The latest on the return of Brisbane to the NBL

After speculation earlier in the week that the Southern Districts Spartans were the leading candidate to secure the rights to an NBL license in Brisbane, it seems that isn't the case. Here's an update from Boti Nagy after speaking with the NBL CEO.

Brisbane Bizarros but the NBL will be back

NBL Chief Executive Officer Fraser Neill is more than buoyed after meeting yesterday with a group keen to back a Brisbane-based team from 2015-16 onwards.

In fact, he was almost ecstatic.

“I met with some business people in Brisbane with good business acumen and we are working with them to put together a good plan,” he told me today.

“It will happen.

“Brisbane is a good, strong market, with sensible planning and strong management we believe it can work.”

Neill said whether the new Brisbane NBL club would retain the Bullets name or move to a new moniker was still to be determined.

“These are questions we now have four months to work on,” he said.

“Is the Bullets brand still strong? Would it be better to start with a new name?

“These are the sorts of questions we now have time to go back and work out.”

Neill said he found a recent television report and newspaper coverage of an NBL bid by Brisbane Spartans to be “bizarre”.

“We have had no contact at all with any Brisbane Spartans group – none,” he said.

“It’s quite bizarre.”

To read the rest of the article, click here. 

Brisbane Bullets future and an NBL expansion update

I'm a bit late and most people would have seen this already, but here's the latest update from Boti Nagy on the future of the Brisbane Bullets as well as the NBL's expansion plans.

Bullets’ bid still not firing as Tassie and second Melbourne club move to join NBL

    BOTI NAGY THE ADVERTISER
    The Advertiser
    April 22, 2014 2:25PM 

A SECOND NBL team in Melbourne and a united state-representing team out of Tasmania are front-runners in league expansion plans for 2015-16. 
 
While the recent loss of WNBL club Logan Thunder, in addition to the absence of Gold Coast Blaze and Brisbane Bullets as NBL entities, leaves south-east Queensland without an elite-level presence, the other bids are further advanced.

“The second team in Melbourne and the Tasmanian bid are further along than Brisbane,” NBL chief executive officer Fraser Neill said.

“We are very keen to re-establish an NBL presence in Brisbane and we are continuing to work hard in that area.

“But that’s a very strong catchment area for basketball in the south east of Melbourne and the Tasmanian bid is travelling very well too.”

Melbourne has not had a second team since South Dragons won the 2009 championship and withdrew.

Tasmania has been without NBL representation since the Hobart Devils were dropped from the competition after the 1996 season.

Previously the state also fielded the Devonport Warriors, while Launceston Casino City was NBL champion in 1981.

The new Tasmanian bid aims to represent the entire island and garner statewide support by spreading its home matches across multiple venues.

Brisbane Bullets, which boasted iconic NBL superstar Leroy Loggins and other league MVPs such as Derek Rucker, Sam Mackinnon and Steve Woodberry, dropped out of the competition after the 2008 season. 

Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright, led the Bullets to their last championship in 2007.

He also was in charge of south-east Queensland’s last NBL team, Gold Coast, which was shunted out of the NBL after the 2011-12 season while Basketball Australia was running the league.

Neill said the NBL was looking to expand to 12 teams for 2015-16, the door ajar for Brisbane.

But interest also has been shown by Wellington Saints of the NZ NBL — currently being coached by former Sydney Kings coach Shane Heal — along with Newcastle and Canberra.

NBL legends Leroy Loggins and Cal Bruton honoured

Two of our featured NBL legends, Leroy Loggins and Cal Bruton have had the pre-season tournament trophy named in their honour.
Here's the story from Boti Nagy:

NBL legends Leroy Loggins and Cal Bruton to be honoured with Blitz "Cup" as league relaunches in Sydney

• by:BOTI NAGY THE ADVERTISER
• From:The Advertiser

 

NBL legends Leroy Loggins and Cal Bruton will be honoured next month when the winner of the league's pre-season tournament - confirmed for Sydney - will walk away with the inaugural Loggins-Bruton Cup. 

  
The 2013 Pre-season Blitz will feature all eight NBL teams converging on Sydney for the second and third rounds from September 20-22 after an initial round in Cairns, Wellington, Penrith and at Trinity Grammar in Sydney.

All games in the tournament will be for seven premiership points, with three points for the winning team and one point allocated for each of the four quarters won.

In the event a quarter is tied, both teams will receive half of a point and in any game which goes into overtime, there are no additional points.

The tournament will not have a final - the team with the most premiership points claiming the Loggins-Bruton Cup, named after the NBL's two Hall of Fame superstars.

