Basketball On The Internet.

WHAT is it that makes NBL club managements or hierarchies believe someone with an American accent and a bloated resume will translate into the ideal coach for our competition?

Is it naivety, immaturity, our inferiority complex, some sort of wide-eyed reverance, a desire to show that we - nudge, nudge, wink, wink - have got THE guy or just a simple lack of interest in the sport's Australian history?

Come on now, rattle off the American coaches who have been recruited COLD - key word there, cold - out of the USA to coach in our NBL and enjoyed success and/or longevity.

The answer? None.

Now pause and take a breath here because I am not talking about anyone who came to Australia as an import player, embraced the laconic Aussie lifestyle and integrated, becoming a coach along the way.

So yes, you can immediately discount a Brian Goorjian, Bruce Palmer or Joey Wright, for example, all great coaches amid a legion of similar folks who have done wonderful jobs along the sidelines.

Brett Brown doesn't count either because he too embraced Australia long before he became who he is and what he is as a basketball coach.

No. I'm talking about someone such as a Murray Arnold, arguably the most successful American coach who came in COLD - that is, with no prior knowledge or understanding of our culture and our ways - and made a success of it.

But in fairness there too, Arnold inherited a championship-winning Perth team, didn't have to do a whole lot to take them to a title, then wore out his welcome within another year.

Fast forward to Mike Dunlap at Adelaide, who took the 36ers into a Grand Final in 1994 and lasted two more years before he passed his use-by date.

Dunlap lasted three years but had the twofold advantage of having regularly visited Australia to work with NBL coaches and consistently recruited Aussies for his college teams. In other words, he at least had some idea how we operate, even if it ultimately didn't save him.

My point is, we have stacks of great coaches all over who don't have jobs. (Such as as Ian Stacker and Al Westover, off the top of my head.) There are terrific assistants in the wings, such as a Dean Vickerman who, given the chance won an NBL title in his second year at the helm of the Breakers.

If you had the chance right now, would you recruit a Vickerman, or perhaps a Brendan Joyce for your next new NBL franchise?

Or Mark Price?

So why is it, in this day and age, that some clubs persist in bringing in Americans such as our two current head men Dean Demopoulos and Joe Connelly?

The duo went head-to-head last night as Demopoulos' United defended homecourt against the last-placed Kings of new saviour Connelly.

So on the one hand, we have what appears to be the classic philosophising mentor in DD, the type of evangelical coach who initially fascinates, intrigues and even bamboozles, before the milk starts to sour and all that's left is a lot of increasingly less impressive words.

In the other corner, we have JC, the classic cheerleader, prancing along the sideline, playing imaginary defence, barking encouragement and support, excited at everything that's going on, as if he actually had something to do with it.

Sigh.

Seriously now, can either of these guys coach at NBL elite level?

Demopoulos was the king of the world while Melbourne was running up its nine-game win streak.

But since reality caught up with United and it was forced to play a game or two out of Melbourne, he has been found sorely lacking in ideas, strategies and ability to change anything on the run.

Tom Garlepp, in his 200th NBL game, had a blinding start for Sydney and Jason Cadee sizzled, as he did when he banged in 30 against Illawarra at the Blitz. Demopoulos didn't realise Jase could stroke it, even watching back then?

"We had our chances, got off to a terrible start and that didn't help ... so we got back into it and didn't make too many shots and we didn't defend very well," Demopoulos said after the dungeon-buried Kings stuck it to his team 96-81.

"We did some things that were very positive and we need to build on them."

Really? What were those positives Dean?

"We haven't been shooting the ball very well for a while now," he continued.

"I thought we got good looks myself. They looked good to me.

"That's my job to get them as many as I can and encourage them to keep taking them and keep missing them but keep taking them. As long as we got more than the other team, that's what I'm really concerned about."

OK then. To be clear. It's Dean's job to get them as many shots as possible and, given the offence did that, he is in no way to blame. Good. Got it.

The fact conscientious objectors offer more defensive resistance than Melbourne is probably someone else's problem.

"I believe this was a tailor-made game for us to falter again," Connelly said of "his boys", with all due characteristic enthusiam.

"The stage was set for us to back down.

"We dug in deeper - guys showed so much heart tonight and they believed they could win, we stuck together.

"I think this is what we were working towards, this moment.

"There's no quit in these guys."

SUCKING IT UP: Joe Connelly against NZ. Picture courtesy Getty Images, by Hannah Peters

Yes Joe. It's simply amazing what you've been able to do in such a short time but, we hear you, all due credit to "the guys". They're swell.

Now is it just me? But is the V-neck T-shirt really the look Sydney Kings management wants from its head man on the sideline? 

Yeah, we get that good ole Joe is a "roll your sleeves up, let's get to work" kinda guy but is a club polo too much to ask?

I know Joe is a man "of the people" while Dean is a man "for the people" but unless the Kings are so desperate for a "character" - if not a caricature - I'm sure there's a plumber somewhere who can run around and jump up and down too, and cost a lot less. (No emails necessary from offended plumbers please.)

Look, I'm sorry. Joe Connelly and Dean Demopoulos no doubt are terrific men with their hearts in the right place, kind to cats and all the rest.

But is this really how far we have come as a national league? A word that rhymes with "bankers" springs to my mind.

Meanwhile, how interested is the Kings' current import-of-the-month Damion James? Does he even give a flying frapdoodle?

Knowing the Kings, could James be the first import brought in on injury waivers, to get sacked? Come on now. It would be yet another first for the Kings. And you know how they like being first at anything.

To think, all this week, Marcus Thornton (below) has been in the gun!!

Tonight: PERTH at Cairns has become one of the marquee fixtures in recent times. While for a change this round I selected all the favourites - and time has shown a "roughie" inevitably gets up - the question has to be, was that roughie Sydney last night? Don't doubt the Taipans can take Perth but the Wildcats are rolling and while a letdown game has to be on the cards soon, they must start favourites.

Last night: SYDNEY KINGS 96 (Cadee 28, Garlepp 22, Khazzouh, Thornton 12, James 11; Khazzouh 14 rebs; Thornton 4 assts) d MELBOURNE UNITED 81 (Blanchfield 18, Holt, Goulding 16, Warrick 13; Blanchfield 11 rebs; Tomlinson, Goulding 3 assts) at Hisense Arena.

 

Online

Joey signs for 3 more at 36ers: http://bit.ly/1k3I3yi

THAT Sobey slam: http://bit.ly/1Zdgcvy