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- Posted on: Mon, 03/14/2016 - 8:42pm #63083
valentineI’m calling out the rat within the ranks of Basketball Australia …..
Some background info for those unfamiliar with the setup…. The National League (NBL) is being propped up financially by 2 teams…one of which isn’t even Australian. It’s broke….The Australian Institute of Sport is the one producing NBA calibre talent (Bogut, Mills, Delly, Humphries, Exum etc)… so don’t be confused with their great work..
There a currently match-fixing scandal taking place whereby a high-profile Coach bet on his own team to lose!!! Who’s the rat?
The national team is believed to have intentionally lost against Angola, which was investigated by FIBA and possibly the most embarassing thing I’ve ever seen by an international team.
Now there has been a leak to Yahoo! sports that Ben Simmons isn’t wanted on the national team. Clearly someone is going for the kill here….someone with an axe to grind.
I also have my suspicions who it is….
Many would point the finger at Kiwi coaching flop Andrej Lemanis, who only has a job because his employer is too broke to replace him. He ridiculously picked Brock Motum over Ben Simmons for the FIBA World Championships. He’d sure to be bitter that no-one will take his back….cos Simmons won’t play for him (it was a really bad decision). However I don’t believe he’s the rat though……
I have no proof of who I think the real culprit is, yet my suspicion is strong.
With the latest news article making global headlines in addition to the existing corruption scandals, expect a frenzy of accusations to follow. In these situations, the guilty party will usually present themselves….
Updates to follow…
0 - Posted on: Mon, 03/14/2016 - 8:59pm #1048131
r377ParticipantFoxtel killed the NBL. I remember in late 80’s / early 90’s bball was becoming the no1 sport in Australia. It was on free to air TV and everyone was watching it and rocking Bulls/Lakers gear to school.
As soon as Foxtel took over the rights, no one watched it and it died. It has never come back and more and more teams are now folding…..
The Angola game – was that the same one they lost on purpose so they didn’t have to play USA ? I would call that clever.
I read quite a few articles about a year ago just when the Ben Simmons hype was starting and a lot of ppl thought he might get left of the team due to lack of experience and strength. This has been the traditional way as more experienced players get the nod over youngsters. I think there is only 2 players on Boomers who play NBL. Everyone else plays NBA or international so the standard is quite high….
0- Posted on: Mon, 03/14/2016 - 9:20pm #1048133
Hype MachineFirstly, that stunt against Angola was incredibly disappointing. I was watching it with disgust, as was everyone else. Fortunately, it was a very low-profile sporting event here so it went largely unnoticed. It’s an un-australian thing to do….that’s why tanking by NBA teams is viewed differently here than it is in America.
It wasn’t to avoid facing the USA in their next match…it was so they played in the Semi Finals instead of the Quarter Finals. You can’t have an international competition where team’s are losing on purpose to jockey for position to avoid playing the USA. They lost their round of 16 game anyways in a terrible performance. I’m pretty sure the players were majorly pissed that they were asked to tank the previous game and didn’t give it everything. The AIS has helped all these NBA guys. Basketball Australia couldn’t organise a beer in a bar.
And when the 12th man position for the squad was to be chosen, it came down to Motum and Simmons. Simmons was already extremely good at this point…you just pick him every time over Motum. He’s the future of the team, the experience alone is worth it.
Besides, playing the USA in a major competition is something to dream of…not something to avoid. Guys like Delly, Bogut, Mills, Baynes would have loved the opportunity to play against the USA. They put off facing them by 1 game…it wasn’t worth it…
0 - Posted on: Mon, 03/14/2016 - 9:20pm #1048263
Hype MachineFirstly, that stunt against Angola was incredibly disappointing. I was watching it with disgust, as was everyone else. Fortunately, it was a very low-profile sporting event here so it went largely unnoticed. It’s an un-australian thing to do….that’s why tanking by NBA teams is viewed differently here than it is in America.
It wasn’t to avoid facing the USA in their next match…it was so they played in the Semi Finals instead of the Quarter Finals. You can’t have an international competition where team’s are losing on purpose to jockey for position to avoid playing the USA. They lost their round of 16 game anyways in a terrible performance. I’m pretty sure the players were majorly pissed that they were asked to tank the previous game and didn’t give it everything. The AIS has helped all these NBA guys. Basketball Australia couldn’t organise a beer in a bar.