"There is no better time to reconnect and recognise our legends and the names Loggins and Bruton were easy selections," the NBL's interim chief executive officer Steve Dunn said today.

"Both have a long history not only with the NBL but with basketball in Australia.

"As well as helping launch our pre-­season, Leroy and Cal have also accepted ambassador roles for the new NBL and will work with our board and management to drive the league forward in a number of areas.

"We are excited to have them as part of the team and they will be valuable assets to assist us with our goals of expansion, connecting with the NBA and making other changes to make the entire game experience the most exciting it can be."

Expansion to regain a team from Brisbane, an inaugural club with the NBL in 1979 until its demise after 30 years, and where Loggins and Bruton were championship winners in 1985, is high on NBL Pty Ltd's agenda.

To read the entire article, click here.

NBL working with the NBA?

Here's a good article by Boti Nagy that I came across earlier in the week.

You would hope the NBL have tried to develop closer ties with the NBA in the past ... but you never know. Hopefully the relationship strengthens over the coming years and maybe we could get an NBA game down here in the near future.

James Ennis' signing with Perth has prompted the NBL to look at developing a relationship with the NBA

by: BOTI NAGY THE ADVERTISER

 

PERTH Wildcats signing 2013 NBA draft choice James Ennis has prompted calls for the NBL to establish closer links with The Show and to keep its season running in summer. 
  
Wildcats chief executive officer Nick Marvin - one of the architects of the Ennis signing - today said the NBL needed to establish a working relationship with the NBA.

"The NBL playing in summer actually does work and I think, after spending time with seven NBA clubs and watching the summer league, we can establish a relationship," Marvin said.

Marvin suggested the NBL, acting on behalf of its clubs, could stage its own summer league to look at potential imports, or court the NBA to release players to Australia instead of the D-League.

"If we could get the NBA to release say 16 players to the NBL instead of the D-League, the quality of our league and the resultant spin-off advantages would be huge," he said.

"We'd need to play more than one game per round - I think it's at 1.5 per team now - but it would work.

"If they (the NBA) wanted a player in-season, the only difference would be a 16-hour flight."
Ennis, 23 and 200cm was taken at 50 by Atlanta Hawks and traded to Miami Heat.

With the Heat unable to fit him into their 2013-14 roster, they still wanted him to play at a tough professional level.

The dual and reigning NBA champion has a wealth of superstar wing players but traded for Ennis expecting him to be a perfect fit in 2014-15 when several of their veterans, including Shane Battier and Ray Allen, become free agents.

Click here to read the full article.

The NBL has a plan ...

... finally! It's nice to see things heading in the right direction, although it is way to early to get excited.

He may cop a bit of criticism, but if you have a few minutes here's a really interesting article from Boti Nagy. Click on the title to read the full story and hear all about Basketball Australia's CEO Larry Sengstock's plan for the league.

AdelaideNow... NBL courts national support

BOTI NAGY
August 06, 2009

LARRY Sengstock is used to battling impossible odds and coming out with a surprise positive result.

Back when the 201cm Hall of Fame and Olympic legend with the flowing blonde hair and appearance of a surfer boy was butting his head into the chest of the Soviet Union's 220cm Vladimir Tkatchenko, he already was showing a spirit first embodied by the Anzacs.

Since ascending the sport's loftiest job as Basketball Australia's chief executive officer in April, Sengstock has averted a crisis and saved the NBL, is reshaping it to a new sustainable vision and meeting the game's critics head-on.

"New NBL" update

As the basketball public wait with baited breath to find out about the announcements were made in Melbourne today, here (below) are Boti Nagy's thoughts on the importance of today and what could come of it.

Click on the title below to read the full story.

AdelaideNow... Game can rebound with new vision

BOTI NAGY

April 07, 2009 12:30am

TODAY either will be a landmark day for the future of basketball in Australia or further evidence the sport is administered by basket-weavers and even an overhaul cannot save it.

Have no illusions - that's how important today's announcement of Basketball Australia's new chief executive officer is. The sport is desperately in need of a genuinely committed visionary who actually has the onions to institute the changes necessary to regenerate the game's image.

That's what's at stake after the balls have stopped bouncing in Melbourne's Federation Square with BA's attempt to break into the Guinness Book of World Records for simultaneous dribbling.

That's double the number of fans who attended any Sydney Spirit NBL game last season but then that was Sydney, not Melbourne, and the issues of Australia's elite national competitions will not publicly be addressed until next week.

But even though BA will draw positive press today for its world record attempt, the truth is the identity of the new CEO is of far greater significance.