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NO more trainings, no more ankle-taping, stretching, ice baths, throwing sweaty socks into a corner, rising gingerly to accommodate the aches and pains en route to the showers.

The career of the mighty "Sav", Glen Saville, drew to a close with his official retirement yesterday.

Many suspected it was coming at the end of this iiNet NBL Championship run, which the 37-year-old confirmed at his press conference.

That is why it is especially galling another debilitating season-ending knee injury forced the hand of the Wollongong Hawks swingman, making it doubly tragic we have seen the last of his 563 NBL games.

His sudden and irreversible departure is as shocking a development as any which has plagued the luckless Hawks this season, and they have had their hands full dealing with injury this year.

But to see the great Sav cut down this way is a genuinely sad time not only for him, his family, friends, team, club and Wollongong supporters, but for anyone and everyone who loves and appreciates the sport in this country.

As has and will happen, his stats were trotted out and they make amazing reading, his 563 games leaving him third all-time behind Tony Ronaldson, Andrew Gaze and Leroy Loggins - truly rare company.

At Wollongong, where he was recruited with his lifelong Bendigo buddy Mat Campbell so very long ago, he now holds the club's high marks in games played, scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, blocks, field goals made, free throws made ... fouls and turnovers too.

A dual-Olympian in Athens and Beijing, a grand finalist in 2001 and 2010, the curtain being drawn on Saville's outstanding career also ends an era of the great Australian-born NBL three-man.

No conversation about our greatest three-man can start (or end) anywhere but with the three greatest - Sam Mackinnon, Martin Cattalini, Glen Saville. No-one else comes close, each Olympians, each championship-winners and each bringing something tangibly different to the position.

Watching any two of them going head-to-head in their heyday was a special joy for any lover of the game. Have no doubt they each knew what was at stake, bragging rights as the nation's No.1 swingman, even if only until the next in-game showdown.

Mackinnon's fans will point to two NBL championships (Magic, Bullets), his Larry Sengstock Medal as Grand Final MVP in Brisbane's 2007 title run and his league MVP award that year as evidence he owned the position.

Cattalini supporters will point to his four championship runs, two with Perth and two with Adelaide as making him the stand-out. Titles is what it's about, after all.

But the Saville Row will point to his Larry Sengstock Medal in driving Wollongong to its 2001 championship, winning it in hostile territory and becoming synonymous with all that is passionate, relentless and committed about the Hawks' enduring program - the oldest in the NBL as its only remaining original club.
 
It was then-Adelaide 36ers (and now Charlotte Bobcats NBA) coach Mike Dunlap who first brought Saville to the attention of South Australians.

In 1994 while Sav was learning his craft under Gordie McLeod at the Australian Institute of Sport, Dunlap identified him as a potential franchise player.

"He is athletic, can shoot the ball, plays D with pride, does the heavy-lifting on the boards but has the great knack of understanding the game and what a given situation will require for success," Dunlap opined at the time in a newspaper quote  worth revisiting.

How right was he?

How perfect an assessment of Saville was that before he ever laid foot on an NBL hardcourt? And how accurate is it today as he departs, never again to lay a foot on an NBL court?

Saville's farewell - though Wollongong will give him a send-off for the fans after he has knee surgery on February 8 - was poignant, the superstar thanking his parents, wife and children, teammates, coaches, club ownerships, Campbell, his agent and others while barely keeping it together.

Clearly we had seen that focused, hardened, poker game-face for the last time ... though his sons might see it again if they play up around the soon-to-be house-husband!

Part of the joy of sport is watching what an exciting new face brings to the table. Then seeing that youth grow and mature as a player, relishing as his game blossoms, the expectation of what he brings during his peak years and then enjoying his crafty veteran wiles as he runs down those final few miles of his career.

Sav brought that to a legion of Hawks and NBL fans nationwide. While it is tragic injury has denied him the chance to run those final few miles on his own terms, it does not for an instant in any way diminish what has been an exemplary and extraordinary career.

On behalf of basketball lovers everywhere, I take the liberty here of thanking you Glen, for all the joy, pleasure and emotion you brought us - as friend or foe on the field of battle - and wish you only continued success in your surgery, rehab and life ahead.


"WHERE'S ESPN? Are they here yet?" was Sav's opening line at his press conference.

Still cracking everyone up after all these years.

 
IT didn't take BA CEO Kristina "Good News Quotes" Keneally long to jump onto the farewell-to-Sav bandwagon.

Kristina was super-quick out of the blocks to lead the "congratulations on a fine career, we wish you all the best" platitudes.

"Glen will go down as not only a Wollongong Hawks legend, but as one of the true greats of the NBL," she allegedly said.

No argument there.

But hey, if there's a chance the story might get some degree of national airplay and coverage, you have to have your name out there, right?

Of course, still no response from the chief to any of the sexism accusations levelled by some of the top names in the women's game over the past few weeks.

Can someone please locate Scott Derwin and trot him out to handle that?

Yes, we understand too the NBL needed someone of substance to give Sav an official send-off. But what about picking up a telephone and getting a quote from Brian Goorjian maybe? Brendan Joyce? Gordie McLeod? Guys who contributed directly to his career and who speak from a position of authority?

 
DARYL Corletto never won a Player of the Week award while viewed largely as a "pinch-hitter" at Melbourne Tigers.

Obviously, DC is a lot more (including a championship winner) at New Zealand and this week captured the PotW after sticking 6-of-8 threes and 8-of-11 from the floor in the rout of Sydney.

