How to Fix the NBL

[DexterTan]

Someone once asked me if I liked Basketball, my answer was "yes" and then the person started talking to me about NBL stuff. I quickly clarified which basketball brand I liked - NBA.

With the demise of the Sydney Kings - what are things that can be done to fix Basketball in Australia?

After all, nothing would be sweeter than to see someone perform a cross over dribble and dunk in someone's face.....in a basketball game in Australia.

DISCUSS.

 

[Delroy]

It's pretty simple really.

Andrew can we have some money.

 

[GoalSneak07]

We need a college setup, simular to the NBA. Each state hold titles, broadcasting them on national Tv, let the audience see the kids in action. Hold tournaments for schools with cash prizes. Make kids wanna play Basketball, obviously the NBL needs a facelift simlular to the A-League.

But again there is just no numbers to play basketball. So whoever runs the Basketball department in Australia needs to find ways to encourage kids to start playing basketball.

Thats my theory on it. We start from the bottom and work our way up, better quality players = equals more exposure = more people wanting to give basketball a chance.

 

[Alex99]

We need a college setup, simular to the NBA. Each state hold titles, broadcasting them on national Tv, let the audience see the kids in action. Hold tournaments for schools with cash prizes. Make kids wanna play Basketball, obviously the NBL needs a facelift simlular to the A-League.

But again there is just no numbers to play basketball. So whoever runs the Basketball department in Australia needs to find ways to encourage kids to start playing basketball.

For the record – basketball is the highest populated participation sport for boys and girls aged between 7 and 14 year old.

Kids already play the game and enormous amounts of number play this game over the entire country the problem lies between playing and watching it. The NBL or Basketball Australia need to identify a pathway between playing and watching.

For every 1 child that does Auskick; 3 Australian kids play basketball.

Thats my theory on it. We start from the bottom and work our way up, better quality players = equals more exposure = more people wanting to give basketball a chance.

Firstly – that theory is wrong, secondly the game need money to develop pathways for players to move freely from junior competitions to senior competitions without having to move to the other side of the world at the age of 18.

At the age of 16 or 17 a large proportion of talented players leave the sport and chose to play something else (like Scott Pendleberry at Collingwood, or Kurt Tippett at Adelaide or even Jimmy Bartell at Geelong) or they have to leave the county so they can further their individual developing at a USA college system. If we had a pathway that could keep these players in the county the standard of the NBL would improve quite noticeably and then the basketball fan would come back.

 

[Richard Cranium]

You have to market the damn sport. The league probably was at it's best, as far as talent goes, the last couple of years, but no one knows about it. Not only that, but Australia's basketball talent in both the Mens and Womens ranks would have to be at an all-time high (we ARE ranked number two in the world overall), yet I highly doubt your average person would even guess that we are that good.

When we have Bogut already in the NBA, Jawai and Andersen to (most likely) join him next season, Newley drafted last year, guys like Bruce and Maric getting a far few workouts this year, Schenscher with his short stints over the last few years and Ogilvy, Ingles and Mills to be at that level in the next couple of years, we are approaching a golden age for mens basketball. And then there's the fact that we have arguably the greatest womens basketballer of all time in Lauren Jackson, not to mention the countless other girls who play in the WNBA and top Euro leagues. People need to know these names and know how good they are. David Anderson is part of the best team outside of the NBA in CSKA, only out of the NBA because ATL can't offer him enough money, but I don't even think your average bball fan could tell you who he is.

The Olympics couldn't come at a better time IMO. Hopefully, we can really make an impact there and get people talking about basketball again, and hopefully realise that our country can produce some great players. Both mens and womens. And from there, it would be up the powers at BA and the NBL to make sure that the game is in the public eye.

 

[Hawk Sale]

Changing the NBL season back from a summer to a winter comp would help.Most people are in holiday mode over summer and the competitive juices aren't flowing as much.The NBL used to work in great with the AFL i thought.Also ,give the Euro league a higher profile in this country more so than the NBA because the NBA merely highlights the fact how much an individual sport Basketball can become when those highly skilled black americans like Bryant and James for e.g are playing a level of ball that white kids around the country know they never have any chance of emulating for the same reasons they know that a white person will never 100m under 10 secs.The Euro league is fundamentally a much better game and it is the type of game style that junior coaches are trying to achieve.

 

[sausageroll]

If the NBA can strike a deal with one of the commercial televisions in Australia to show a couple of NBA games per week and have a good weekly show with NBA and NBL highlights it might generate more interest here.

 

[kane249]

Get the games covered on Free to air TV again. Not everyone in Aus has access to foxtel.

Bring the games back to the public domain, instead of making it available only to select few and watch the interest in the sport rekindle

 

[moistie]

Get Tim Donaghy to ref.









Oh! You want to improve the league?