Basketball On The Internet.

IT started so memorably with the Los Angeles Clippers sweeping the Lakers for the first time and also claiming the franchise's first Pacific Division NBA title. Then Townsville dropped its bombshell.

And make no mistake, it WAS a bombshell, Barrier Reef Basketball Pty Ltd revealing through chairman George Colbran that it was handing back its Crocodiles' NBL license after incurring losses of $2.5million across the past six years.

No-one saw this coming.

Yes, we all hear the rumors that This Club or That Club is on the bones of its behind and about to fall over but when a club sacks its coaching staff and re-signs a young tyro such as Mitch Norton for three years, why should anyone suspect a few days later it will fold or pull out of the league?

I mean, why bother to sack Paul Woolpert if you won't be around in a week or so anyway?

Clearly, some other agenda is in play because not one of the eight NBL club chief executives - yes I say "eight" because pretty sure Crocs CEO Pat Reidy didn't know either - knew this was coming today.

Adelaide 36ers CEO Dean Parker was in stunned dismay, having attended a CEOs meeting after the NBL/WNBL awards night where the Crocs gave no inkling this was in the wind.

After Townsville Bulletin broke the story and it took on a life across social media, Basketball Australia and the NBL went to ground trying to come up with a response.

That BA would not accept Townsville surrendering its license was a pretty unexpected response, to say the least.

If I was to quit my job today and walk away despite protests my resignation wasn't being accepted, pretty sure it wouldn't matter how much work was piling up on my desk if I'm no longer there.

Not sure I'm seeing the logic there but BA saying its clubs were as stunned and surprised as it was is genuine.

The clubs rallying to ensure there are eight teams in the league next season is also a positive, but only if the eighth team is Townsvillle.

In 2009, the Crocs were among those clubs which stood firm and helped saved this chaotic catastrophe of an NBL so many of us love too much.

So to add a hurried eighth team from Melbourne or Brisbane - while it might work - won't look like much more than a rushed bandaid over a gaping wound.

If BA and the NBL cannot protect those very clubs which saved its a$$ets four years ago, then serious questions must be asked.

For now, let us keep our fingers crossed the Crocodiles players and staff who received pink slips today and a fortnight's notice, will still be employed at the end of May.

That's when Network 10 needs to know the draw for the 2013-14 season, the unofficial deadline for BA to finally show why the NBL should even fall under its auspices when it did OK - I said "OK", not "great" - on its own for so long.