Hoops

Greg Hire to miss 6 Weeks

sbs world news ran the story,last nite

I would be injecting sunday dech into the line-up !he will give the team some energy. some may think that he is not quite ready but didn't they say that about hire!will be interesting to watch what happens.

There was a hint of sarcasm in my comment Isaac :)

Wildcats can't catch a break - first U'u out last week and now this.

They didn't ... cut Muo per se, they simply didn't register his contract. He's been training with the team and played in the pre-season a couple times. I assume he's being given a different contract as an injury replacement for Greg Hire.

I tend to agree with you Macdub. Muo can add a lot, plus he is a lights out shooter when he gets going

This is a blessing in disguise for the Wildcats.

The Wildcats have been too slow and pedestrian in the half-court and against the Breakers I hardly saw them score a transition bucket.

Muo is an athlete who can run the floor, will provide speed, mobility and athleticism.

Hire is a good glue guy, but his lack of offense can sometimes hurt the Cats, especially if Martin and Hire are on the court at the same time (against a zone defence, teams only really have to watch Beal and maybe Daniels)

Damn, he was looking like having a real solid season too.

Former Olympian Larry Sengstock has been named as the new CEO of Basketball Australia. Found the news on the ABC site a couple of minutes before the press-release arrived. Here's the press release:

Australian basketball has a new hand at the helm to guide it through the next stage of its commercial reform after the legendary Larry Sengstock was named as the sport's new Chief Executive Officer by Basketball Australia.

Sengstock comes to basketball as an acknowledged leader in Australian sports management with exceptional experience in working with all levels of sport both locally and internationally, all range of commercial enterprises and with all levels of government.

One of the best credentialed sports and event management executives in Australia, Sengstock was the Head of Sport and Athlete Services for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. He was one of the original members of the bid team that secured the Commonwealth Games for Melbourne and then a member of the Organising Committee that ensured the Games were a stunning success. Sengstock joins Basketball Australia from his current role as Senior Consultant of International Projects with market-leading sports, recreation and leisure planning consultancy SGL Group.

The former Boomers star played 293 games for Australia during his storied on-court career and represented Australia at four Olympic Games (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992) and four World Championships (1978, 1982, 1986, 1990). He won five National Basketball League Championships (1979, 1980, 1985, 1987) and was the NBL Grand Final Most Valuable Player in the league's 1979 inaugural season. The NBL Grand Final MVP medal has since been named in his honour and he is a member of both the Basketball Australia and NBL Halls of Fame.

Chairman of the Board of Basketball David Thodey said BA undertook an exhaustive search for someone with proven leadership ability and impeccable corporate credentials and were thrilled to find Sengstock.

"Basketball faces great challenges in the next few years but is also entering a period of unparalleled opportunity," said Thodey. "It was vital therefore that we appointed a CEO with a demonstrated track record - someone who has vision, drive and a proven ability to successfully manage a transformational agenda. Larry Sengstock clearly fits that bill and the Board were delighted that he was available."

"We underwent an aggressive recruitment process to find ourselves a best-of-breed business leader. That's exactly what we've found in Larry Sengstock, who more than ticks every box. The fact that he also happens to be someone who is an Australian basketball icon, and who has been intimately involved with the sport at every level, is an unbelievable bonus."

Thodey paid tribute to departing BA Chief Executive Scott Derwin, who was a major driving force behind basketball's reform process.

"Larry will benefit from the solid foundation he will inherit from Scott Derwin's ten-year tenure. Scott did what no one before had managed to do - he got the NBL and BA not just to work together, but to unify into a single entity. That is a remarkable feat and one that will bear enormous fruit for the sport in the long-term. He led Australia's national program through three Olympic Games and two World Championships, with the international on-court success of our teams during that period including multiple medals and one world title. Scott was a leader who demonstrated resilience, commitment and passion for the vision of Basketball 's reform. We owe him a great debt of gratitude."

Sengstock said he was looking forward to the challenge of growing the sport and finding ways to build linkages between the more than 600,000 participants and basketball's elite competitions and teams.

"I truly believe this is a time of opportunity for the sport," said Sengstock. "With the new men's national league set to be unveiled, Australia already having qualified for the 2010 senior World Championships, and the sport's stakeholders now unified and sharing a common purpose, we are poised on the brink of what could be a new golden age for basketball."

"I've heard plenty of people talk about basketball getting back to the success of the 1980s and '90s, but the reality is that we need to move the sport forward, rather than focusing on the past," Sengstock added. "Our goal is to bring the sport into the 21st century commercially so we can capitalise on basketball's huge participation base and international successes."

Sengstock will officially commence duties with BA on April 27.