And when the 12th man position for the squad was to be chosen, it came down to Motum and Simmons. Simmons was already extremely good at this point…you just pick him every time over Motum. He’s the future of the team, the experience alone is worth it.
Besides, playing the USA in a major competition is something to dream of…not something to avoid. Guys like Delly, Bogut, Mills, Baynes would have loved the opportunity to play against the USA. They put off facing them by 1 game…it wasn’t worth it…
0 - Posted on: Tue, 03/15/2016 - 10:58am #1048333
omphalosParticipantThe NBL has actually bounced back a fair bit in the last few years.
Perth signing Ennis was the first step to respectability for the league as a feeder for the NBA, with other former or future NBA players coming on board like Wilbekin, Jawai, Childress, Sam Young and others.
It wasn’t Foxtel that killed the NBL, it was the NBA – once there was a higher quality product that was more readily available heaps of people started watching it – this was compounded by the fact that after Longley’s success more Australians were getting picked up by the NBA rather than staying and playing in the NBL like they had in the 90s.
If the league can operate as a feeder for the NBA then I see it having a bright future – would love to see guys like Michael Beasley come to the NBL instead of the CBA while they are out of the league.
0 - Posted on: Tue, 03/15/2016 - 10:58am #1048202
omphalosParticipantThe NBL has actually bounced back a fair bit in the last few years.
Perth signing Ennis was the first step to respectability for the league as a feeder for the NBA, with other former or future NBA players coming on board like Wilbekin, Jawai, Childress, Sam Young and others.
It wasn’t Foxtel that killed the NBL, it was the NBA – once there was a higher quality product that was more readily available heaps of people started watching it – this was compounded by the fact that after Longley’s success more Australians were getting picked up by the NBA rather than staying and playing in the NBL like they had in the 90s.
If the league can operate as a feeder for the NBA then I see it having a bright future – would love to see guys like Michael Beasley come to the NBL instead of the CBA while they are out of the league.
0- Posted on: Wed, 03/16/2016 - 12:24pm #1048348
European BasketballerParticipantWilbekin, Childress, Sam Young…..they are Eurocup level players. And yes, I mean Eurocup, as in level below Euroleague.
Wilbekin was barely even an average player in Greek League last year.
0 - Posted on: Wed, 03/16/2016 - 12:24pm #1048480
European BasketballerParticipantWilbekin, Childress, Sam Young…..they are Eurocup level players. And yes, I mean Eurocup, as in level below Euroleague.
Wilbekin was barely even an average player in Greek League last year.
0
- Posted on: Mon, 03/14/2016 - 8:59pm #1048261
r377ParticipantFoxtel killed the NBL. I remember in late 80’s / early 90’s bball was becoming the no1 sport in Australia. It was on free to air TV and everyone was watching it and rocking Bulls/Lakers gear to school.
As soon as Foxtel took over the rights, no one watched it and it died. It has never come back and more and more teams are now folding…..
The Angola game – was that the same one they lost on purpose so they didn’t have to play USA ? I would call that clever.
I read quite a few articles about a year ago just when the Ben Simmons hype was starting and a lot of ppl thought he might get left of the team due to lack of experience and strength. This has been the traditional way as more experienced players get the nod over youngsters. I think there is only 2 players on Boomers who play NBL. Everyone else plays NBA or international so the standard is quite high….
0 - Posted on: Tue, 03/15/2016 - 4:38pm #1048371
ChoppyParticipantI read an article a while back that said Ben Simmons wasn’t well liked in the Australian camp and that he wasn’t a team player, too arrogant. I thought it was all a beat up but then I read about Simmons checking out in the game he got benched for and having a few attitude problems. I’m starting to believe there may be an issue. Maybe a few senior players are campaigning against him? I don’t know but I’m not liking what I’m seeing. This could be our Golden Age and we could stuff it up.
0 - Posted on: Tue, 03/15/2016 - 4:38pm #1048240
ChoppyParticipantI read an article a while back that said Ben Simmons wasn’t well liked in the Australian camp and that he wasn’t a team player, too arrogant. I thought it was all a beat up but then I read about Simmons checking out in the game he got benched for and having a few attitude problems. I’m starting to believe there may be an issue. Maybe a few senior players are campaigning against him? I don’t know but I’m not liking what I’m seeing. This could be our Golden Age and we could stuff it up.
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