Hoops

Tony Mitchell suspended for a full NBL season, Feb 2018

Good to see. Is this a hint that Cairns are keen to bring him back next season?

Surely the system of a Single Member Tribunal is flawed, given the fact that all of the decisions have been subsequently downgraded.

Cairns import Tony Mitchell's season-long NBL ban for throwing the ball at a referee has been reduced to 10 matches on appeal.

There is another time in the game that the return of the ball to the refs could be regarded as striking. Not sure if it was near the end of the third or fourth quarter. Mitchell gets pinned, then ditches the ball at the ref.

Update:

On Saturday 25th February, the NBL received a request from Mr Todd Ramasar, agent for Tony Mitchell, seeking an extension to the time allowed under the NBL Rules for the lodgement of an appeal to the decision handed down by the Independent Tribunal on Friday 24th February regarding Mitchell.

The grounds for this request were that both the player and his agent were on flights returning home from Australia at the time the decision was handed down.

The NBL granted an additional 24 hours for Mitchell to review the penalty and lodge an appeal should he wish to do so. This extension expired on Sunday 26th February at 11:45am AEDT. No appeal was received within the newly extended timeframe.

At 1:45pm AEDT, Sunday 26th February, an official request for review and apology for not meeting the timeframe was received by the NBL from Mr Ramasar on behalf of Tony Mitchell.

As the request falls outside the rules of the NBL, a ruling is being sought from the Chairperson of the full tribunal, Alanna Duffy, on whether the appeal will be considered.

If Ms Duffy is to consider his appeal, Mitchell is required to make a AU$2,000 deposit to the NBL of which $1,000 can be refunded at the discretion of the full tribunal. For an appeal to be heard one of the following grounds must be met:

1. The decision of the Single Member Tribunal is considered unreasonable and a case can be made that no Tribunal acting reasonably could have come to that decision having regard to the evidence before it.

2. The classification of the offence is manifestly incorrect.

3. The penalty imposed is manifestly incorrect or excessive.
If one of these grounds are met, a new tribunal is convened with a three member panel to consider the appeal, Ms Duffy would be the Chair of this panel.

The NBL have no further comment until a decision on appeal is decided.

Can anyone prove he was throwing it at Mayberry and NOT Prather. If it wasn't for Mayberry's arm it would have hit Prather square in the back. He barely hit Mayberry which says to me he wasn't aiming at him, I would expect an NBA player to be able to hit their target over that distance.

At the end of the day he's supposed to be a professional athlete, es being paid to do a job, he's being paid to represent his team and the league, and paid to set an examp,e to those aspiring to follow in his footsteps even on the domestic level.
He has a responsibility to behave respectfully at all times, sponsors do not want their money being put into any person or team that is associated with bad press.
These imports in particular come here thinking they are it and a bit, they are usually very low class NBL development p,ayers who would be unlikely to get any further in America or college grads who carry their egos on their shoulders like the Rocky Mountains.

It was a deliberate act , one that he should have been mature enough not to carry out.
And yes FIBA and the NBA should be made aware of how this player behaves when they haven't got their own way.

Bad calls are made all the time, get over it, fir every person who thinks a call is bad their will be the same if not more people who think it's good, once that whistle is blown they can't and won't change the call.
To retaliate at the end of a game , he deserves what he got.

It's a stupidly long suspension. This, from the same NBL that suspended Josh Childress for two games for intentionally trying to decapitate Wagstaff?

I'm on the record here as saying that we need to significantly elevate the respect shown to refs in the NBL for the good of the comp, but even I think this penalty is over the top.
Think of what it takes to get yourself suspended for more than 2 games in this league. Pretty severe things. Then consider what TM really did.
Going after refs is an absolute no-no. That's beyond question. But a year for that is not right.

Evidently the Australian Basketballers' Association doesn't think it's right either:

Media Statement from @AusBasketballPA CEO @jacobholmes12 in relation to @CairnsTaipans import Tony Mitchell. pic.twitter.com/uco1WJZtLA

— ABA (@AusBasketballPA) February 25, 2017

It's a stupidly long suspension. This, from the same NBL that suspended Josh Childress for two games for intentionally trying to decapitate Wagstaff?

I know Mayberry is a referee, not a player, but to flip a ball at someone in disgust and to actively attempt to smash someone in the face with an elbow are two entirely different things, and you cannot seriously suggest that a one year ban for the one offence is in anything like proportion with a two game ban for the other.

It won't make a lick of difference in terms of the NBL career of Tony Mitchell - he wasn't going to be asked back, anyway - and I suppose it serves as a standard set for other, future actions... I'll bet that if a bona fide NBL star flips a ball and it hits a ref in the future, there'll be mitigating circumstances "oh, he said sorry", or "he didn't mean it."

Another example of the NBL's poor form in terms of differing standards is the "punishment" handed down to Matty Knight for pushing the ball in Travis Trice's face. What a joke.

It's a stupid decision, which should be challenged and reduced.

Good on the NBL, regardless of what people think of the refs this year, you have to show them a level of respect.

I don't believe for 1 minute any of these errors they have made this year are deliberate. Go back through all the games this year, and compare the mistakes by refs against mistakes by players, and there would be a fair chance the players have made more. One thing we get over the refs is a slow motion relay, they need to make a decision on the spot. It's not an easy job, and you will only ever keep 50% of the supporters on side.

