National Basketball League 2008/09 sideplot #328: Julius Hodge did not receive payments on time from the Adelaide 36ers, consequently did not turn up for a game and has now left the team. The details in between these key points are a bit he-said-she-said, however the fact remains that he has now left the team.

Members of the Sixers, including coach Scott Ninnis have claimed that Hodge's departure will reduce the distraction to the team and that they can now get on with business. Without a doubt, Hodge is one of the most talented players to have ever played in the NBL. The claim is that he was not as team-oriented as some other players. Hodge refutes this.

Finally, Hodge has come out and told his side of the story on the issue:

Sydney favourite, more specifically Sutherland Shire favourite, BJ Carter has secured a two-year contract to play in the respected SEABL league with the Ballarat Miners.

As part of his two-year deal Carter will also work full-time in the Miners' development program.

The contract has several get-out clauses which allow Carter to leave the club if he gains a NBL contract. He will also reassess his future after Amy's maternity leave finishes in September.

Carter played with the Sydney Kings for seven years and was one of the faces of the heartache of the team when it collapsed, leaving players without payment.

``Victoria I feel is the sporting capital of Australia,'' Carter said.

``On a personal note it will be good to get down there and play in that league, as it is probably the better league to get noticed in [by a NBL club].

``Hopefully, someone will see me.''

BJ was not short on people willing to give him references for the job down south.

He received glowing references both as a player and more importantly as a person from former Miners players Eric Cooks, Matt Campbell and Anthony Susnjara.

Former Miners Coach Brian Goorjian, Carter’s last NBL coach at Sydney, spoke highly of the qualities that Carter would bring to Ballarat.

“BJ Carter was part of the leadership group at the Sydney Kings and is a shining example of someone who, from a basketball perspective, came from nothing and made something of himself through an incredible work ethic and unbelievable perseverance. Last season, he was one of the best shooters in the NBL and people always related to him as being 'the kid next door who made it", Goorjian said.

“He was very well respected in the community, where he worked tirelessly with kids and was considered an ideal role model for the youth of today”.

“This is an excellent choice by Ballarat and I know that BJ will quickly become a real crowd favourite when people get a chance to see him play". This is a great selection and I cannot speak highly enough of him and his wife Amy. They will be a perfect fit for Ballarat”.

As much as he is happy with the Miners position, no doubt he'll be hoping to secure a call-up to a team in the new NBL next season prior to the completion of his two years in SEABL.

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The Townsville Crocodiles have put another dent in the much-fancied armour of the Melbourne Tigers, by welcoming them to The Swamp with a 113-105 overtime victory. Michael Cedar and John Rillie combined to drill 13 three-pointers off the bench for the Crocs, as they were ably supported by imports Rosell Ellis (22 points and 11 rebounds) and Corey "Homicide" Williams (17 and 8).

Cedar's shooting performance was one of near perfection, with 9/14 from the field, 7/10 from long range and 2/2 at the stripe for a total of 27 points. He even chipped in seven rebounds and two steals, as the Tigers admitted possibly not showing him the respect that he is due (NBL game recap).

Melbourne Coach Al Westover said the loss was a heartbreaker.

"When Ebe hit that shot to go into overtime I was felling pretty good," he said.

"But we didn’t go on with it and they did and I told our players you have to make plays."

"Maybe we didn’t give Cedar the respect he deserves … he was probably the difference I thought."

Meanwhile Rillie showed the form that Crocs fans know he is capable of on a nightly basis, with 6/12 from deep and 9/15 overall for 24 points, to go along with five rebounds, three assists and two steals. This was either a sign from JR that he's comfortable in his firestarter role off the bench, or more likely the knock on coach Trevor Gleeson's door that he's ready to return to the starting lineup.

Look out for more on this one on JR, On Fire, where he already has Episode 12 of the OT podcast available.

It sounds like it was a game that would have been a cracker to watch:

Townsville coach Trevor Gleeson said it was one of the best games he had seen.

"If you don’t like that game of basketball, you don’t like basketball," he said.

"That had everything, it had Ebe going of at one end, Mick at one end and big guys work hard in the paint."

"I am really proud of how they played, they played with lot of heart and team work."

"We just have to duplicate that for the rest of the season."

"When we are sharing the ball around, JR (Rillie) came of the bench on fire, Mick could drop it in from half-court at one stage."

These are the types of games that basketball fans need to focus on at the moment. Boxscore here.

