Basketball On The Internet.

BASKETBALL. You've gotta love it, and I know that to be the case or you wouldn't be here reading now. So don't you ever wonder why the game in this country so often is at odds with itself?

We've got two guys playing off for the biggest prize in the sport - the NBA Championship. We have two guys who were members of last year's NBA champion.

We have two girls who were part of the 2014 WNBA champion, plus its coach.

In about two months, we'll put an awesome Aussie Boomers team on the floor at Rod Laver Arena to face New Zealand and right now, more of our nation's sports fans are talking basketball than rarely before.

Yes, Delly and Bogey have about 90 per cent to do with that but the other 10 per cent - it could be greater or lesser, this is NOT a scientific poll but an uneducated punt - has focused on Larry Kestelman's ballsy move to take over our flailing National Basketball League and the sudden innovation of Champions League Basketball.

Now let's go one at a time.

Kestelman becoming the Six Million Dollar Man of Australian basketball represents a mammoth investment in securing the future of a national competition which has been operating for 36 years now.

Yes, it has been a bone-jarring roller-coaster ride throughout that period, with seemingly many more lows than highs and an ambivalent Australian public waiting to be convinced this particular leopard of our minor sporting codes has indeed changed its spots for more fashionable pinstripes.

What Kestelman already has done is guaranteed long-established brands such as Adelaide 36ers, Cairns Taipans, New Zealand Breakers, Perth Wildcats, Sydney Kings, Townsville Crocodiles and Wollongong Hawks, along with his own revamped Melbourne United, will continue to play their role in our national sporting landscape.

His investment and confidence in being able to return our major professional league - which should be the jewel in Basketball Australia's homegrown crown - to greatness, has to in itself generate confidence the NBL has a future.

It wasn't too long ago many, myself included, were doubting that.

But no sooner had the NBL revealed Kestelman as the equivalent of soccer's Frank Lowy and unveiled its grand plan for this shot at a long-cherished sustainable future, than the CLB broke into the marketplace.

The mere fact that it was and is new and exciting immediately gave basketball fans something to talk about ... in addition to Delly and Bogey.

For the life of me, I cannot see why the two cannot co-exist, if not actually complement each other.

I understand there are limitations with how much sponsors, corporates and TV types want to put into basketball so you immediately can claim the NBL and CLB are in competition for the same markets.

I don't see it. I also don't see the CLB as a "rebel league", as some media erroneously has called it.

To me a rebel league is one which is in direct opposition to the existing league - think ABA to NBA or the rugby Superleague a while back going head-to-head with the NRL.

That's rebellion. This isn't.

This is a revolution and there's a huge difference.

The NBL will continue - at least for the foreseeable future - to play in summer which will mean the loss of some great players to the NBA and some good players to Europe. It's unavoidable while the NBL positions its season as it does.

The CLB will play a 10-week schedule from May-August. Its arrival on the playing field gives our pro basketball players a further opportunity to earn WITHOUT having to take on a further six-month commitment.

In the way the Big Bash complements traditional cricket, the CLB could complement the NBL while also showcasing some more Aussie stars who would otherwise be playing in Europe during the NBL season.

Do I agree with the gimmicky stuff the CLB is embracing? No.

I'm still something of a purist and don't believe there is anything wrong with our game that it requires tampering to please the masses. I've rarely believed our basketball product was the problem anyway.

Marketing and promotion of it? Those have been huge issues.

Could the timing of the CLB announcement have been less helpful for the new NBL?

You can certainly argue that but the reality is the CLB was in close consultation with BA throughout and had scheduled its announcement date long before any developments at the NBL.

Truly, who knew if or when the NBL was going to make any sort of announcement which had genuine cache?

The Kestelman deal done, the NBL came out and revealed it, the CLB with its own announcement date already locked in with multi-media, including and featuring radio.

Those suspicious of the timing should be assured there was no plan to sabotage any momentum the NBL was gathering.

Honestly, this NBL off-season was one of the worst of all time, and that's saying something. How could an independent basketball venture know when the NBL was going to say something of relevance again, especially when two-to-three teams looked like falling over?

While disappointed Kestelman's first reaction was to state the NBL had the only license for a professional basketball competition in Australia, I understand his frustration completely.

Here he is kicking in a big investment into a league that gave us Leroy Loggins, Andrew Gaze, Robert Rose and Sam Mackinnon, and now there's a new player in the game?

Realistically though, the first thing he probably could have done if not caught unawares by the CLB announcement - and the CLB was remiss in not speaking with him sooner, although it had spoken at length with his United GM, and BA also was across all the information - was make these points.

*It is great to have the public talking positively about basketball again.

*One of the CLB's "innovations" is to have each quarter won in every game worth a championship point, with three points for the win - potentially seven points. This was first done by the NBL at its preseason Blitz tournament in 2013 and has been retained, so it is good to see the CLB taking some of its ideas from the NBL.

*The CLB will launch in 2017, so the NBL will have the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons under its belt before then and has the opportunity now to spruce up its own performance.

It could start with a new NBL logo, ditching the BA hybrid for something with its own independent splash.

It could upkeep its website.

It could make a bold announcement about its Blitz plans, location and any potential tournament ideas.

It could update its website.

It could outline its definitive plans for expansion, Asia and its NBA connection.

It could upgrade its website.

The NBL has so much good news on its horizon that to turn a relationship with a potential new player into an adversarial one is completely counter-productive and unnecessary.

I've even had emails from folks concerned how the CLB will impact SEABL.

Seriously now, the CLB wants to play on Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoons. Will a Sunday game between Sydney and Brisbane really impact Mount Gambier at Dandenong?

And any SEABL players who might be NBL stringers now capable of getting a gig in the CLB would surely only be deep benchmen at the higher level. They could still get their full SEABL game in before playing their modest CLB minutes.

Which is why the CLB has had long talks with the SEABL already.

It's a pity it didn't hold long talks with the NBL but that's done now. (And, frankly, who was the NBL these past months prior to Kestelman stepping up?)

The fact former NBL folk want to jump into the CLB and are talking about "bringing teams back" ... well, what else could they mean but bringing back former NBL club names?

Will the next fight be who owns the names, the NBL or the ether?

The NBL is the foundation-stone of elite pro basketball in Australia and has just received a massive boost through Larry Kestelman's involvement.

It can and must restore confidence in its product by being bold and imaginative and Kestelman has shown he can do both.

The CLB does not present a rebel or an opponent. What it could be is a quality adjunct to a re-established, thriving product.

Our sport just needs to embrace the concept of Win-Win instead of believing that for every Winner there has to be a Loser.

Basketball has been the loser for far too long.

 

AUSSIE HOOPLA: Magnificent Mookie Schiralli and I join host Dan Boyce in this podcast to discuss the NBL's future at http://aussiehoopla.podomatic.com/entry/2015-06-05T19_06_12-07_00

TOMORROW: Flashback pictures of the guys.