All I can say is thank you Grantley Bernard!
As I woke up this morning (okay, maybe it was the afternoon already,) grabbed an Up&Go out of the fridge and sat down to read the sport section, I was pleased to see an article actually addressing the key concerns with the game’s direction right now.
The Herald Sun scribe nailed it almost perfectly, right down to the final paragraph: “The NBL needs to take a big dose of reform. All it is getting is a spoonful of adjustment.”
Bernard is critical of the size of the reform, saying not much will change, and that we’re merely on the same old path we’ve travelled before.
What was surprising, however, was that Bernard placed a lot of the blame on the review itself, when in fact the interim administration has been responsible for deviating from that review with too much consideration towards current stakeholders. Even when those stakeholders are themselves.
Remember, the review outlined “key appointments” were supposed to be made way back in November. Now it looks a certainty that we will welcome in a new year before we do a new management – if we ever will actually see new management at all.
And it is hard to mount a case against the fact they’ve overstayed their welcome.
The first big test for “the new Basketball Australia” was the West Sydney Razorbacks.
It didn’t have to be. They could’ve just sat back and left it as a club matter. But instead, they stuck their hand up and decided to be actively involved in the transition of the Razorbacks to a club encompassing all of Sydney – not just the west.
The plan was flawed from the outset, any Razorbacks or Sydney Kings fan could’ve told you that. Heck, any 16-year-old blogger from down in regional Victoria could’ve told you that.
Yet, on the official Sydney Spirit website, when the name change was announced, Basketball Australia's interim CEO Scott Derwin was quoted as saying “the NBL are supportive of the name change and we believe that it will provide the club the best possible opportunity to capture the full support of the Sydney marketplace.”
Not only did the interim administration support the creation of the Sydney Spirit, but they even unashamedly assumed a hands-on roll in the process.
That much was made abundantly clear in the famous Bendigo Spirit branding squabble. And it came as no surprise to see whose side Basketball Australia ended up taking on that issue.
Now, just five months later, the interim administration is throwing money at the Spirit (money that could be put towards far more useful things like, say, reforming the sport) to effectively clean up the mess it created.
You can’t deny the interim administration have blood on their hands.
Those at the Spirit – owner Greg Evans and CEO Steve Aquilina – certainly make for easy scapegoats. Aquilina even recently referred to the club as the “Sydney Spirit/West Sydney Razorbacks” on the club website – wearing a Razorbacks polo shirt, no less.
But there must also be accountability for those overseeing the transition from above. These are the people that gave approval (and endorsement) to the move. The people that believed the Spirit were “the best possible opportunity to capture the full support of the Sydney marketplace.”
It was the first real test for the interim administration and it was their first big disaster. Their track record is now tainted.
If they’ve failed so miserably at introducing one team in the space of an off-season, how the heck are they going to introduce an entire league (and its eight or so clubs, not to mention a coordinated marketing campaign and a salary cap that’s actually policed) in that exact same time-frame?
Perhaps the worst part of it is that no lessons have been learned.
If the example of the Victoria Titans didn’t make things clear enough, then the Sydney Spirit confirms it: mergers and so-called “olive branches” do not work.
Yet unbelievably, Scott Derwin is still pushing for it to happen all over again. It’s been reported on the Gold Coast that he wants the Blaze to reach out to the Brisbane market from next year onward.
The review at least provided the sport with some achievable goals to aspire to. The review certainly adhered to lessons of the past. The same cannot be said about the interim administration.
A few months back basketball was promised the A-League.
Now we’re getting the ANZ Championship. Before the Channel Ten deal.
The time is ticking to turn things around. Just don’t go making the mistake of getting your hopes up that things will change.
When mass change is in order, all Basketball Australia have supplied us with is a mere “spoonful of adjustment.”
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