Basketball On The Internet.

VICTORIA Tigers. It was that simple really.

The decision by the Melbourne Tigers NBL club this week to shed its Tiger skin and embrace the entire Melbourne basketball community had a lot of merit.

But did they do it well?

Not really.

First up, let’s be on the record as acknowledging any time an entrenched and well-established club and brand undergoes a name change and facelift, there is bound to be an immediate emotional and hostile reaction from its hardcore fans.

And while most can completely understand the reasons the NBL Melbourne Tigers wanted to distance themselves from the state version Melbourne Tigers, how they did it was flawed.

As noble a plan as it was and is to “unite” Melbourne’s basketball community, the chance of actually achieving that are Buckley’s.

The fans who hate the Melbourne Tigers and will support anyone other than the Tigers - be it Titans or Dragons or whatever – either aren’t ever coming on board, will wait for a second Melbourne franchise or will just walk away from following the NBL.

I very much doubt you could convince the majority to jump aboard a rebranded Tigers club.

Now those who might only dislike them might switch allegiances if the club was no longer identified as being Melbourne Tigers.

So the club opted for a name to “unite” the city and went for Melbourne United.

It makes sense at some level but is so readily identifiable as a “soccer” name that one of the club’s initial priorities will end up regularly separating itself from that stigma.

Q: “You follow Melbourne United?”

A: “No. I don’t follow soccer.”

By “uniting” the city’s basketball community behind that name, United put a massive rod on its back as a starting point.

And if you can concede the club’s lofty and noble ambition to unite NBL fans behind one brand isn’t genuinely going to happen, then the best the club can hope for is this; that its existing core fan base will stay with it and that potential new NBL fans will identify with it.

The same could more painlessly have been achieved by switching the name to Victoria Tigers.

That would immediately have divorced the club from the state-version Melbourne Tigers and by adopting the state’s name, made the Tigers accessible for all.

If a change in colors also was necessary, then moving away from Melbourne Tigers’ traditional red and gold – a hold over from the club’s days as Melbourne Church – to black and gold, with maybe a red outline around the numbers or lettering would have doffed the hat to both the future and the past.

From all I have read and gleaned – pro and con – it appears the “new” club aims to not only retain its Tigers history but to embrace the history and traditions of the other Victorian NBL clubs which since have fallen by the wayside.

Again, as noble as that sounds, I'm sorry but the only history Melbourne United is entitled to is its own as Melbourne Tigers.

It cannot just unilaterally decide it now owns the histories of South East Melbourne Magic, or North Melbourne Giants, or St Kilda Saints, or South Dragons or Nunawading Spectres etcetera etcetera.

It has no right to their histories or, as much as the club would like to, the right to hang the retired jerseys of Magic or Giants players.

United, as Melbourne Tigers, lost the 1992 Grand Final to South East Melbourne so how can it claim that club’s history?

Part of the Magic’s history is beating Melbourne in Grand Finals in 1992 and 1996!

Part of Melbourne United’s history is beating the Magic in 1997 as the Tigers.

(It would be no different to the Adelaide 36ers now trying to claim a fifth NBL Championship for the one West Adelaide Bearcats won in 1982. In fact, the 36ers would have a greater claim to that than United has to its past Melbourne rivals’ traditions, considering West eventually merged into the Sixers’ club. But they were derby opponents from 1982-84 and that means two separate entities.)

Similarly, how can Melbourne United now expect to speak for South Dragons considering South Dragons won the 2009 GF from the Tigers?

This email I received from hardened Tigers fan Paul Jenner on the day of the United announcement sums it up most eloquently.

“Re: Melbourne United … I wasn't sure what else could be done to kill any remaining enthusiasm I had for the NBL. I've been a Tigers supporter since Warwick Giddey came to my primary school when I was 7 years old to run a clinic. I remember him dunking on our old, tattered rim at the conclusion of the clinic and providing cheap tickets for an upcoming game to the students assembled - something that made a lasting impression obviously!

“I cheered through the Simmons/Colbert era, watched every game of the finals series when we finally broke through in 93, and was one of the 15,000+ at quite a few of those Grand Final games you listed in the mid 90's. I've attended games featuring everyone from the Gazes and Copelands, to the Ansteys and McDonalds, to the Walkers and Gouldings.