The Crocs stay in the Top 6 with their second straight win (6-7), whilst the Tigers sit in third place (8-5) after many predicted them to dominate this NBL season from start to finish.

Down in Victoria, the Dragons gave the Cairns Taipans an absolute hiding, 102-64.  

It was a clinical performance from the ladder leaders, with their swarming defence holding the Taipans to a mere 29 percent (22-of-76) from the field, while shooting an impressive 57 percent (40-of-70) themselves.

The Dragons had five players that scored in double figures, with centre Matt Burston (19 points, eight rebounds) skipper Mark Worthington (14 points) and youngster Joe Ingles (12 points, seven assists) setting the tone early, before reserves Rhys Carter (13 points) and Nick Horvath (12 points) finished the demolition in the second half.

Boxscore here.

The Taipans now sit at 6-10 and need to have a long hard look at themselves it would seem, after losing five on the trot.

The sad news this morning for Sydney basketball fans and Australian hoops supporters in general, is that the Sydney Spirit might be on their way to extinction. It may even come before the season ends. This is terrible news from the perspective that they have been great battlers in the league, displaying a team record beyond their individual capabilities.

You have to feel for Jason Smith, who will be part of his second collapsing team in a year. The fans of Sydney that switched their allegiances across to the Spirit from the Kings will also be feeling befuddled. The reform in Aussie basketball is now needed more than ever.

Here's what the daily rags had to say on the news:

Sydney Morning Herald:

Sydney is likely to have no presence in the NBL following the crushing announcement that the Spirit are set to go into administration this week.

In another huge blow to the national basketball competition, the Spirit are almost certain to follow the Sydney Kings into extinction as early as this week unless an extremely unlikely saviour comes out of the woodwork.

The development will throw the NBL into turmoil, as they would have to find a way to revamp the schedule midway through the current season.

In a frustratingly similar scenario that led to the Kings folding in the off-season, when the NBL board struggled mightily to keep communication open with former Kings owner Tim Johnston, the league is now having trouble contacting Spirit owner Greg Evans.

"The league office was informed by Sydney Spirit owner Greg Evans on Saturday that the team was in a perilous financial position and has indicated that he was planning to put the team into administration," chief executive of Basketball Australia Scott Derwin said in a statement.

"We have since been seeking urgent talks with Evans to ascertain what, if anything, can be done either to help him maintain the team in the NBL for the remainder of the season, or to find a buyer for the Spirit's license who could continue the club's on-going operations.

"We have also opened up dialogue with a number of individuals who had previously shown an interest in investing in a Sydney-based NBL team with a view to getting them involved in saving the Spirit if at all possible.

"At this stage, it is simply too early to tell if there are grounds for optimism as to the team's future, but we are facing the very real prospect that they may not be able to see out the remainder of the 2008-09 season.

"We expect to be able to make a further statement on this issue, and how it will impact the other nine teams in the competition, prior to the Spirit's next scheduled home match against the South Dragons on Saturday night."

ABC news:

Players are complaining of being kept in the dark about the situation.

The League has asked Evans if there is anything it can do to keep the team in the competition until the end of the season.

Spirit Captain Jason Smith says the players are looking for answers.

"It's extremely frustrating not to get any answers out of Greg Evans," he said.

"He's uncontactable at the moment, won't answer his phone. So it's proving to be extremely frustrating from the players' and management's point of view."

The League is also in discussions with potential buyers for the Spirit's license, and says the situation highlights the need for more strict guidelines for new NBL teams.

Sportal:

The club changed its name from the West Sydney Razorbacks in the off-season in the wake of the collapse of the city's foundation club the Sydney Kings, hoping to attract fans of the defunct Kings.

But the loss of the Kings hasn't translated to an off-court boost for the Spirit, who have several times struggled to attract even four-figure crowds to their home matches so far in the 2008-09 season.

Now Basketball Australia chief executive Scott Derwin has admitted in a statement released on Tuesday evening that the 10-team competition could be reduced to nine before the current campaign is over following the information from owner Greg Evans.

The news also comes after good grassroots work done by the Spirit, such as sponsoring the recently concluded Sydney Schools Shootout, which was won by the Kings School.

Here's hoping that this news does not disrupt the currently running season and that something can be organised to keep the Spirit running through until the finalisation of 2008-09.

