Basketball On The Internet.

BASKETBALL needs its characters and has had some magnificent ones across the years, dating back to Ken Cole and roaring on unabated to the more recent PC times.

And by PC, I don't mean Peter Crawford.

Where we once enjoyed flamboyant coaches and flamboyant teams - Brian Kerle, Ken Richardson, Cole, Cal Bruton, Bobby Turner, Bruce Palmer, Charlie Ammitt spring easily to mind - we have seen a switch to a more conservative style of coach.

There's a few now again flying in the face of that and that can only be a positive.

But while the Political Correctness era of the Predominant Conservatives ruled, these coaches were loathe to take on any athlete who might be a bit unruly. A bit controversial. A bit opinionated. A bit, dare I say it, flamboyant?

Stick to easy-to-coach guys, easy guys to manipulate as our game underwent a subtle shift from a player's competition - a la the NBA - to a coach-controlled game - as per the college game.

The coach rules and is the absolute in college basketball. The constant. The players are in and they are out.

Have a look at how many players Adelaide turned over in say, three years of Marty Clarke compared to three years of Gary Fox. It's an eye-opening exercise.

Colourful guys such as Mike McKay, Simon Kerle, Grant Kruger and a batallion of others who in their own way helped make the league and the game great, would never have got a look in during the PC period the NBL thankfully is emerging from.

The NBL started with star Aussies, superlative imports and a cast of characters and cult figures who fans could relate to, admire, cheer for or hoot.

The "vanilla-isation" of the NBL, when aligned to increasing ticket prices nationwide, goes a long way toward explaining why the non-committed never took the final step to basketball and why a big percentage of the committed took a leave of absence.

Fast-forward to last season and suddenly we have more "Personality Coaches" and players such as James Ennis, Jermaine Beal, Sam Young come into the NBL, along with Euro returness such as Mark Worthington, AJ Ogilvy and The Marksman.

And very quickly we are back to the last lot of "good old days" when players such as Homicide and JR and Drewey and Rob Rose roamed.

That's just my way of saying how lucky we should feel for again having a player and a character of the quality of Sydney import Josh Childress running around, albeit, not running around a lot lately.

He is a revisit to imports of the past who could, and did, dominate. With his Sideshow Bob hair and big smile, JChillin also brings character.

And I would never discourage players from being themselves, especially those who are characters.

When Childress blocked the shot in Perth's offence, then hit the game-clincher at the other end for Sydney to break what seemed like a losing streak to the Wildcats which pre-dated the Internet, he was entitled to do his crazy celebratory goose-step.

OK, so as the Kings went to the huddle, Josh already was clutching at his hamstring, an injury which now has kept him out of losses to Melbourne and New Zealand.

He remains a game-time decision tonight in Townsville and the same to face Melbourne again on Friday.

EARLY SIGNS: Josh Childress with an early version of the infamous "goose-step".

The celebration for that one big win could end up costing him anything upto four games. It already has cost the Kings two games.

All I'm saying is even our characters need to make sure that what they're doing doesn't end up coming back to bite them.

Breakers' import Ekene Ibekwe seemed pretty mindful of that on the same floor when he threw down his third or fourth dunk last round, yet still only did an exaggerated Groucho Marx celebration walk.

Maybe next time Childress wins the Kings a game, the celebration could involve his arms and perhaps the Santino Marella-style of reaction. And if Josh doesn't know who Santino is, he only needs to ask Damian Cotter.
 

NO, there is no word yet on the upshot of Angela Marino's report in Adelaide's last WNBL game against Canberra.

Angela was reported by referee Benn McDonald for alleged bad language after the game concluded with the Caps escaping 73-70. That was on December 19.

It is December 31.

It is understood that most offices close down over Christmas-New Year but surely functioning competitions need some of their management around to handle this kind of unexpected situation.

We have been playing our elite national seasons in summer for 16 years so really, not being able to put together a tribunal hearing by now is a fairly ordinary effort by BA and the WNBL.

The Lightning on Sunday host West Coast.

Who will be around tomorrow on a national public holiday?