He followed those 22 points with a further 11 as the Breakers added to the Hawks' woes in Wollongong.

Life is so much better since he crossed the Tasman.

NOTICED on the NBL's injury update that Melbourne's Owen Odigie will be out for four-to-six weeks with a broken wrist.

Poor buzzard, that's bad news for him and the Tigers. Could someone just please let the rest of us know who he is?

While the league looks into that, perhaps it could update its Player of the Week section since Kevin Lisch's victory on November 27?

Thanks.

JESS Adair has gone from a questionable WNBL import to last round's PotW as Townsville turns around its season.

Adair, who has just re-signed with Minnesota Lynx for the 2013 WNBA season, had a season-high 21-point, 10-rebound return as Townsville sent West Coast packing.

"I came in not aggressive enough, and then I was overly aggressive, but now I have found a medium between the two," Adair told the Townsville Bulletin.

"It's about smart aggression ... and that's the difference.

"I'm still learning, some nights it goes my way, some nights it doesn't, but that's part of the learning curve."

If only the 36ers could recruit as soundly as the Fire!


THE NBA is seeing the best of Australia's ABs this week, first with Andrew Bogut returning to the floor with Golden State Warriors and immediately looking the part.

Then Aron Baynes debuted with San Antonio Spurs and joined the AB dunk fest with a couple of his own, plus nine boards.

Patrick Mills-to-Baynes was history in the making, with two Aussies playing together in the NBA for the first time.

It was another good day for Australian Basketball - Alan Black, Andy Blicavs, Adam Ballinger and Adrian Bauk among many toasting the success.


NBL Rankings

This Wk ... Prev

8 (7) 36ERS - Back in that old familiar place, the comforts and security of home.

7 (8) TAIPANS - The journey north (they've been heading south all year) is on in earnest.

6 (5) HAWKS - Sav done and now Adelaide and Perth? This is becoming a nightmare.

5 (6) CROCS - That was a great effort in Perth but Sydney at home is pivotal.

4 (3) TIGERS - 1-1 wasn't result they wanted but they can avenge Cairns loss now.

3 (4) KINGS - Move up despite loss to NZ but only because ladder is volatile.

2 (1) WILDCATS - Just got home over Crocs and facing Breakers on road.

1 (2) BREAKERS - Can't do much better than beat teams #3 and #4 last round.
 


WNBL Rankings

This Wk ... Prev

9 (9) WAVES - Host top side this week and wishing AIS was still around.

8 (8) CAPITALS - Will want to catch out Townsville but doing it hard.

7 (6) THUNDER - Can expect no mercy from Dandenong or Bulleen.

6 (7) BOOMERS - Will silence the Thunder, but not their critics.

5 (5) FLAMES - Best side out of the finals will be keen to snuff the Fire.

4 (4) FIRE - This is a big road double and Townsville will want to take both.

3 (2) RANGERS - Unlucky to drop but Adelaide is for real. Logan will suffer.

2 (3) LIGHTNING - Beat Dandy in Dandy, now need to bend over Spirit.

1 (1) SPIRIT - Facing a challenge (at last) but no reason to doubt them.


THIS WEEK'S TIPS

WITH Cam Tovey (hip injury) missing from Perth's travelling line-up to Auckland and the Breakers playing convincing basketball again, New Zealand has to start favorite to reverse its embarrassing Round One home loss to the Wildcats.

The emotion of Glen Saville's untimely demise will have a huge impact on Wollongong tonight in Adelaide, but expect his absence - on top of Rhys Martin, Lance Hurdle and Daniel Jackson - to severely test the Hawks' depth. While coach Gordie McLeod is sure to come up with a solid strategy, he may simply not have sufficient horses to survive this race.   

This is the big one now for Townsville, at home to Sydney which also desperately has to win to shore up its shakey spot in the four. The way Ian Crosswhite is playing, his tangle with Luke Nevill inside should be a barn-burner but at home and playing well, this time it looks as if it's the Crocs' turn.

How badly did Cairns beating Melbourne last round scar the Tigers' playoff aspirations? There's no time like the present for Melbourne to reveal that, the door to the four still ajar. Still down Dusty Rychart, I expect the Taipans to fall short this time.

It's debatable which team will arrive from interstate/overseas fixtures in Perth first, the Wildcats or Wollongong in what, just a few weeks back, would have been a marquee match-up. The Sensei knows better than to under-estimate the miracles Saint Gordon can deliver but, yet again, it should be manpower which finally overcomes the Hawks.

BEATEN at home by Adelaide last week, Dandenong will be revved up to bounce back and Logan will bear the brunt of it.

Canberra has been giving people a scare and likely will do the same to Townsville in a match the Fire must win, if for credibility alone.

The season started for Bendigo in Perth, beating West Coast and there's no reason to see this game going any differently.

Sydney hosting Townsville will be a bit of a grudge match and while the result may ultimately prove irrelevant in standings, it is another game of the type the Fire have to win to be given any chance of being alive into the playoffs' second week.

Bulleen is no certainty to beat Logan but it will, provided none of the Boomers visit Mama Rosa's Veneto Club kitchen before the game.

Adelaide had a lot to prove last round when it beat Dandenong in Dandenong. How it handles Bendigo is no less prudent in guaranteeing the finals are at least a three-way battle for the flag. Maybe leading with my heart over my head but just liking the Lightning at present.

A KLINGON, a Vulcan and a Bajoran walk into a bar. The Ferengi barman looks up from where he is cleaning glasses, stares at them and says: "Is this some kind of Romulan joke?"