Hoops

to thedoctor & others who think I have 'my

thedoctor, also ask Isaac how Oscar felt when he signed with NZ. Then tell me he would have signed with Adelaide before exploring other options.

EC, where did I say I was against recruiting the best young talent from around Australia? U interpreting my thoughts - watch out Dana will be after you! I would love to see the Sixers recruit the best young talent - fullstop! From Australia, New Zealand and even Afganastan cos if the kid can play who cares.

I was talking about once we get good young players we have to be proactive in developing and keeping these kids in our program. Enlighten me on what better opportunities you believe Holmes and Forman are getting at another club. More minutes? Dont think so because I think both would be getting a whole lot here in Adelaide. Maher is on his last legs and over the next decade Oscar and Jacob would be our Aussie Franchise players. Our starters this year could of been Maher, Farley, Forman, Holmes & Horvath.

Maybe they are getting better opportunities at their respective clubs such as more thorough coaching system with development programs in place for them I dont know. But if that is the case then isn't that a look at what the Sixers should have in place for the players?

Instead of being upset and dissappointed in the club for not being as proffessional in its training methods and recruitment and retainment as our rival clubs your theory is if we all cheer as loud as we can and encourage the players things will be just dandy. We are shite and the majority of our players are mid to late 30's! Not a good combo for mine.

Come out of fantasy land and poke your head in reality and you might just see what the majority of Sixers fans are seeing.

I go to games and cheer the boys on but I also see the problems that are their and I will voice my opinion in the hope that things change. It is called caring and wanting the best for your team and not excepting mediocre performances from players or management because they are an embarrasment to the greats who have done the Adelaide 36ers proud and made us the club we used to be!

thedoctor, I already answered your question in saying that the 3 players that left would have left regardless. At the end of last season, any other team in the league had more stability than Adelaide did. I don't know how everyone else felt but when I read headlines like entire BASA board sacked and government takes control, it left me feeling quite uneasy about the future of the club.

The Worm, I respect your opinion but I have a different opinion regarding South Australian junior's priority with the 36ers. AT NBL level you are talking about the top level Basketball in Australia. It doesn't matter which state the players developed in. Each club needs to pick up the best they can from wherever in the country. Why do you think we have 2 imports per team. They have developed their game as far away as you can get from our home.

You mentioned Forman and Holmes development as juniors and then losing them somewhere else. This is the strongest argument I can think of to support my opinion about how unimportant it is to pick up South Australian juniors or any juniors for that matter. After spending years developing these players, there's go guarantee that they will stay with you.

Outside of basketball and in the everyday world, how many young people leave their homes for jobs interstate or overseas? As an individual you go where the opportunities are, as a club you pick up the best you can.

The Worm, 110 percent spot on mate.

thedoctor, the players we lost were going to leave regardless for reasons other than the club not strongly pursuing them. If anything I feel Smyth was being kind to them in letting them go as the situation in Adelaide was not good at the end of last season and he could see that their opportunities were going to be better elsewhere. Smyth is not God, I would not expect him to know which selection of players are going to gel before they even start training together. It takes years to get a good team together gradually making minor changes to address the issues of the previous season.

I would hope that the 3 players that left would not be laughing. Instead they would be greatful for the opportunities received in Adelaide and preparing them for the greater NBL. They were all sought after. Who do you attribute thanks to?

Championship contention???

We have over achieved the last 2 seasons at least!

Very little change may have helped us get into the second round of the playoffs, but there is no way we would have beaten the top tier teams a la Melbourne/Brisbane/Perth....

If a lot of people thought we had a better roster this season, I and a lot of other people think that they were wrong!!!!

Changes for the better are always made to the roster. There are players in this current team who will be sacrificed for a replacement. The fact that the team is failing to gel also means that while they are great individuals, they are not a great team together. A change for the better would be selecting a group of players that compliment each other and able to play together to achieve the best results.

Before this season began, a lot of people thought we have a better roster than we had in the last 3 years (minimal changes). This is the worst season so far in recent years. Much debate over whether you would take Horvath over Rychart, Forman and Holmes over Copeland and Majstrovich. Its not just an individual player who is better than another, its how they play together. The team of the last 3 years needed very little change to bring it into championship contention. The changes made this season are too great and resulted in backward steps being made.

3 championships in 10 years is pretty good when you consider that Adelaide is not the only team in the league. All teams try to analyse the championship winning team and learn from it for next season. When a championship is not won, that is the time when all clubs look to make improvements for the following season. We have some great teams in the league this season and in the last 5 years. The competition is tough. I do not pretend to be an expert on what other clubs spend on getting the right players, but there has been many suggestions that some of them go over the salary cap. The ones that are suspected of being over the cap are the ones that are performing the best at present.

The fact that the 36ers are currently having the worst start to a season has not been properly analysed. There is issues regarding the off season, issues with injuries, issues with players failing to gel etc. The fact that the players feel bad about their performance suggests frustration and trying to work out where the exact problem is because I don't doubt for a minute that they want to fix it. A quote from Lanard Copeland;

"The way we've been playing, it's not fair to our fans, it's not fair to us and it's not fair to the city. We know we have the talent and now we have the urgency."

This does not sound to me like a team without heart.

Like Dana, I too don't pretend that everything is rosy at present. I walk away from a home game with much disappointment like everyone else when we lose. This disappointment is not anger at the way the team played, its sympathy towards them for not being able to get that much need win that would lift their spirits. Do people think the team is deliberately playing crap? They want to play well and win games just as much as the fans do if not more.

2 midget eskimos and a unicorn doc????

Now that is a happy place!

It would help a lot if everyone's comments were respected as their own personal views and not turned into a mud slinging fest aimed at individual posters. The Erin Phillips thread went way off track in that direction.

Dana, one of your original posts spoke of not taking things personally and not letting posts be a reason to get worked up? Uve gone to the trouble of writing an in depth story of your basketball life and called out a fellow poster via a link featuring his alias in the heading! Hate to see your reaction when your worked up and taking something personally!


And for the record thedoc would work Dana in a 3 point shoot out using the Chief's Hook Shot alone!

Let's all get-together for a big hug and sing some Xmas Carols.
I'll bet I know who Dana's favourite ref is.
Peace on Earth