Blog entries

We were robbed.

Richard Bolton — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:04:37 +0100

In Australias loss to Argentina last night as Adam Gibson made his three point attempt. With 3.5secs left Argentina have rebounded the ball as it missed... travelled with the ball and then violently kicked the ball into the crowd still with 0.1 sec on the time clock. What is wrong with the officials, this is a technical foul, with two shots to Australia and a side ball and posession. I am outraged, this is the World Championships for goodness sake and besides what sort of example did this Arg...

Nike and ASICS! Time to get involved.

Nigel Purchase — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:37:54 +0100

As the sport of basketball shows some signs of recovering from a decade of trouble and negativity, it is now time for companies who profit immensely from our sport here in Australia to assist with the rebirth of our game and the pending growth in popularity on all levels.
Over this past weekend i watched and was involved in several basketball games ranging from under 12 domestic girls basketball to Championship boys to Big V finals. What i noticed was that there are a lot of kids pl...

Want passionate basketball? Go local.

Nigel Purchase — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:26:15 +0100

The Youth League final for the BIG V finals have been on over the past few weeks and i went along to the Diamond Valley/Melbourne Tigers finals to support the boys. Congratulations to Diamond Valleys boys for taking out the final first of all but the point of the article is to say how passionate and how hard these young fellas play their basketball.
Both teams were locked in a fierce battle where winner takes all and both teams in this particular final were worthy of winning, purely...

New three point range will sort out real shooters

Nigel Purchase — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:47:51 +0100

Andrew Gaze recently spent some time in Singapore are the Youth Olympics and he along with other stars of our game were able to experience shooting ffrom the new three point range. His reaction was that the extra distance will sort out who the real perimeter shooters are in the NBL. Apparently the new three point range is approximately 30cm or so.
So the question is, who are the real shooters in the NBL for this upcoming season?????????

Worlds Predictions.

Nigel Purchase — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:58:32 +0100

Ok. at the time of writing it is four days away from the World Championship starting and based on some research with world basketball experts mixed with current pre tournament form and assuming that rosters go through to the Tourny uninjured, here are my pool predictions up until cross over stage................
Pool A..1. Argentina, 2Australia, 3. Serbia, 4. Germany, 5Angola and 6. Jordan
Pool B and the predicted finish will be 1. USA, 2.Croatia, 3. Brazil, 4. Slovenia, 5...

Leroy Loggins.......the coolest bloke in the history of the NBL...........

Nigel Purchase — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:02:13 +0100

Leroy Loggins must be the coolest American to ever come to our shores. I have always thought that DMac has been the coolest bloke to ever come here but after reading some quotes from the great man Leroy Loggins in relation to the reintroduction of a NBL team in Brissy, i have to change my vote to Leroy.
Sorry Mac.
I was not there at the recent meeting in Brisbane where Leroy pulled together a group of business people to discuss the new team from Brisbane, but i can imagine Leroy sit...

Credit where it's due

Phil Hickey — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:52:56 +0100

I attended the Boomers training session in Melbourne last night and it was a great experience. The sport's administrators often get bagged on this forum, but the decision to open up the session to local coaches was a stroke of genius. Following a fairly intense Boomers game, Brett Brown spoke at some length about all things coaching, NBA and the World Championships. Thanks to Basketball Victoria for a rare insight into the game at the elite level.

Basketball, when no spin is required.........

Nigel Purchase — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:00:41 +0100

It seems like every time i read a story or speak to someone about basketball here in Australia, it is met with negativity or furrowed brow. I have also been guilty perpetuating negative comments about our game also, mostly with the hope that there would be some healthy debate and that out of a constructive argument may arise some resolution, however perhaps it is time to start telling the Australian sports world all of hte grerat things about basketball.
I remember an interview of Paul H...

Searching Searching Searching...............................

Nigel Purchase — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:23:48 +0100

Every day i buy the local newspaper here in Melbourne and search through the rag for some news on basketball. Invariably there is no news or space dedicated to the sport except for some team scores from the SEABL or the Big V. Sometimes there might be something about Lauren Jackson or Andrew Bogut playing well wherever they are in the world and during the NBL season, there will be some game reports from some junior reporter which esssentially tells what the final scores were and who was subbe...

Worlds seem low priority for many......

Nigel Purchase — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:57:38 +0100

On the back end of the Socccer World Cup, basketballs show case of the World Championships is seeing many of the worlds best not put their hands up to be involved and represent thier country. Excuses such as "busy Schedule" or "uninsurable contract" or even simply "unavailable" has popped up from our own Nathan Jawai as reasons for not being able to play for their country.
The USA team will have some great players and will no doubt be the highlight for the tournament but many of the...