When a team goes under, as the Sydney Kings and Brisbane Bullets did this past offseason, the immediate anguish of fans runs in stages. Initially they realise that they will no longer have a team to support and games to watch. The next step normally involves wondering where their favourite players and the coaching staff will go. Rarely however, do people worry for the plight of our much-loved mascots of the game.

Well, someone does care. Nicole takes a particular interest in mascots and in her left of middle sport blog she asks the question that many have avoided. What has happened to the Lion and the Bullet? Perhaps Dodge Taylor can help us out with some information on that last one…

It appears that Nicole is not the only one that has former mascots on the mind, as this comic from the Garbage Time All-Stars shows.

Contentious times for Australian basketball. Reform has been going on behind the scenes for the National Basketball League and the Australian program in general over the past year (and more). Now is crunch time as the member associations and clubs of Basketball Australia (BA) and the NBL must vote on whether to approve the proposed reform process which would merge the NBL and BA to form one governing, unified body in the sport.

The carrot at the end of the rainbow -- and hence the thing gaining the media headlines -- is the fact that the reform process going through will likely result in a $35m boost to the sport through a five-year Fox Sports television deal. Due to the lack of coverage in recent times, I had to pick my jaw off the floor when I read that the deal would also include live coverage of every game in 2009-10, should it go ahead.

These are serious renaissance times for basketball fans, with news already coming through recently that Channel 10's new 24 hour sports station would host free-to-air coverage of the NBA in Australia. Potentially this sort of renewed coverage could lead to a massive re-growth of the popularity of basketball in Australia to mid-90s levels.

The only concern for me is the size of the league that is being proposed for the NBL. This could potentially be disastrous for some fans if they lose their team (I know what that feels like and there are one or two people in Seattle who can proabably sympathise as well).

Here's what everyone else has to say about the news:

Last season's National Basketball League All-Star Game was a coming out party for NBL rookie and eventual NBA draftee, Nathan Jawai. One year before that, then-rookie Brad Newley strutted his stuff en route to the MVP award in the same game. He too went on to be drafted -- by the Houston Rockets -- in the subsequent offseason.

The NBL All-Star Game may not always have the same flair and excitement of it's NBA counterpart, but it is still a highlight on the Aussie basketball calendar.

Adelaide reporter, Boti Nagy, today revealed that the game will not take place this season. One of the themes of this season in the eyes of many fans and media-types is that of a season to merely fill the gap between now and when the league blows itself up and revamps into a new format. As Nagy referred to it, a "tread water" season.

Removing the all-star fixture will only enhance this opinion. There are obvious financial shortcomings in the NBL at the moment and perhaps the decision was a no-brainer for those with the financial information behind the scenes, on a profitability basis. However, it is still a shame for us the fans.

Episode 8 of the John Rillie "OT" Podcast is available here

Gaze TV Episode 7

More after the jump...

The Wollongong Hawks are performing poorly so far this season -- as individuals. As a team, they're doing just fine.

Currently the Hawks sit eighth on the NBL ladder, or third-last in some people's language. They currently sit just shy of a .500 record, at 4-5. They have the same record as seventh place Sydney Spirit, the same number of losses as the sixth place Perth Wildcats (6-5) and the same number of wins as the fifth place Townsville Crocodiles (4-3).

Putting the league's topsy-turvy schedule to one side and ignoring the fact that teams have played inordinately different numbers of games to date, the Hawks can take solace in their record in comparison to last season. In 2007-08 the Hawks finished third-last in a 13-team competition, however their record stood at a much less respectable 9-21 at season end. Based on their current pace, the Hawks look set to top that.

All this despite the fact that almost every player is playing well below their career averages and a number of shades paler than how they looked a year ago.

Star import guard Kavossy Franklin's career averages are 20.1ppg (at 45% from the field) along with 4.5apg. This season he is putting up 12.9ppg (at 39%) with 3.1apg. He has managed to light up a couple of times in recent week (for 26 and 24 point nights), however outputs of 0, 5 and 5 are not the points totals that NBL fans associate with Franklin.

Meanwhile, the weight does not fall entirely on the former Sydney Kings championship winner's shoulders. On-the-rise centre Cam Tragardh's averages of 12.4ppg and 3.3rpg are well below his inspiring 2007-08 numbers of 17.6ppg and 7.8rpg which signalled him as a future force in the league who had finally found his footing after quiet years in Townsville and Brisbane.

However, the big fella is not at all upset with the current situation. He has the bigger picture in mind when it comes to looking at his team, one that was rated as a potential wooden-spooner by some prior to the season.