People just like to focus on the refs to take away the spotlight from their own teams faults.

IMO it is a fair suspension, and the NBL has got this right.

The guy fouls all the time.
I can't stand the way our refs act like they have never made a mistake in their lives, none the less this crosses the very fair and reasonable line of behaviour towards referees.

Tweet that he is a C if you want but don't make physical contact, esp with malice intended. The refs back was turned, it was soooooooooo stupid.

My deepest apologies Kobz!

Missed the :p

You both posted simultaneously.

You both posted simultaneously.

I couldn't disagree more. In fact, they overhauled their tribunal system last season, so in that area (and most others) they're running the NBL much different to what BA did.

I couldn't disagree more. In fact, they overhauled their tribunal system last season, so in that area (and most others) they're running the NBL much different to what BA did.

They're not operating under the same tribunal procedures, though. They quite publicly overhauled the system last season, releasing a document that outlined the penalties for any given violation.

Attacking/threatening a ref is a max of 1-2 years. By definition it's attacking, although probably not the kind of attack they had in mind when they outlined that penalty, but it's also clearly worse than a threat. So a year seems pretty fair.

Madgen's occurred in the heat of the moment and may not have been intentional. This isn't at all similar, even if the same processes applied.

Paul - they're operating under the same BA/FIBA rules so they're singing from the same hymn sheet.

I think a full season is a little excessive. Five games plus the full two-year sentence suspended if there are any other physical incidents with referees seems reasonable.

Good to see the NBL isn't afraid to dish out meaningless punishments.

ROFLcopter, that was when BA were running the league, it's not really a precedent this admin would consider.

ROFLcopter great example.

Madgen threw a chair at the ref. No penalty.

"BUT is that worse than deliberately push a ball into Trice's face?"
You are joking right?
Knight grabbed the balled and in a fraction of a second pushed his arms out and then brought them back. Not sure why, (but not dissimilar to the actions of some players when they take a rebound) Maybe he was confused, maybe he was distracted.

Mitchell on the other hand walked all the way over to Cotton, took the ball, then threw it at the ref.

End of the day, the message is pretty clear, "we don't want you back in our league."

a 5 game suspension would just be pointless. Either it kills off his chances anyway, or Cairns get penalised by missing a player for 5 weeks if they want to keep him.

"Can you imagine if you were diciplined in your current job and your boss, just incase, sent out an email to your wider industry to say what a crappy employee you were? "
So if you work in a shop, and you assault your boss, you think you should just move to another shop without ur new boss being warned?

Seems a bit over the top. The force wasn't that great.

The NBL is a total joke and embarrassment.

You take a deliberate shot at a referee after a game, well, you're going to miss serious time.

The deliberateness of it is what really nailed him though; grabbed the ball out of another player's hands and threw it at the back of Mayberry as he's walking away, post game?

Nah, mate.

You are the weakest link, good bye.

I think a full season is a little excessive. Five games plus the full two-year sentence suspended if there are any other physical incidents with referees seems reasonable.

I imagine if FIBA chose to sccept the fine then we'll see this appealed.

The league booklet is a joke like the league itself. It doesn't specify the nature of contact, merely "contact." Another fail on their part.

I don't think the league had wiggle room on the penalty going by the booklet someone posted in the Matt knight thread. Think it came under the "fixed penalties", so it's the only one to give. (Still too harsh though)

Yes, worse. Agree with @Truer, 5 games and a fine would have been fitting

Um yes.

Yes he's a knob & from the very first minutes in the NBL you could tell he was a hot head. No loss to Snakes or the league.
BUT is that worse than deliberately push a ball into Trice's face?

Good point Truer. Also by pointing to the appauling reffing as being the source of Tony's frustration which resulted in the ball throw does not condone his actions.

I don't see anybody defending the action but rather seeing a punishment that is too harsh for the crime.

A 5-game suspension and a fine would have been more fitting.

Hmmmm, was at the game and saw it. Turned to my Dad and went 'whoa, see that!!! There goes his match payment!' Not, he'll miss an entire season for that. A bit of an over reaction in my mind.

Proves NBL refs are a protected species

An error now and then is fine. Not the millions of errors made by NBL refs. It has become such a farce that players are resorting to this sort of behaviour now.

If your child ever takes up reffing for pocket money and someone throws the pill at them for a perceived error I hope you tell him or her that they deserved it because they blew a shit call!! What a disgrace half of you are

"He got what he deserves."

When will these useless refs get their comeuppance!

He threw the ball in the back of the referee, and people are sticking up for him, hard or soft it was intentional. He got what he deserves.

That's what triggered throwing the ball IMO. Such a disgusting, unbelievable call.

It doesn't bloody matter if the team is able to find this out themselves. The act of the NBL actively trying to discredit a past player is atrocious.

Future imports will look at this decision negatively

^^^^ 66-61 at that point, when Cairns went on their 10-3 run

P4 01:59 23, C. Prather, Foul on
P4 01:59 11, T. Mitchell, Turnover - offensive
P4 01:59 11, T. Mitchell, Offensive Foul
P4 02:02 0, B. Cotton, Turnover - bad pass
P4 02:02 11, T. Mitchell, Steal

Wasn't a pass because they called him for a "charge", which really was a block. It was when he stole the ball when Cairns went on their run and only down by 5. 2mins left in the game just checked play by play.