Booomers Worlds. What should we expect?

Nigel Purchase — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:08:13 +0100

The World Championships are coming up in mid August and Brett Brown is putting his team together to represent our country. As a basketball public, what should our expectations of this tournament for the Boomers be? Is there any debate on what would be considered a successful tournament for our country and what would not be considered a successful tournament for our country?
Acknowledging that Bogut and Maric will not play and Matty Neilsen's availability is apparently undecided, sho...

Membership for A league on NBL site

Nigel Purchase — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:09:24 +0100

As a show of strength, the NBL is advertising the membership for the A League on the home page of the NBL's web site.
Wonder if the A League would support basketball as much the NBL is supporting theirs.

Show us Bogut

Nigel Purchase — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:04:29 +0100

It was a truly terrific night at the Cage the other night when the Boomers took care of business against thre Argies, but there was one missed marketing opportunity that the fans would have loved to have seen, and that is Andrew Bogut sitting in the obscure commentary box for the entire evening.
Whilst the game was for most part a non contest, a highlight for all the fans would have been to seee Bogut make his way to courtside to sit with the team for a quarter. Not only would it have be...

I got a feeling that Hoops is on the way back

Nigel Purchase — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:54:06 +0100

Went to the game last night between our Boomers and the Argentinian under 22 team and whilst the game for most part was a blow out, the underlying vibe of the night was that the sport of hoops is on the way back.
Whilst it is only 4,000 people who were at the game, the vibe in the place was excellent and there was a genuine feeling of goodwill towards the game and the new crop of players representing our country.
It might be wishful thinking, but i for one had a very positive feelin...

Outcomes Please

Nigel Purchase — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:15:44 +0100

Basketball Australia recently released a press statement stating that the best basketball brains in the country were getting together to discuss the future of the sport and the way forward, this occcurred in Sydney a few weeks ago.
Can someone please tell us what the outcomes are from this seminar? Boti Nogy wrote an article in the Advertiser about the pow wow in Sydney, and for those who received the press release and made note of this, it would be nice to hear what the outcomes are.
If...

Heart versus Head. Celts versus Lakers

Nigel Purchase — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:03:47 +0100

The NBA finals are about to start and if a poll was taken on who the general public thinks will win and wants to win, then i reckon the majority of the answers would be Lakers to win but most want the Celts to win.
If this assessment is correct, then the Lakers should take out the series, but the Celts are a team and club with truck loads of pride and will give this title a red hot crack.
What will be the key factors to this series? Well i believe that the fitness and form of Kobe w...

CORLETTO RE-SIGNS WITH TIGERS

Daniel Eade — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:34:02 +0100

Finally. Daryl Corletto has re-signed with the Melbourne Tigers, putting pen to paper on a new deal that will keep the life-time Tiger at The Cage.

‘Corletto-Gate’ is over.

It took over eight weeks, since the NBL released the list of available free-agents, for Corletto and the Tigers to at long last reach an agreeme...

NBA gets interesting from..........now!

Nigel Purchase — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:44:05 +0100

The story lines in the NBA semi finals become very interesting for the sports most popular league. the big names will be tested and their perfomrances highly scrutinised as they all march towards immortaility by winning the highly sought after championship rings.
The NBA for me is equivalent to disneyland on a basketball court with marquee players representing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck of the sporting world. Each NBA team plays 82 regular games a season means that whil...

Penny Taylor MVP.........tell us please.

Nigel Purchase — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:50:32 +0100

One of Australia's best womens players Penny Taylor has just won MVP in the Turkish league finals. This is a positive news worthy story for the sport here in Australia, an achiuevement that should be duly recognised by the press here in Australia.
It appears to me that no press release has been forthcoming from Basketball Australia regarding her achievement and also her team winning the TBBL.
Is Penny Taylor not newsworthy? Is this achievement of Taylor in the Turkish league n...

Basketball and the Media........Tell us more please!

Nigel Purchase — Mon, 10 May 2010 16:02:12 +0100

During the past several days, two Australian players have achieved some amazing individual milestones by being selected in All Star teams. Firstly, Andrew Bogut was selected in the third NBA All Star team which arguably makes him in the top 6 centres in the world. The second Australian player to be recognised is Alex Maric who in his first Euro League season was selected into the All Star five, an honour which is nothing short of phenemenal.
Both of these achievements are massively impre...