Basketball On The Internet.

THE new NBL today formally reinstated the Ray Borner Medal, following up another brilliant day in which they inaugurated the Loggins-Bruton Cup yesterday - two great innovations for the Preseason Blitz Tournament.

There have been K-Mart Classics, Sunshine Challenges, Top End Topsy Turveys, PSSTs, Blitzes and, quite often, nothing at all so to some (tiny) extent, the old NBL can be forgiven for one of its great oversights and embarrassments.

And that is what the Ray Borner Medal had become. Bear in mind, a lot of people turn over in administrative offices - as has the NBL administration with BA's intervention nearly five years ago and changes as well within that organisation.

It is easy to overlook a detail here and there. In the late 80s, for example, the West Adelaide Bearcats retired the famous #7 uniform of triple-Woollacott Medallist and club megastar Werner Linde.

A few years and club committee turnovers later and Mick Corkeron is running out for West wearing No.7. And he wasn't the last player in #7. The Bearcats rectified that in December and properly retired the number - it's in the rafters, you can't miss it - and now the new NBL also is rectifying one of its predecessors' great gaffes.

For the benefit of those who came in late, Gary Fox was still a heavyweight NBL official when the Ray Borner Medal was instituted last century.

It was in recognition of one of the league's early greats, the first Australian-born league MVP and a Hall of Fame superstar.

The league was trying to establish traditions at the time, having just instituted the Larry Sengstock Medal for the Grand Final Series MVP. The Borner Medal was originally cast for the MVP of the preseason tournament.

"I remember presenting it to Tony Ronaldson at MSAC and I know it was done again in Cairns but they wouldn't spot me a trip to present it," Ray told me with a laugh.

That was in 2004.

And after that ... um, no-one knows what happened.

A few years ago in Darwin, a cluster of media types (soon the official term for a group of journos will no longer be a junket of journos but a "gossip of media" but, for now, I am going with cluster) assailed then-NBL operations manager Chuck Harmlessone asking what had happened to the Borner Medal?

Chuck was equal parts unsure and unaware - different day, same Chuck you might say.

No different again last year with the PSST (the very secret PreSeaSon Tournament at Dandenong) where Chuck - as the responsible NBL official - had no idea about the RBM.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not laying this at Chuck's feet. Just saying his ignorance of the medal is typical of a lot of our administrations as key people turn over and new ones come in, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with absolutely no clue of what has gone before.

For example, it was only in the past two years I rang the Adelaide 36ers for some info on Kevin Brooks and the gal at the switchboard didn't know who I was talking about. You get used to it.

But Ray was incredibly gracious about the disappearance of his medal, considering he had every right to be miffed, if he chose.

"It would be nice this time to be remembered for five years, then forgotten again for 10," he joked.

That's the thing though. The greats of our game are humble and just happy to be remembered, when the moment does sometimes come.

Leroy Loggins and Cal Bruton were rapt to have a Cup named after them, so was Martin Cattalini (an annual 36ers-Wildcats regular season fixture, with the winning team awarded the Cattalini Cup and the MVP receiving the Paul Rogers Medal).

These are positive steps by the new NBL.

Borner started as raw 17-year-old and gave the NBL 22 years of his life as one of its stand-out players. He started at Coburg Giants, then played for Illawarra (now Wollongong) Hawks under coach David Lindstrom and alongside club captain and favorite son Gordie McLeod.

Borner, Jim Bateman and Don Bickett for three years were the Hawks' "Killer Bs," in 1986 making it to the semi finals before running into the championship-bound Adelaide 36ers.

In 1987 the talented trio again steered the Hawks as far as the semis where, again, they ran into a championship-bound outfit, this time the Brisbane Bullets.

Meanwhile his old Giants team was evolving under coach Bruce Palmer, playing a great Grand Final series with Canberra Cannons in 1988 but missing one final piece for a championship.

Borner was that piece, his return in 1989 and presence in the middle motoring the now North Melbourne Giants to their first NBL title.

In fact, for more on Ray, here was today's report:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/multiple-olympian-ray-borner-remembered-at-last-by-nbl-reinstating-his-medal-for-the-mvp-at-the-2013-preseason-blitz/story-fnii09gt-1226701772811

It definitely is another step in the right direction for the new NBL.

CONGRATULATIONS today for two former Adelaide 36ers championship-winning imports, Darnell Mee and Willie Farley.

Darnell started life as an assistant coach with the men's basketball team at Moberly Area Community College today. Could that lead him back to the NBL, a la Mike Kelly at Townsville?

And Willie turned 38 years young today. Happy birthday.

You could not imagine two more different players - or two more effective - both winning NBL titles in their first seasons with the Sixers.