Basketball On The Internet.

HATS (or toupees, your call) off to NBL Pty Ltd for seeing the light and appointing the officiating fraternity’s three wise men to help effect its resurgence.

Mal Cooper, Ray Hunt and Bill Mildenhall were unquestionably three of the best in the business and to hand them the responsibility of getting the officials on track with the desire to make the NBL entertaining again was a master-stroke.

It probably won’t be made official until tomorrow – before Cairns Taipans and Wollongong Hawks battle for competition points in the Loggins-Bruton Cup game in Cairns – but take it from me this is what should be happening.

Coops will be running the show and please, let’s not have the uninformed running around talking about his “Hollywood” days.

Having had him calling games in which I coached, I know he was always personable and approachable, quite apart from being a terrific referee.

Someone lumped him with the “Hollywood” tag, ostensibly because of his alleged flamboyant style and like any good nickname – appropriate or not – it stuck.

Flamboyant? I don’t know. Ken Cole is my idea of flamboyant. Mal definitely had flair but having flair shouldn’t be used to diminish a person and sometimes that nickname was used that way.

You don’t wrack up 470 NBL games on flamboyance and Coops is a man who truly cares about the NBL product and, fingers crossed, will be able to convey that passion to his troops.

To have Ray and Bill in his corner and actively involved again – even if peripherally – is a coup for NBL Pty Ltd.

Both called games in the league’s inaugural 1979 season, were there through the slow ride up, then the halcyon years and finally the fall from grace.

Ray is the all-time games refereed record-holder with a whopping 949 and was still calling the Grand Final in his final 2011-12 season.

If that isn’t staying at the pinnacle of you game (I said “pinnacle”, not “monocle”), what is? He is a four-time Referee of the Year.

Billy is the all-time Referee of the Year award-winner, winning the title 16 times in succession from 1988-2003.

He called 945 NBL games until his retirement from active duty in 2010-11.

Between them, the triumphant triumvirate has officiated in 2,364 NBL games. While you contemplate that number, again, rest assured these are men with a huge stake in our game and our league.

But what exactly will “call the game to be entertaining first” actually mean?

As one of my favorite work sounding-board colleagues – let’s call him “Simon” – asked, was making referees “think” a good idea?

But isn’t that just it? They won’t have to think that much at all. Just as the best players operate on instinct - backed up by training and confidence and the understanding of what they are executing – isn’t that what we want from the officials too?

If it’s a foul, call it. No warnings. No chat. No “interpretation”. Just a call.

Trust this. The players and their teams will adjust. No coach wanting to keep his job will say: “Keep fouling and test the officials’ resolve,” as has been the mantra of the past two decades.

The reason they won’t is because the clubs WANT to entertain you, the fans. So their coaches will need to get with that and embrace the program.

Sure, there will be teething issues as you might expect and we will see those during the Blitz. There may be a few games turned into free throw shooting contests too but frankly, if that’s what it needs to get the message across, so be it.

But realistically, that is unlikely to happen. Anyone who plays knows you play to what the officials are calling.

If a player can hold an opponent’s singlet and not get called for it, next time he might go for a bear hug.

No call? Maybe after the bear hug he might throw the player to the floor.

No call? Now let’s see what happens when, instead of just bumping or shunting a cutter, we give the cutter a forearm belting to the floor.

Where does it end?

So let’s go back to step one. If a player holds an opponent’s singlet and immediately gets called for it, will he do it again next time? Only if he's stupid.

That’s why this “adjustment period” won’t take long at all because all the clubs – and by extension then, their teams (the product) – want to see entertaining basketball again.

My (e)mail is all officials have been instructed to call the game tightly.

For example, two hands on a ball-handler = an automatic foul.

Bumping the ball handler? A foul.

Defenders holding or scragging away from the ball and over-exuberant bumping of cutters will be called.

If Kevin Lisch is reading this, he is probably weeping and shaking his head: “Finally… finally…”

Basically what it amounts to is any 50-50 call will go to the offensive player.

Or, let’s put it another way. Defenders will have to play defence, legitimately.

Calling the game tightly will stop excessive contact, players will get used to it, adjust and the game will open up.

It was foreshadowed today at NewsLtd sites so if you want the back story, the link is: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/nbl-tipoff-in-cairns-tonight-to-highlight-8216entertainment8217-for-hawks8217-visit-setting-a-new-tone-for-201314/story-fnii0aj1-1226713401382

Not sure where NBL Pty Ltd sits on the return of the jumpball and time-outs on the floor just now but my (e)mail is they will be back too.

That may be later than sooner. But the game is about to open up again. That can only be a good thing.