Basketball On The Internet.

THE unfortunate question today is will Cairns and New Zealand be fighting out the last NBL Championship series?

It certainly hasn't been a joyous day for the NBL, even with the positive spin put on Wollongong Hawks' decision to seek voluntary administration.

The potential loss of the last foundation club, at a time when the return of a previous foundation club in Brisbane is looking tenuous at best, makes the immediate future look grim.

My (e)mail is Townsville may not have much left in its kitty beyond the end of March and, to be frank, Adelaide isn't exactly riding a crest of a wave at present either.

Then there is the Brisbane situation and the recent fact which has come to light is that Basketball Australia still owns the rights to the IP.

How the hell does that happen?

With all due respect to BA CEO Anthony Moore and NBL Chairman Graeme Wade, they are now trying to sort out something which should have occurred automatically when the league demerged in 2013.

Clearly BA, which at the time was under the watch of Kristina Keneally and her Kohorts, somehow "forgot" to supply the IP amid every other thing previously owned by the NBL before the federation took over running it.

When the demerger occurred, ALL NBL-related history should have been returned.

In fairness to the group which worked the demerger end for the NBL - which comprised Nick Marvin, Steve Dunn, Richard Clarke and Adrian Garrone - they had a lot of more pressing decisions to make to survive than to think about a Bullets license.

But now it comes back to bite everyone, considering market research in the Queensland capital is overwhelmingly in favour of the Bullets name returning.

These are the kinds of unforeseen stumbling blocks nobody needs but again reflects on how poorly BA held up its end of the demerger at the time of the demerger, labouring the NBL with so many dud deals and contracts.

So now Moore and Wade have to spend time sorting that out on top of genuine and justified concerns Brisbane won't happen in 2015-16, serious and grave question-marks over Wollongong's future.

And no real guarantees in Townsville and/or Adelaide.

Theoretically, we could have nine teams next season, eight, seven or no competition.

At the same time, at 10:31 local time in Townsville on Saturday night - that's 11.01pm in Adelaide, 11.31pm eastern states - the NBL announces via the Crocodiles' MVP dinner than Brian Conklin (pictured below) is the league MVP.

(And Todd Blanchfield is Most Improved.)

That has to be the lamest MVP announcement in NBL history, designed to maybe get some local traction but to virtually be ignored nationwide.

Why would you want that?

We can all understand there is no money around for an awards night - Lord knows today's revelations are proof enough of that - but to claim the NBL will announce its awards "in the manner of the NBA" is just treating the league's diehard followers as mushrooms.

Well sorry, we're not all naive enough to be fed BS and kept in the dark.

The on-court product is as good as it has been this century and the Taipans-Breakers Championship series only will enhance that.

But after it is over, what will there be left?

Will we have a league? Will there be a new television deal? Will investors be jumping out of their skins to buy in?

Or do we really need the clubs to sit back down and recognise that a league where only one club can consistently boast a profit is a league in peril, too regularly at the precipice and in need of clear, transparent and decisive direction?

What was Fraser Neill's model again?

Online

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/inaugural-nbl-club-wollongong-hawks-go-into-voluntary-administration/story-fnii0att-1227245083243