Basketball On The Internet.

DON’T buy any of this sudden whispering campaign – wonder where that started? - that WNBL clubs voted against having an awards night this season.

Two club GMs I spoke with today had “no recollection” of ever making such a call, it being parent body Basketball Australia and its wise heads who instigated pulling the pin on having the annual presentation.

Yes, we all continue to breathlessly await any new award-winner announcements BA slips us by any cheap means that it can – social media anyone? – but more has come to light since the boffins decided to demean and diminish the ONLY national competition our worstwhile, er, ERSTwhile, national federation actually runs.

Like, try these.

At this season’s preseason tournament, the magnificently titled Spring Shield, PLOCH – the legend himself - addressed WNBL players.

BA’s then-General Manager of Professional League Operations Chuck Harmison – PLOCH for short – assured the players that, in the light of the NBL demerger from the federation, things were going to be different now.

“What is most frustrating is the fact the entire league was summoned to a meeting at 9am the morning of the WNBL preseason tournament in Dandenong,” one of our game’s great women’s players told me.

“Here Chuck informed us things would be better this year because now all BA resources were focused on the WNBL only.

“How is it possible that without the NBL taking any 'resources', announcing award-winners on Facebook is the best they can come up with?”

Damn fine question and echoed by an avalanche of positive support since last week’s blog: http://www.botinagy.com/blog/shame-ba-shame/

Leeanne Grantham, former CEO of the WNBL during its halcyon years in the 90s, was happy to go on the record.

“I am devastated to look back on how fantastic women’s basketball was viewed when it had its own strategic direction, focus and purpose via the ideal structure,” Grantham said.

“Then BA and a few WNBL directors decided that ‘giving over’ our IP funds (yes, we had solid funds in the bank back then) and all the hard work done by many, to BA where it has been ‘hidden’ for a long time.

“Wonderful athletes have continued to grace the courts but the league itself has become merely another female sport on the Australian landscape when it was once the ‘leading women’s sporting comp’.

“We had great sponsors, athletes who were profiled and were in the media constantly throughout Australia.

“Clubs had a say via our councils directly to an independent board and we communicated to BA, with its CEO on our board.

“Clubs now try and do it all and they can’t. Private ownership on its own doesn’t work.

“So many things need revisiting and not necessarily to ‘go back to exactly how it was completely’ but, let’s face it – women’s basketball needs more respect by those who are meant to focus on it  and not just at the times when they wear green-and-gold.

“No awards dinner is such a shame. Those nights, even when we did them as a stand-alone function, were hard work but absolutely critical for everyone involved.

“I recall when even a Federal Sports Minister recognised how important they were that he flew in just for our night to speak and present.

“It serviced our partners. It recognised all those involved.

“Where has it gone so wrong?

“As the CEO of the league when there was total focus and passion for and on the comp, clubs, players, sponsors etcetera, I feel sad to read about BA’s decision.

“I, like many, am not sure what BA is focused on now or how they see the future looking for all of basketball, in this case in particular for women’s basketball.

“A players association is probably a good start but that won’t fix the management (focus on) of the WNBL, necessarily.”

No, but another thing the BA bandits have failed to recognise is how the awards presentation gives a chance for ideal closure for some of our greats and the chance to acknowledge and promote the game’s sponsors and supporters.

Are we to believe a naming rights sponsor such as Wattle Valley would NOT have enjoyed an awards presentation?

League stalwarts such as Jo Hill and Melissa Marsh could have had the appropriate send-offs. New life members such as Sam Woosnam and Carly Wilson could again have been appreciated for their roles in helping the game and league evolve.

It is the one night players, coaches, officials can gather formally, yet informally, and just enjoy each other’s company before the battlefield calls again.

So now you know why the NBL demerged.

Now you know why the SEABL wants to affiliate with the NBL and not be drawn into BA’s web of inadequacy masquerading as prudence.

No-one from BA will respond because, let’s face it, you cannot defend the indefensible.

No-one from BA responded to this, way back when: http://www.botinagy.com/blog/whats-new-now-ba-has-free-reign-with-wnbl-/

In fairness, I was asked by BA whether I would publish a response to that particular article and I said yes, provided it WAS a response and not just the usual yawn-inducing rundown of BA’s achievements in participation numbers, world rankings and the other irrelevant BS we’ve all heard ad nauseum.

Once I specified that, no response or rebuttal ever arrived.

So where is all the great marketing and promotion of BA’s only elite national weekly competition?

Is that right one of the key people in the marketing department works from home for most of the week and then is flown into Melbourne by BA on a Tuesday and flown home on a Thursday?

Wow. He must be special to be worth two airfares a week for some 40-plus weeks a year, for the past 4-5 years.

How much money and how many awards nights would that alone have covered?

Great relief then that BA is doing SUCH a wonderful job of promoting the WNBL.

Can’t barely wait for its next tweet.