Townsville Suns t-shirts

Gather round and let me tell you about a time when the NBL was booming, so much so the NBA felt threatened by its popularity! (Ok, I’m exaggerating a touch but I’ll explain shortly)

After several years of campaigning, Townsville entered th...e NBL in the ’93 season adopting the name of their state league team, the Suns.

The Suns got off to a slow start in the NBL losing their first four games and didn’t make the playoffs until they later changed their name. Despite not getting too many wins, they were fun to watch and the people of Townsville got behind the team selling out their first 69 games!

In ’98 the team was involved in a dispute with the NBA's Phoenix Suns, who held the "Suns" trademark in Australia. Faced with the prospect of paying Phoenix royalties on merchandise sales, the team changed its name to the Townsville Crocodiles.

Representing the birth of the NBL in Townsville for the Suns in our “Legends” series are Ricky “Rainman” Jones, Clarence “The Elevator” Tyson, Derek “I’ve been everywhere man” Rucker and Rimas “we’re surprised we managed to fit his name on a t-shirt” Kurtinaitis.

Townsville, its time to represent, show your support for the history of your team. Like, share and shop!

Check out our store for team six of the "Legends" range:
http://classicbasketballtees.spreadshirt.com/

 

 

NBL'ers in the NBA continued

Its been a very busy couple of days in the office so I'm just catching up on the blog now. Its already late tonight so this will be a quick one and I'll catch up more on the weekend.

After my last post about past NBL players doing there thing in the NBA, there's been some big news for two of them over the last few days. One good one bad.

First the good news. Most Australians have heard the news that Nathan Jawai has been traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Here's the Australian's take on it and how he'll be following in the footsteps of Luc Longley and Shane Heal.

This should be a good move for Jawai as he wasn't exactly welcomed in Dallas and seemed like an afterthought that they didn't know what to do with and likely would've been sent back to the D League or waived. In Minnesota, he has the opportunity to make the roster and hopefully see some substantial court-time. The T'Wolves have suffered some injuries to a few of their star bigmen and are talking about developing Nathan which is what he needs.

Secondly is the bad news today that Carlos Powell has been cut by the Phoenix Suns. Powell got so close to making the squad but has just missed out. Look for him to again star in the D League or maybe head to Europe and get paid.

Another Aussie will be suiting up for the T'Wolves

Carlos Powell: Working Hard to Reach the NBA

I stumbled across the following article about former NBL'er Carlos Powell and his quest to make it in to the NBA.

I remember Carlos from the one season he played in the NBL with the New Zealand Breakers. I was working with the Brisbane Bullets at the time and we were one of the few teams that did a decent job of containing him. That season he was a scoring machine and everyone knew he wouldn't be back in our league the next year. His eyes were always on the NBA and after spending some time in the D-Leagues he's getting close to a roster spot for the Phoenix Suns.

Click on the title below to read the full story.

Carlos Powell: Working Hard to Reach the NBA - Bright Side Of The Sun

Phoenix Suns preseason roster addition Carlos Powell was undrafted coming out of South Carolina in 2005 where he played all four years. Since then he's played overseas in both Europe and Asia and spent the 2007/08 season with the NBA D-league's Dakota Wizards where he averaged 22 ppg, 6.4 rpg and 4.8 apg. Powell's known as a physical small forward (6'7', 225lbs) who can shoot the three, has good vision and can still bang a little bit.

Carlos is a prototypical guy 'on the bubble' and is trying to make it to the NBA the hard way just as former Suns Matt Barnes and Raja Bell did. From the look of things, this summer has brought Powell much closer to reaching his dream.

In July the Phoenix Suns added Carlos to their Vegas Summer League roster where he played well putting up 9 points in 16 minutes of play and shot 60% from three. That apparently was enough to earn Carlos an invitation to join the Suns training camp and preseason squad where he continues to impress.

Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry said this about Powell, 'He's played well at camp. He's a good guy. Real aggressive guy and a real physical guy. He's done some good things. Shot the ball real well.'