Basketball On The Internet.

WHOA there SEABL! Hold your horses! Let's not go rushing into anything rash now.

As what has proven to be Australia's most professionally run national (well, almost national) competition, the stated intention to be trotting along to the beat of the Basketball Australia drum should be revisited.

While many have hated the name of "the underpinning league", plans to advance and rebrand the SEABL under BA's administrative banner need to be, at least temporarily shelved. (Even though 'the Aussieleague' is definitely catchy.)

With the latest developments and the NBL's stated intent to completely escape the BA yoke within a fortnight, the SEABL needs to consider what exactly it would be "underpinning"?

And with the NBL returning to self-determination, that's the body the SEABL should be talking with, that is, when the dust settles and we know exactly what its planning unveils.

Yes, many of us saw that recent article quoting 612-game NBL legend Andrew Gaze talking about the merits of "promotion/relegation" between the SEABL and our elite professional competition.

"I believe that's a good system to have whereby you have competitive forces and a competition situation where teams can aspire to play at the highest level and there is a pathway for them to do it," he said.

Well while it may sound like a good idea, we have neither the population nor the inclination to make that work.

Try it now as a theory. The Adelaide 36ers, playing out of Adelaide Arena, capacity being small change below 8,000 and backed - sometimes - by a stateload of fans and sponsors, finished last this season past.

Albury-Wodonga Bandits, playing out of Lauren Jackson Stadium, capacity being sardine beyond 1,200 and backed - wholeheartedly - by a region of fans and sponsors, won the SEABL last year.

So, hypothetically, the Bandits win their title in September, then replace the 36ers in the NBL in October.

Red flags anyone?

Alarm bells?

Anyone at all see any possible issues there?

Bad idea. Fanciful idea but totally impractical in the Australian market, as it exists.

Albury would go as well as the various state league champions did against the SEABL teams a few years ago when they came together for the ABA Finals Series.

It was never a level playing field, and neither would this be.

And all interest in the NBL in South Australia would vanish with the 36ers now playing SEABL.

So rule it out, except when you are standing around a bar with a group of like-minded basketball pals talking about the ultimate answer to Australia's elite basketballing woes.

Then it will make more and more sense the longer you're there.

YES, "demerger'' is a real word, even though many only heard it for the first time in the past 24-or-so hours, most have heard it rarely and it sounds so much like pollie-speak we were sure it signalled spin.

But having looked it up, the dictionary definition - No, I didn't "Google'' it, I flipped through a book! By the way, I used to think Google was actually two words, Go Ogle, until someone pointed out turning off the Images setting was probably a good idea - demerger means "to have no confidence in the parent body and get the hell out before your product is ruined beyond repair".

Hmm. I may have paraphrased a little.

But isn't that what "demerger" means, in this instance?

Basketball Australia's infamous "white paper'' gave NBL clubs four options and for them to unanimously choose option four - go it alone - says all you need to know about how they felt about the current governance structure.

(SEABL? Are you paying attention?)

"Demerger" might paint a happy face on it but that is what has occurred.

It's a case of "thanks for all you did when we lost the plot, but we have our wits about us again so give us back the reins, thank you.''

PRETTY sure WNBL clubs are today revisiting the value in staying under the BA banner too but, for the time being at least, it makes sense.

If BA is to be believed and more resources can now be devoted to one of the premier domestic women's competitions in the world, then a wait-and-see policy is the WNBL's best option.

"We had seven Opals (ex-London Olympics) in the WNBL this year," BA CEO Kristina Keneally said.

And the best crop of WNBA and US imports in a single season since the league launched in 1981.

But it begs the question yet again - why did BA shut down the Canberra Capitals' live streaming of games?

We know WNBL.TV is an eternity away, if it ever eventuates, so complaining about the potential (low level) quality of the Caps' telecasts is still heavy-handed and counter-productive.

You know what BA should have done when it saw the Caps were providing a service to their fans?

Come along and asked in what ways BA could help make that service better?

That would reflect a parent body caring about its product.

HEY! You know what I just noticed?

The only place most of us have our own "white paper'' is in the toilet.

Just saying.