Basketball On The Internet.

WELL that was easy. Rotnei and Gordei were the stars of February in the NBL.

Wollongong’s charismatic import playmaker Rotnei Clarke – a multiple BOTI Player of the Week in February – was instrumental in the Hawks’ 5-0 run back into contention while Gordie (yes, I did spell it incorrectly deliberately previously) McLeod was the mastermind behind that spell.

Clarke’s 39-point haul against Sydney was the single-game season-high in the league, his averages for the month of 26.4 points and 4.6 assists fairly tidy numbers.

For those of us with longer memories, he reminds many of McLeod in his playing days, except the Hawks’ mentor was a pass-first playmaker.

Both Clarke and McLeod polled the maximum 24 out of a possible 24 votes to claim the Player of the Month and Coach of the Month accolades.

Precious little needs to be added to that. It says it all.

Clarke also has moved into the MVP conversation which, at various points, has been a one-horse (James Ennis) or two-horse (Ennis and Chris Goulding) race.

{Wouldn’t an MVP voting tie between them be fun? See who shakes whose hand first…}

But Clarke is right in the debate now, if not leading it.

BASKETBALL Australia will “get one right” tomorrow when it announces in perpetuity the Rachael Sporn Medal for the WNBL Grand Final MVP.

The NBL has the Larry Sengstock Medal for its Grand Final MVP and the Ray Borner Medal for its Blitz MVP, and there’s a bunch of BA medals for international achievement.

It is high time the WNBL had its own individual accolade and naming it after Sporn – the all-time league leader in games played, points, rebounds, a two-time Grand Final MVP herself, a dual league MVP, a seven-time All Star Five and five-time championship starter in seven Grand Finals – is a no-brainer.

So many of our sport’s traditions get lost before they can truly become established.

The NBL reinstating the Borner Medal this season was timely after the BA-run administration forgot all about it.

And for Sporn, who had the “Rachael Sporn Lounge” at Adelaide Arena (when it was the Clipsal Powerhouse) named after her, only to see that disappear in time, it is fitting recognition of a career of great and humble service.

“I have the sign from the Rachael Sporn Lounge,” she told me.

Now she has a medal everyone in the WNBL’s biggest game can aspire to.