Hoops

Jackson Hately newspaper article

ANON we all get it , you are unhappy with the HP manager and want BSA to investigate why your kid wasn’t selected or promoted .
After all your assumptions and guesswork you’ve made your agenda pretty clear, yes kids don’t get selected or promoted as potential Australian players in the NITP program , encourage your kid to continue to train hard and I’m sure he will make it to your goals.

Is this the fault of the u16 state coaches or the HP manager?

2018 U16 Nationals , Eoin Fitzgerald leading point scorer with 20+ and from what I can see wasn’t invited to ADC or part of Oceania team. I would say that constitutes being overlooked by a HP manager !!

Probably turned down a scholarship to go to PAC

Not the 1st young athlete to be overlooked by a hp program but you seem to make a lot of assumptions without possibly having the facts to back it up about the overall program. Just agitating against the current hp manager to suit your own agenda ?

There is such a limited opportunity in Australia for young basketballers who want a career in the sport but at the same time a massive opportunity to pursue your dream in the US college system . Many SA athletes have and are pursuing their dreams in the US college system,
Hately has made a clear choice not to pursue basketball, maybe he didn’t want to go to the US , which by the way is fine.
It’s a long hard slog for any athlete even if you are identified on the elite pathway, just follow Mitch Creeks journey , the odds for success would certainly seem greater on the AFL pathway

There is no comparison between AFL pathway and basketball pathway . 60 + young footballers who are 18 yo will be drafted to AFL clubs , meanwhile 60 young basketballers will be drafted to ......... oh wait there’s nothing .
If Hately wasnt invited to an ADC or make an Aus team then no doubt there was good reason for it but this didn’t mean his basketball career was over unless he chose it to be. At the end of the day each athlete makes their own choice.

There is absolutely nothing stopping any athlete from pursuing their basketball dreams regardless of what happens at the elite level in SA. Surely any athlete who is passionate about basketball would pursue a career in the sport , if a career in the NBA truly beckoned the negativity from one individual l would not of ended that dream.
It is convenient to blame a HP manager for ending a dream but maybe it was just easier to head down the AFL path or simply just a better choice

...Also have you seen the amount of coke & prostitutes that AFL players are going through lately? It's clearly lucrative!

How much does the average NBL player earn over the winter? Not much I'd guess.

Last year there were 82 AFL players on $600k+ [Source]
That's more players than there are aussies in the NBL

Average AFL wage $371,000 , so someone want to give us the average NBL wage !!

All this talk of $500k is ridiculous. For example look at a Ryan Fitzgerald, a top pick at Afl, even though his career was cut short by injuries, how much did he earn in his career. Not everyone is an Ollie Wines. Most first round picks fizzle out pretty quickly. With Hately he could have earned a college scholarship, gotten free education and maybe bounced around a few leagues if it didn't work out. If Afl doesn't work out he might have to play out bush and get a couple of meat trays thrown in.

Having seen Jackson closely through his junior career he was an outstanding u16 player but he led nationals in scoring due to being surrounded by a weaker supporting cast than other years in SA and having a coach who allowed him to do as he pleased offensively. He was not the best player at that tournament, nor even top 5 IMO.

Had he pursued basketball I would say that u16 nationals would have been his pinnacle though no doubt he would still have contributed to more state teams and probably been a very good state league player.

For example, kids like Michael Harris, Jimma Dau etc would be far ahead of him at this point and more likely to end up professionals.

Whether the HP manager was right or wrong I think Jackson has ended up on the right path.

For most Australian basketballers their earning doesn't start til they're 21-23, and by my count there are only around 80 Aussie professionals. To make it you need to be exceptional, which isn't so much the case in Aussie rules, where there are around 10 times more professionals.

earning*

Err what? 18-21 is a time you are still developing, the money comes later. AFL is the easy way out and you cap your warning potential whereas with basketball the world is your oyster.

I don’t want to reference this to any high quality young athlete but no matter what you experts here are on hoops think, clearly if you are not exceptional in athleticism and skill the path away to the NBA is a long an arduous one. The pathway to AFL is relatively pain free and fast.
Many boys and probably now girls will represent their respective states in both AFL and basketball and we are consistently seeing athletes vote with their feet. With zero pathways in basketball in this country that can return any income to 18-21 year olds AFL is an obvious choice

Exactly right Goner , but at 190 cm Hately is a long way from Ingles. And regardless of what any HP manager said the AFL still offers clear pathways with much greater possibility of success. Hately will be one of maybe 5 SA boys drafted who will go onto to earn 500 k plus for the duration of their footy career , can you find me 5 Aussie basketballers of the same age with the same opportunity?

This kid will be drafted on a minimum contract better than most nbl players contracts, by far the best choice for him. Being told by a HP manager or missing a team selection shouldn’t be the end of your basketball career if it’s truly your passion anyway

But the fact he was basically told he should choose footy over basketball is an indictment on HP managers, they should be trying to convince athletes to stay.

What is most surprising is that comments made on hoops are still regarded as facts .
If you know basketball you will realise that being a top scorer at 15 yo is not relevant to having a successful career in basketball and if you happen to have seen Jackson play then you would know it’s more likely he would be successful in AFL than basketball. He could be a $500 k a year AFL player , try making that as a baller !!

On one hand it seems that he has found his niche in Footy, but what gives these experts to make the call on his ceiling in basketball. Just shows what a joke NITP, state is ect. I wonder what would have happened if a current player whos dad is in the powers that be was told the same thing.

claim of number 1 scorer in U16 Nationals (2015) can be verified:

https://pickandroll.com.au/2015-u16-ajc-tournament-recap/

From memory it started when he was overlooked or invited late for an NITP trip & advised that the NITP head coach thought he had more of a career ahead in footy. Probably going to work out ok for him!

WOW!

Was that infomercial brought to you by First Ever?