be new head coach.

Could D-Wade be leaving Miami?

Draft notes.

Could Kobe go for 81 Against the C's?