I shortened the article. I thought there were a few interesting comments made by Luc Longley.

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Australian basketball great Luc Longley has urged the sport to capitalise on the rise of Patrick Mills and Dante Exum as the Boomers prepare to train in blank uniforms next week after failing to find a major sponsor.

Longley also claims the Boomers have more international stars than the heavily backed Socceroos, declaring NBA championship-winner Mills and Exum can be the catalyst for a golden era for the men's team.

"Our men's basketball program, I reckon, we've got more international stars than the Socceroos do, and I believe there's more people playing basketball here than soccer,'' Longley said.

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/basketball/boomers-stars-deserve-better-backing-says-luc-longley-20140715-ztay4.html

I agree we do.

We just had 2 players in Baynes/Mills come off winning the NBA . Plus we have a whole next generation of stars of Australian basketballers who play in the NBA in Dellavadova, Cam Bairstow, Dante Exum...and plus we have 2 most likely no.1 NBA Draft picks in Ben Simmons and Thon Maker.

Guys playing in the NBA is like having Aussies play in the Big 4 Leagues in Europe....where we are really lacking.

We don't even come close as far as the Socceroos is concerned.

This is the Golden Generation of Australian Basketball at the moment. A bit similar to the Socceroos class of 05.

So I agree with Longley here.

Edited by SocaWho: 16/7/2014 12:09:05 PM

Edited by SocaWho: 16/7/2014 12:10:08 PM

Fair play to him. Even though his facts are wrong its good that he is pushing for the best for his sport.
Shame that the national team has no sponsor.
I dont follow the sport, so dont know who Mills and Exum are, maybe thats part of their image problem

Surely he's wrong with his line of "and I believe there's more people playing basketball here than soccer," ?

Football is the highest participation sport in the country.

This is just plain wrong IMO, unless I missed exactly where 'here' is.

Now THAT I disagree with.

Basketball does have one of the highest participation rates for kids .

=d>

Problem is the NBL is dying on its feet - when the Melbourne Tigers have gone under, you know something's clearly wrong.

IMO a lot/most of Oz basketball's woes would be solved if it followed football's lead and ditched Oceania for Asia. The Boomers walk into the world championship/Olympics by beating the Tall Blacks(NZ)...it's a fvcken farce.

Pretty sure the boomers Do actually play Asian teams alot , hell fiba has pressured basketball australia to organize an Asians champions league . B.a or Andrew gaze has said fiba should do it

For club sides?

Mind you FIBA itself has to shoulder a bit of blame, considering they had a World Club Championship before FIFA did. I remember in the mid-'90s the Perth Wildcats playing the Houston Rockets in an edition of that tourny(a good 5-6 years before the football one where South Melbourne played ManU & Vasco da Gama). Then it was discontinued :(

(Just went on Wiki & apparently FIBA has not one, but 2 such tournaments in the works...here's hoping there's NBA/EuroLeague/NBL representation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIBA_World_Club_Championship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIBA_Intercontinental_Cup)

The NBL has to do what the FFA has done and scrap everything and start from scratch. Make new teams maybe as states like Netball. The problem is theres so many other sports that Basketball is way down on the pecking order.
They should make a team for each state / territory.
WA, SA, NSW, QLD, VIC, ACT, TAS, NZ,NT. 8 Team competition.

But then again the NBL has always had a reputation for woeful administration. They had a golden opportunity to anchor basketball as a major sport in Australia in the 90s and they shot themselves in the foot. Later in the 2000s they made further gaffs by including the Singapore Slingers in the NBL, which was mind boggling to say the least.

Edited by SocaWho: 17/7/2014 07:16:43 PM

Edited by SocaWho: 17/7/2014 07:19:09 PM

They would if anyone here gave a shit about basketball (outside the NBA)

Yep for club sides . Fiba knows basketball will get a shot in the arm if an Asians champs league happens . But want b.a to do it for some reason , even though the money is in China

Terrible idea.

Why?...they tried to reboot the NBL a few years ago with the same teams and it didn't work. Brisbane don't even have a team anymore.

Edited by SocaWho: 17/7/2014 08:15:53 PM

Enough about the negatives

I saw the Larry O'Brien trophy in Sydney this afternoon

Damn you!.

I saw a funny thing where Patty Mills and Baynsey gatecrashed an AFL reporter on TV and the reporter gave Mills a shove.

Stupid typical AFL reporter....probably hasn't been outside of Melbourne. Dumbass.

[youtube]vgafjoKe3Lo[/youtube]

Edited by SocaWho: 17/7/2014 09:05:20 PM

Because all these teams already have core bases (Yes they may not be large but its a platform to build upon) The idea of coming along destroying all this is ridiculous & will be a costly process, on the hope that they'll attract new fans as well as retaining the old. Can anyone really see the current fans of the 36ers, Kings, Wildcats, etc, coming back to support the South Australia Rays, Western Australia Tornadoes or the NSW Sharks. :oops: :oops: :oops: No its a silly idea.

The NBL and basketball as a whole needs to work on its administration, review what went wrong & establish realistic goals for the future.

Tbh not sure if I agree with him that basketball has more international stars than football.

My mate has a dog named boomer.

Does your mates Boomer have a sponsor?

You have a valid point. If you place someone like John O'Neill or someone similar to Frank Lowy to overhaul the NBL then obviously its a cheaper revamp than starting from scratch.
As I mentioned in my previous post, NBL administration has been a sore point for a long time.
But Im still not convinced that the supporter base is big enough to cater for all these teams. Im not saying they don't exist but at the moment the attendances are pretty poor and have been for a long time.

Edited by SocaWho: 18/7/2014 09:47:25 AM

Well he does get food, accom and general health stuff supplied for free...

The only Boomer that matters is this one:

If its not NBA, people don't care about it
Boomers and opals only get a fair run come Olympics/commonwealth games time

A bit like the Socceroos back in the 90s and early 2000s. :lol: