Hoops

Wortho: BA are "idiots", killed our game

Jonno, he would get away with getting the fine dismissed at this present time because there is no league and he does not belong to any club in particular. He can bag the NBL just like the average Joe Blow on the street because no NBL club has any obligation to him.

Bogut has since redeemed himself by putting some of his $$$ into helpin the NBL with the Spirit, so i dont think anyone will be bagging him anymore,

No one in basketball should be bagging Gaze after what he has done at all levels as a player, worthington is a good player, but hasnt achieved anything close to Gaze or put in the time and effort to promote the sport that Gaze has.

I hope the NBL puts together a league, even at a smaller scale and it promotes the game well, gives some good young players who love the sport a chance to play and it generates a great competition for players, fans,etc, its not all about the money, players need to learn this and for the league to survive they need to drop the cap not raise it to $4million, no one can afford $1m let alone 4.
I think losing teams that constantly cheat the cap could be a good thing, as it will make it cheaper for clubs to compete and they will no longer need to send themselves broke to make the playoffs ala Cairns.

I think, people such as isaac are on the ball and i reckon they should take the remaining NBL teams
36ers
Blaze
Hawks
NZ
Perth
Taipans
Crocs
Add say 3 of the stronger SEABL teams or go by location and grab for example Canberra, Hobart, a victorian based team eg geelong and/or a nsw team, i think QLD is covered with 3 teams, and even consider a second nz team, grant them all a one year license with the option of trying to meet the criteria and stay in the next year, gets the game spread out around the country more and gives more players and coaches a opportunity, and a wider spread fan base. This gives us around 10 teams, i wouldnt mind having 12-14 if enough SEABL teams were interested. (to do this they would have to put some of the criteria such as $1m guarantee on hold for 12 months, but make it a criteria for the next season again, or atleast re assess it then, which would give the 36ers the green light i would think).

Drop the cap to say $500k and enforce it as much as possible, sure we may lose a few of the top players like Schenscher but atleast we will have a league and the clubs would come alot closer to making a profit, making them more attractive to investors i would think and more likely to survive long term.

even if the SEABL teams use there same rosters and finish as the bottom half it still spreads the game around, gives us a national leage i almost guarantee one will surprise and make the top 5 teams, and we will find a few diamonds in the roughs along the way which is always exciting!

If this works, keep it as is and build slowly as profits come in then slowly raise the cap etc,or work towards having another crack at a top league with a bigger budget and if teams like the Dragons and Tigers wish to come in, make them comply with all criteria and charge them a $1-2m license fee, the both say they have $$ so can afford this and that would be a good cash injection the the league some could be distributed to the exisitng clubs and some could be put towards marketing, paying for league staff, refs, etc or having a crack at buying some airtime on one HD, id have a crack with a small scale league and offer it to one hd to show for free, surely they would have some time to spare even if its not the best hours to show atleast one game a week, if not, doesnt hurt to try.

All the best to BA and the 36ers i think we should all get behind them so that there is a league and a club for us all to support in the next season!

one way for BA to raise some money slap wortho with a $100k fine! no boomer should be bagging BA, no matter what, they should be promoting there sport to ENCOURAGE fans not bag them!

1. The government does fund Basketball in Australia by funding the AIS and the Boomers programme. It would be great if they could give additional funding to the NBL but the recent results in both World Championships and the Olymipics have had an effect on this funding. Maybe Mark should look at his own performance in these tournaments and take some of the blame for this redduced funding from the Government.
2. We can only hope Mark Worthington goes somewhere else to play and stays there.
3. As a Boomers player Mark has done nothing in this interview to promote basketball and I really feel he should be sanctioned by Basketball Australia and appropriately fined and suspended. I for one do not want him representing my country.

HAHA - Wow, that was painful (until Gaze rang up) - Wortho should let really just let his basketball do the talking. I honestly wonder how much he 'actually' knows about the whole situation!

Was awesome when Gaze rang up - totally owned Wortho! He couldn't even form a proper sentence without stuttering, to rebut Gaze. hahaha I wonder if they told Wortho that Gaze was going to call up, BEFORE he started bagging him about his article!

Gaze beating someone in a battle of words... who would have thought!

PS. Wortho's Boomer's Career was already waning before this - undersized and overrated at an international level.

At some point, you'd hope these 'adults' stopped pointing fingers at each other and refusing to compromise and finally get their friggin' act together on both sides. Enough already.

It's like watching children being told off.

Yes, because turning up to a grand final game would have saved the league.

I have to agree with HAHA on this (and most recent BA issues) - all these guys have their hands out, but dont hesitate to complain when the harsh reality hits them. Wortho is clearly only interested in his own salary.