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Blitz should be on TV for free
TweetNOT sure anyone is awake at NBL.TV but if so, Perform’s boys should be jumping all over themselves to film every game at the Blitz in Sydney next week and offer the games to potential subscribers for free.
Yes that’s right, for FREE.
Firstly, that would be a genuinely positive show of goodwill toward 2012-13 subscribers who put up with a lot of teething issues with the service last season.
It also would allow Perform to experiment during the Loggins-Bruton Cup and those watching the games for free would be less inclined to complain or criticise because they would understand this is NBL.TV’s chance to try new angles, features, whatever.
It would be a win-win for the company and for fans while potentially garnering an additional paying audience when the season tips off.
It would rebuild bridges with paying customers, show the product to a nationwide (international) audience and do immeasurable good for Perform's credibility to boot.
Just saying.
BEFORE diehard basketball “purists” go hammering NBL Pty Ltd for declaring “entertainment” will be the league priority this season – and beyond – remember one thing please.
Not a single rule is being changed to effect the change.
They will simply be enforced.
What it means now is our NBL will go back to rewarding skill instead of rewarding thuggery.
Truly, is that supposed to be a bad thing?
Here is how News Limited reported the official news today: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/entertainment-first8217-new-nbl-mantra-as-colourful-former-ref-mal-cooper-appointed-to-lead-the-officiating-direction/story-fnii09gt-1226715226217
GARY Payton's shining moment at Miami forever will be overshadowed by Dwyane Wade leading the Heat back from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit in Game 3 of the 2006 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.
But without Payton, who today was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, there instead might have been an 0-3 series deficit and no parade in Miami a week later.
Largely forgotten in the 98-96 victory was Payton, 1-of-8 in the series at that point, knocking down a 21-foot jumper from the left wing with 9.3 seconds to play that put the Heat up 97-95.
"I'm not going to hooray and all that stuff right now. It's not the time,'' Payton said at the time.
"We saved a win, you know, not to go down 3-0, and now we've still got a lot of work to do.''
Three games later, Payton would have the lone championship of his 17-season career.
A year later, after averaging a career-low 5.3 points for the Heat in 2006-07, he was out of the NBA.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino, one of Brett Brown's coaching mentors and who led the Cardinals to the NCAA title in April, and former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian, who won legal battles against the NCAA, were two of the most compelling figures among the 2013 inductees.
Pitino is the only coach in men's college basketball history to lead three different schools to the NCAA Final Four, getting there with Providence, Kentucky and Louisville.
He took Kentucky to the 1996 national championship and this year became the first coach to win a national title at two different schools when Louisville beat Michigan.
The rest of the class included former All-Star forward Bernard King, former NBA star Richie Guerin, former ABA standout Roger Brown, former Brazilian sharpshooter Oscar Schmidt, former college coach Guy Lewis, former WNBA star Dawn Staley, North Carolina women's coach Sylvia Hatchell, African American basketball pioneer E.B. Henderson and Russ Granik, former NBA deputy commissioner.
LIZZIE may have come back from Tulsa but in her absence, teammate Riquna Williams set a WNBA record with 51 points to help rout the San Antonio Silver Stars 98-65 today.
But while the first woman player to dunk at an Olympics might be back in Oz nursing her injured ankle, Cambage was still aware of the feat, tweeting: “yeah ladies! RT @tulsashock: Make it 51 points for Riquna Williams, as the Shock close out a 98-65 win over the @SASilverStars!”
Williams topped the previous record of 47 points set by Phoenix's Diana Taurasi against Houston in 2006 and matched by our own superstar Lauren Jackson for Seattle against Washington in 2007.
Williams was 17-of-28 and hit eight 3-pointers for Tulsa, with 20 points in the third quarter after scoring 16 in the first half.
Fans were cheering for her to get the ball in the final minutes of the game.
Meanwhile Taurasi scored 25 points and Candice Dupree added 15 as Phoenix won its their third straight game with victory over Atlanta 79-71.
Angel McCoughtry finished with 25 points and Erika de Souza had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Dream as their three-game winning stretch abruptly ended.
Chicago’s star rookie Elena Delle Donne scored 22 points as the Sky beat Washington 93-79 to prevent the Mystics from clinching a playoff spot.
A FEW years ago when I had the pleasure of writing the biography "MAHERVELLOUS! The Brett Maher Story", I would have bet any amount the man defined as the quintessential Adelaide 36er would never take up coaching.
As competitive a human being as there is going around, it always seemed the patience required to mold less talented mortals would be too wearing on the man quietly chided in the Sixer changerooms as "Captain Grumpy".
Apart from being a prankster and fun person to be around, Maher was a meticulous trainer and fierce competitor who at times had trouble suffering fools gladly.
He gave so much as a player - 525 NBL games for Adelaide, three championships, two Larry Sengstock Medals and a host of club records - that seeing him on the sidelines one day seemed a fairytale.
But not the same fairytale as Phil Smyth's triumphant homecoming in 1998 when the new coach and captain conspired to return the 36ers to the heights of greatness.
I know it pained him greatly and deeply personally to watch the steady decline of his once proud club which, nobly, was why the thought of returning to try and rescue the 36ers from the sidelines first occurred to him.
But after twice rolling the dice on novice coaches and coming up empty, the Sixers' decision to opt for Joey Wright was 100 per cent correct.
The fire has been lit in Brett Maher now. Like anything he has put his mind to, success is inevitable.