This really isn't very fair to Angela or Adelaide. And just imagine the trauma poor McDonald is going through waiting to have his day in court!

 

OH NO YOU DON'T! Leon Henry had a very solid game for Townsville against Adelaide in their recent NBL match-up at The Fortress, with 12 points at 50 per cent - 2-of-3 threes - four boards and two blocks in 16 minutes.

But when he powered up for his first shot late in the first quarter, his longtime Tall Blacks teammate BJ Anthony was right there to reject that attempt.

"Ehara i roto i toku whare," apparently.

Staying with New Zealanders, although, technically Tai Wesley isn't, the Breakers forward is the NBL's Player of the Week for the last round.

That means the NBL has matched up again with B.O.T.I. because Tai's 23 points at 84 per cent, eight boards, two assists, two blocks and a steal while deputising for Mika Vukona in the Breakers' 97-85 road win in Sydney, caught our eye here too.

 

ALWAYS entertaining whenever anyone in the media makes mention of a Perth player potentially being in the wrong on something, the amount of reaction from strident Wildcats fans.

(Got to admire their passion. Czar Nicholas the Marvelous has trained them well.)

Earlier this week, made mention of the fact Shawn Redhage did a good job to milk the "foul" by Daniel Kickert which turned his three-point shot into a four-point play and helped underpin the Wildcats' 81-80 overtime win in Melbourne.

Redhage's play with 1:42 left in overtime allowed Perth to come from 74-77 to 78-77. That threw all the heat back on to United.

One of the more amusing reactions social media tossed up at me was this piece of superb rationalisation: "Shawn flopped, sure, but it was still clearly a foul."

Well, we can agree or disagree on Kickert's "foul".

But even taking the author's position, if Shawn flopped to accentuate the foul then here's what is supposed to happen.

He gets the bonus free throw for Kickert's foul. Then Melbourne's gets a free throw for the technical on Redhage's flop, after which, the ball is returned to the relevant team. And in this instance, it would have been Melbourne's ball after Redhage's FT.

So if "Shawn flopped, sure, but it was still clearly a foul" is correct, then Melbourne should have had a chance to erase the phantom Kickert foul with the FT for Redhage's tech.

Potentially, the game is level again at 78-78 and Melbourne ball.

Would that have affected anything?

 

WNBL PotW

YES, Canberra's Abby Bishop is B.O.T.I. Player of the Week this week.

Yeah. OK.

So there were no WNBL games. What's your point?

Abby is STILL my PotW!

 

NBL Rankings

This Wk-Prev (Record)

8 (8) HAWKS 3-14 – Life doesn't get any easier now with the reigning champs in the building.

7 (7) CROCODILES 5-11 - Townsville can save its season this round but going 2-0 over Sydney and Cairns is a big ask.

6 (6) 36ERS 6-10 - Sneaking up but no Jamar makes a 2-0 round unlikely.

5 (5) UNITED 9-8 - With just the one game this round, can put a serious dent in Sydney's hopes.

4 (4) KINGS 7-8 - Tough round on road to Crocs and home to United, no Joshin'.

3 (3) WILDCATS 11-5 - Still yet to regularly show the imposing form of the championship season.

2 (2) BREAKERS 13-5 - Patched up, they escaped Sydney chill-free but Adelaide is dicey.

1 (1) TAIPANS 12-5 - Beating Adelaide now would put a huge hole in 36ers' comeback plans.

 

WNBL Rankings

This Wk-Prev (Record)

8 (8) LIGHTNING 2-11 – Close to a breakthrough and West Coast is vulnerable.

7 (7) WAVES 4-8 – This one is shot but can build for next season by going down fighting.

6 (6) CAPITALS 6-7 – Great road wins last time out and can make a move this round.

5 (5) FLAMES 7-6 – Not ready to give up playoff dreams and will ambush Rangers.

4 (4) RANGERS 6-7 – Facing Flames, Caps in potential defining round for playoff hopes.

3 (3) BOOMERS 8-7 – Can sit back and enjoy watching rivals batter each other.