“But after watching entertainment value wane year after year, watching the sport I loved as a kid become a weekly dose of dour 78-74 score lines (if we're lucky), seeing next to no coverage of the sport in the mainstream media, and surviving on the persistent promise that 'in a year, 2 years max they'll fix what's ailing the league … no, really...', I was just about ready to give up.

“Now the team I've supported for over 25 years is renamed seemingly on a whim, for marketing purposes ostensibly?!?! Because some genius thinks that the reason Victorians feel removed from the NBL was solely because of connotations associated with the Tigers name?

“It's disgusting and fickle, slapping a band-aid (again) on a bigger problem. Yet another slap in the face (again) to the few that have tried to rally support for a league that has spent a decade or more now consistently finding new and improved ways to alienate them.

“I've been to my last NBL game. I don't want to be negative about a sport that I love (and continue to play socially). But I refuse to devote any more time, energy and money to a club or league that looks and behaves increasingly amateurish with every season that passes.

“Apologies for my rant - I wish I had a more positive reason to send an email comment to you.”

I wish he did too when, by changing the name to Victoria Tigers, “United” would have achieved what it set out to do and possibly kept fans such as Paul in the fold.

“It was never an easy decision to move away from the Melbourne Tigers name,” United chairman Larry Kestelman said.

“This last year we have seen tremendous success on the court in making the playoffs, and equal success off it through our membership and crowd attendance.

“However we want to provide a united basketball club, for sports and basketball lovers in this State. Now we will unite as one side, with one voice, as Melbourne United Basketball.”

All well and good. But the next part of the club’s formal statement is where it is assuming a role to which it has no right.

“Not only is Melbourne United Basketball dedicated to honoring its rich Tigers history, the aim of the club is to recognise the past NBL teams who have made basketball so strong in this State. From the Spectres, to the Dragons, Saints, to Giants, Magic and Titans, through inviting their fans and past members to unite together behind one NBL power representing and embracing Melbourne’s rich basketball heritage.”

Again, it is a valiant goal but the only history to which United has any right is the Tigers’ history.

“This announcement heralds a new era in Victorian basketball, giving us the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of not only past Melbourne Tigers players, but also the countless champions from other great Victorian clubs that, until now, have not received that recognition,” coach Chris Anstey said.

“As a servant of this club and other Victorian teams myself, I'm delighted that those legends of the game, who really should have their singlets hanging from the rafters, will now get the chance to be honored too.”

By all means acknowledge and even honor them. Just do not try to claim them as part of United’s heritage.

That’s part of the reason so many past Tigers greats are up in arms, believing history is being unwisely rewritten.

They hate it because United IS Melbourne Tigers and no-one else.

The only singlets in the rafters should be those of this club’s history and tradition that won their retirement through the blood, sweat and tears of those players AGAINST the Magic, Giants et al.

That is, of course, unless the United plan was less about divorcing from the Tigers’ heritage and more about pulling the rug out from beneath any potential second Melbourne team latching onto South East or South Dragons’ history.

I agree and understand Melbourne Tigers felt it encumbent to change now while the option still existed.

It could have thrown the “new name” challenge out to its existing membership in the form of a fan competition and rallied their support instead of their wrath.

There were better ways of doing it but it is done now.

United now has a season to unite Melbourne.

It will need a tiger in its tank to do it.

 

AGREE with the decision or not, to me by far the most singularly offensive report was at the league’s official announcement at its nbl.com.au website on Tuesday.

It read (and still reads): “The National Basketball League can confirm a change of name for the current Melbourne licence.

“The team will now be known as Melbourne United….”

Say what?

The “Melbourne licence”???

In a six paragraph story the NBL cannot once even acknowledge the Melbourne TIGERS licence?

Are you kidding me?

A club with four Championships, the league’s all-time greatest player Andrew Gaze and/or the legacies of Andrew, Mark Bradtke, Lanard Copeland, Lindsay Gaze, Warrick Giddey, Chris Anstey, Al Westover is reduced to the “Melbourne licence”?

Sorry.

That really was truly outrageous, if not downright disgraceful from the NBL.

 

TOMORROW: A Flashback for 30 years ago today. And no, it wasn't when Sgt Pepper taught the band to play.