Hoops

Bring back NBL All Stars Weekend?

Ballarat and Bendigo paid NBL for blitz through Vic events funding. Hence they are the hosts.

I'm only onboard if Anstey out of retirement is invited into the three point contest so a whole stadium can laugh at him again.

I like the idea of high end exhibition games instead in the preseason than an all star game, bring the NBA Summer League to Melbourne!!! imagine that!!

Flashback to Kenyon McNeail

"After injuring his shoulder competing in the NBL Pre-season Blitz dunk contest, McNeail managed just 13 minutes of game time over the first two regular season games for the 36ers...... he was released by the 36ers after it became apparent that his injured shoulder was not responding to treatment"

Most of the above comments are negative. I like the idea but have always wondered at the smarts of risking injuries etc, too.

How's this, for outside the box type of thought.

Add it (All Star Event) to the pre season schedule, say the last week/weekend, with players selected on pre season form ..

or

.. make it a pre season, touring event going to non-NBL centres, with say 5 All Star starters and 5 more local nbl players as bench in each team. Say Sunny Coast as host, benches could be Bullets players who aren't already in. For Newcasttle, Sydney and Gong players etc.

Expensive? Definately, yes. But we are all witness to LK putting his money where his mouth is (all been for the good of the game, IMHO [suck,suck]). LK, how about some money where My mouth is? Please?

The promotion to get bums on seats could be awesome and for those who won't/can't go that extra distance to get to regular season NBL, bet you that a lot would be watching the telecasts.

Yeah, no thanks. All Star games have never really worked in the NBL. I don't even think they're worth watching in the NBA but at least in the NBA it is kind of prestigious to be named an All Star. The NBL has had some All Stars in the past that muddy the term, to be fair. Pretty sure Steven Weigh was an All Star, which basically sullies the credibility of the spectacle for at least the next 20 years. Australians don't really get behind that kind of thing all that much. The flashy-for-the-sake-of-it stuff is more for Americans. We like flash, if it is a natural extension of the game. But like AND1, streetball and the rest, we don't have that big a market for that kind of nonsense.

No teams wants their player injured in a meaningless game.

And the demand is not there.

So no.

Could it be? Seen it with my own eyes this morning. Trevor packing boxes in a car leaving McPeake's Nth Melb offices (Club H.O). No club polo, just trackies and a T-shirt. So hope this is true! The bloke is a spud!