2 (2) SPIRIT 9-4 – Lacking the zip of 2013-14 but 2015 is a new year after all.

1 (1) FIRE 10-2 – Tough home test should be a great 2015 Fire starter.

 

This Week's Tips

REALLY difficult to see the year ending any differently for Wollongong than it did last week, especially with reigning NBL champion Perth heading for The Sandpit. The logjam at the top of the ladder (the Breakers, Cairns and Perth all have five losses and only are separated by numbers of games played) make this a win the Wildcats must ice. There will be fireworks ... but only after the game.

NO Jamar Wilson means no foil for Scottie Wilbekin for the 36ers and at home, Cairns should make it 3-1 over Adelaide this season. The most interesting stat - OK, maybe only I find this interesting - but Taipans importTorrey Craig averages 6.6ppg against everyone else ... and 22ppg against Adelaide.

WILSON-WILBEKIN: There's no re-match tonight.

THERE'S still a question-mark over Captain Goose-step meaning the door is open for Townsville to upset Sydney to close its year at home. Shawn Dennis was ropable at how his Crocs surrendered in Adelaide and they will be fired up. If Josh Childress doesn't suit, I expect the Crocs to cause a boilover. If he does play, then the Kings will reign.

MELBOURNE opens 2015 in Sydney against the Kings where, yet again, Josh Childress' presence - or otherwise - is a key factor to any prediction. Sydney took Melbourne to overtime WITHOUT JChillin so with him and at home, you'd expect that result to be reversed. So factor in the X-Factor, Captain Goose-step in how this plays out and Sydneysiders get along. You may get more than the 40 minutes you bargain for.

CAIRNS is in Townsville for another page destined for the Reptile Rumble Retrospective. Rapt to be home again, the Crocs will give a great account of themselves this time but the Taipans are making it back to the playoffs for the first time in four years and cannot let this slip. That significance should outweigh the usual derby unpredictability.

THE last time NZ Breakers hit Adelaide Arena, Adam Gibson played the game of his NBL life and the 36ers sent the visitors packing. It will unfold differently this time, the Breakers aware Gibson and Anthony Petrie hold the keys to Adelaide's success, and with guns such as Cedric the Entertainer and Mika Vukona to send at them respectively. Sticking my neck out that NZ starts 2015 with a road loss.

GIBBO LAST TIME: Adam Gibson took on NZ by himself last time. And won.

CANBERRA has had some time now to heal some of its wounded and has the potential to head into Townsville and dish out a WNBL loss to the league pacesetters. Batkovic-Francis v Bishop-Jackson has marquee match-up written all over it but the Fire's depth, composure and homecourt suggest a tight win.

BENDIGO unleashed Hell on Adelaide after losing to West Coast in Perth. Now it can unleash Vengeance of its own on the Waves at Bendigo and have no doubt that will be Bernie Harrower's masterplan. West Coast will be like that boy in the Dutch fable, trying to hold back the floodwaters with his finger in the dyke. This time the Waves will be washed away.

AFTER Sydney beat Bendigo, it had little left in the tank as Dandenong ran over it. This time the Flames will be fresh and with a place in the post-season at stake, this should be a ripper contest. Shannon Seebohm has been a revelation as Sydney coach, even if he has to show ID to accompany his players into nightclubs. Sydney to win this time.

TOOK a punt on Adelaide last time out and feel the Lightning would have got the chocolates - what the Hell does that even mean? - against Canberra if LJ hadn't checked back in. She was the X-Factor in the Caps' three-point win but West Coast won't have any such surprise up its sleeve. Punting again that this will end Adelaide's win drought.

CANBERRA v Dandenong brings together our two biggest international superstars - Lauren Jackson and Penny Taylor. Throw in MVP favorite Abby Bishop and WNBA star Cappie Pondexter and you have the game of the week. At home and rolling, the Caps should put a severe dent in the Rangers' finals aspirations.

 

WHY did the chicken cross the road?

To call John Cleese and recommend Josh Childress' goose-step for a grant from the Ministry of Silly Walks.