Basketball On The Internet.

ON the same day as Perth Wildcats revealed one of their NBL imports as NBA-bound James Ennis, to again run into negative press about next season was staggering yesterday.

Let's go one step at a time.

Fact: The free-to-air television deal with Network Ten for the last two years of the existing contract signed on the NBL's behalf by Basketball Australia is still in place.

Fact: The NBL will be on FTA TV again for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons.

If Ten wants to walk away from it then, it can. But, let's be brutal, will we care?

Unless you've been surfing off Hawaii for the past few months, you'd know Seven is looking for more sports content for its digital station 7Mate and Nine would like some cheap local content (and for an NBL game, you don't need a script, a cast, sets, crew etc) on its Gem station.

So the league has and will have options.

Fact: The new NBL Pty Ltd needed BA's help to ensure the contract was honored.

But isn't that what any good parent would want for its most high profile progeny?

Well done by BA and Kristina Keneally for riding in on her white steed all gussied up in shining armor and pointing her lance at the fineprint for Ten to see.

Fact: A Melbourne business group was the first considered to run the new NBL but a few clubs had some misgivings and NBL Pty Ltd went a different way.

That was around the time former V8 Supercars supremo Tony Cochrane entered the frame. He will continue to work with the new NBL.

So what is the problem? That the changeover, demerger, divorce, decree nisi was a little "messy" as someone said yesterday?

Show me a divorce that wasn't. There's usually a fight for the wagon-wheel coffee table.

But if everyone is pushing in the same direction, then how is the glass still half empty?

Fact? "Ten recently raised concerns about who would even organise this season's fixture."

Really? We really sure they are worried whether it will be Aaron Flanagan or Steve Dunn or Mark Slocombe drawing it up ... really? Would love to see a quote from someone at Ten actually expressing that and not just someone perhaps whispering it at Botany Road, Waterloo.

LET'S look at a few other NBL matters then.

Will there be a preseason tournament?

Yes, most likely in Sydney. Not bad, considering for more than half of the league's 35 seasons, there hasn't been an organised preseason. (Blitz's and KMart Classic type adventures started in the late 80s and haven't been consistent annually).

So chalk one win up for NBL Pty Ltd.

TV is there, along with live content on PCs etcetera. Tick #2.

What do the teams look like?

Well let's see now. Perth Wildcats have just signed James Ennis, 23 and 200cm and who was just selected at 50 by Atlanta Hawks at the 2013 NBA Draft and traded to Miami Heat.

Ennis' signing is the single most exciting since Cal Bruton brought James Crawford and Tiny Pinder into Perth in 1987 to start the rebirth of the then-battling NBL club.

Yes. It is THAT big.

"Obviously I would have liked to have been playing in the NBA this season but it’s a huge opportunity to develop my skills in a good competition and put on a show for the fans in Perth," he said in a statement.

How good is this for the NBL?

If that doesn't get a few clubs thinking they should link to an NBA franchise and offer playing in our league up as a better alternative to player development than the "me-first" D-League, I'd be very surprised.

So go ahead and tick that box too now, the one marked "Excitement quota".

Do we now also have to point to Adelaide 36ers' revitalisation under Joey Wright, or Melbourne Tigers' resurgence with a 7-foot import in Scott Morrison or just keep pointing to the other terrific recruits being secured around the league?

I don't think so.

Take your glass half empty and shove it.

Mine is half full of champagne and counting down the days til season 2013-14's tip off.

PHILADELPHIA 76ers have offered Brett Brown their vacant NBA head coaching position and are waiting for the Boomers' London Olympic coach to make his decision.

Brown, 52, was part of three NBA championship wins by the San Antonio Spurs as a member of Gregg Popovich's coaching staff.

If he decides to take on the role, he will join Mike Dunlap and Chris Jent as former NBL identities who made the leap into an NBA head coach's chair.

OK, before anyone who is a long-time Brad Newley supporter loses their mind he is absent from the Boomers team for this week's Oceania Series against New Zealand, please take a chill pill.

Basketball Australia yesterday responded to my inquiries about the dual-Olympian by saying he had been omitted so he could go and enjoy his honeymoon.

So Aron Baynes and AJ Ogilvy missed selection due to injury, Newley due to a lifelong commitment.

Here's the team to play New Zealand, just on the off-chance you missed it: http://bit.ly/19kqELv

BESIKTAS in Turkey must really enjoy what Australian players bring to the table.

This week the club signed our newest Boomer, Ryan Broekhoff (check out his father's story in yesterday's Flashbacks section here) to a multi-year deal.

Broekhoff, 22 and 201cm, follows Aussies Brett Maher, Brad Newley and AJ Ogilvy to the Turkish outfit.

He spent four years at Valparaiso University, averaging 15.7 points, 7.3 boards and 2.3 assists in his senior year and was the 2012 Horizon League Player of the Year.

The best news? He can say "G'day" and they won't look at him as though they've never heard it before.