Basketball On The Internet.

YOU won’t get an argument from me that media coverage of basketball in Australia has hit an all-time low and that the sport should latch on to anything/everything it can get.

Watching events of the past 24 hours unfold and only buying into it this afternoon made for some very interesting reading and, to be honest, right now I can’t help but wonder what the specific issue actually is.

Is it that the session tomorrow for the 10-player Boomers super squad is closed to the media?

Or is it the cavalier manner in which Basketball Australia CEO Kristina Keneally responded to mainstream media on social media?

Having worked in the mainstream media for 39 years – yes, Brian Goorjian was right, early stories were written in crayon – it is not as if sporting teams having a “closed session” is a new phenomenon.

AFL teams do it all the time and no-one in the media gets their nose out of joint about it.

So getting all hot and bothered about Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis wanting to keep his group in-house is slightly over-the-top.

Unless my memory is fading with my hairline, Lemanis hasn’t had nine of the 10 guys training tomorrow as a group since he was named Boomers coach, with Adam Gibson the only exception.

So if he wants to gather the returnees and newbies and get his message across without worrying about who is in the stands, then so be it.

If this was happening in Adelaide and not Canberra, organising an interview with Andrej about this group and the World Uni Games silver medal win, or with Matthew Dellavedova about how he found NBA Summer League, or with Joe Ingles about Maccabi, or Brad Newley about life in general, or any of the tyros about their exciting futures, would only take a phone call.

So what if you don’t see the session?

As far as I could make out, no journalist in Canberra – or anywhere else for that matter – was being denied access to the coach or players, and those who inquired were informed of such.

The sessions were just closed.

Given many of these same players, plus a few others who can capture headlines – such as Patty Mills – will all converge on Canberra again in a week or so to prepare for the Oceania Series against New Zealand, then not seeing Lemanis’ sessions this weekend, to me at least, is a bit of a storm in a teacup.

Remember the important point here. BA was NOT denying access. Just denying access to the sessions.

To be honest, the only issue I have with that is if a paper such as the Canberra Times – which supports the Canberra Capitals’ WNBL program and was great for the NBL’s Cannons back in the day – wants to get a few pictures of the practice, I don’t see any harm in letting in an unobtrusive photographer and letting him/her snap away.

That’s called working WITH the media.

And the truth is, right now basketball doesn’t enjoy the standing in the community that warrants media giving much of a stuff about it.

Yes, Keneally can trot out facts such as the great success of the Opals in standing on the medal podium for the past five Olympics but outside of the Olympics, that won’t guarantee a column centimetre in the media post-Games.

I’m a glass half-full person and have NEVER been a BA apologist – I still haven’t forgiven the national federation for blowing its chance for major mainstream publicity during Kyrie Irving’s incredibly successful recent sojourn Down Under or for endeavoring to diminish the relevance of the NBL in producing Boomers – but I do agree there is an element in our sport’s “support base” which cannot wait to sink the boots into anything they can relating to basketball.

Be it NBL bashing, WNBL baiting or bulldozing BA, they are quick to pounce, rarely measured in their criticism and always have the right answers.

So be it. That’s life in the 21st century.

That said, the second point about what the issue truly is today is whether Keneally misread the situation and reacted with a bouncer to something which only required an underarm delivery?

To fight back on social media to jabs by journos by declaring: “Ever stop to think the coaching staff may have other priorities than pleasing the media? Perhaps, focus on training?” might be one she could have tempered with her own advice regarding thinking about the wordplay before hitting the ‘send’ button.

A far better response would have gone along the lines of: “The sessions are closed but Andrej and any of the players can be made available to you for interviewing outside the on-court hours. Just contact …”

And then a reminder too that at next month’s camp, there will be full access.

Maybe it is KK’s political background which makes her more prepared to bite back but the ALP, or the AFL for that matter, don’t have to care that much about how they treat the media.

They’re entrenched.

Basketball, on the other hand, is IN a trench.

Now BA will bristle at that because for Australia to be ranked fourth in the world in a sport played by 450 million is pretty bloody impressive.

(Especially when you factor in our population, and netball and footy taking the lion’s share of our best team-sport athletes.)

But being fourth in the world doesn’t mean squat to the average Joe, who largely bases his perception of our sport on the seemingly endless negative stories about our NBL and its steady stream of clubs dying in the assets.

For every Andrew Bogut NBA success story, there is a South Dragons or a Brisbane Bullets or a Gold Coast Blaze disappearance to contend with and a media very willing to sink the boot.

Relations with that same media then becomes pretty relevant, wouldn’t you think?

We have loooooong memories. And our editors’ memories are way longer.

As you might imagine, there was a lot about this on Twitter but this one Matthew Richards tweeted was on the money I felt: “@boti_nagy I think @KKeneally misses the point of what angered fans. Her flippant remark to media coverage of a dying sport was 100% wrong.”

Basketball assuredly IS NOT dying but it may as well be as far as those outside the sport are concerned.

The events of the past 24 hours – completely avoidable to be sure – won’t do our sport one iota of good. And all this time I thought diplomacy was part of politics.

{If you missed the NewsLtd story today, catch up at: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/basketball-chief-kristina-keneally-backs-media-lockout-for-boomers-training/story-fnii09gt-1226685168898 }

Here's another point-of-view certainly worthy of your eyes:
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/basketball/basketball-lacking-clear-vision-at-the-top-20130725-2qmfk.html