As the sport of basketball shows some signs of recovering from a decade of trouble and negativity, it is now time for companies who profit immensely from our sport here in Australia to assist with the rebirth of our game and the pending growth in popularity on all levels.
Over this past weekend i watched and was involved in several basketball games ranging from under 12 domestic girls basketball to Championship boys to Big V finals. What i noticed was that there are a lot of kids playing the sport and they were all wearing runners. "Der" i hear you think to yourself. The two most dominant brands of footwear were by far Nike for the boys and ASICS for the girls. 
Lets take the boys from under 16 Championship game as a test case, of the 20 boys involved in this game, 19 were wearing high priced Nikes. The average price was $220. This equates to a gross spend of $4,180 for one game for shoes that might last 3 months. Lets say 4 months. If these boys purchase say three pairs a year of say and average of $200, then this is a spend for two teams of $11,400 over two teams. Lets reduce this to say $5,000 per team given consideration to discounts and other factors. Nike would gross say $2,800 per team for the year and profit after cost of goods might be say $1,800 per team per year at this level. This is from one team.Arguably a fair asssumption.
ASICS is the dominate footwear brand for girls playing basketball. Ironically the girls playing basketball are wearing a netball shoe. ASICS shoes that the girls wear are called Netburners and they retail for less than the price of the Nike example i have recently mentioned, however there is a healthy profit margin and ASICS like Nike are making a bucket load of cash from basketball here in Australia. With the sport always short of money, the likes of Nike and ASICS could take hero status if they start to support the sport with some hard earned.
Several years ago i was in a situation whereby i was chasing sponsorship from Nike and also ASICS. At that time they clearly stated that Nike's marketing budget goes into Soccer and Australian rules football and ASICS management suggested that they cannot figure out the Basketball market and are not really involved in basketball. Rubbish!
Now that our sport is on the improve from a perception point of view and is now on the rise with a better understanding of the business elements, it is time for these companies and like companies to throw their power and a percentage of their massive profits back into our sport. It is just not right that Nike can ignore the needs of our sport in regards to sponsorship and financial assistance when they profit massively from the participants. It is irresponsible of ASICS to dominate the footwear market of basketball and put all of their resources into Netball and running.
Nike and ASICS have such a hold on the market that the kids will keep on buying their products regardless of  if they support the sport with a marketing budget, but in true spirit of the movie "the Castle" the vibe of these multi nationals taking and not giving anything back is a "Bad Vibe". It just does not seem right.
So to Mr Nike and Mrs ASICS, it is time to do the right thing by the great sport of basketball and put some support back into the game. Perhaps you could support the NBL or WNBL. Perhaps you could support the governing bodies. Perhaps it is with the sub leagues. Ultimately, you have an obligation to asssist the people who are buying your products en masse. Time to be a leader and support Australia.

The Youth League final for the BIG V finals have been on over the past few weeks and i went along to the Diamond Valley/Melbourne Tigers finals to support the boys. Congratulations to Diamond Valleys boys for taking out the final first of all but the point of the article is to say how passionate and how hard these young fellas play their basketball.
Both teams were locked in a fierce battle where winner takes all and both teams in this particular final were worthy of winning, purely based on their intensity and drive.
It made me think of the American model of the NBA and College system and i could not help but draw parallels between this level of basketball and the NBL. Well done to all involved and if you are looking for some entertaining basketball in the future, get along to the Big V, the SEABL and the kids who come through the various ranks at local level. Well done to all involved and once again congrats to Diamond Valley

Andrew Gaze recently spent some time in Singapore are the Youth Olympics and he along with other stars of our game were able to experience shooting ffrom the new three point range. His reaction was that the extra distance will sort out who the real perimeter shooters are in the NBL. Apparently the new three point range is approximately 30cm or so.
So the question is, who are the real shooters in the NBL for this upcoming season?????????

Ok. at the time of writing it is four days away from the World Championship starting and based on some research with world basketball experts mixed with current pre tournament form and assuming that rosters go through to the Tourny uninjured, here are my pool predictions up until cross over stage................
Pool A..1. Argentina, 2Australia, 3. Serbia, 4. Germany, 5Angola and 6. Jordan
Pool B and the predicted finish will be 1. USA, 2.Croatia, 3. Brazil, 4. Slovenia, 5. Tunisia and 6. Iran.
Cross over for Australia will be Brazil in my humblest opinion.......then what happens from there will be anyone's guess....
Hold on for what will be a great tournament.

Leroy Loggins must be the coolest American to ever come to our shores. I have always thought that DMac has been the coolest bloke to ever come here but after reading some quotes from the great man Leroy Loggins in relation to the reintroduction of a NBL team in Brissy, i have to change my vote to Leroy. Sorry Mac.
I was not there at the recent meeting in Brisbane where Leroy pulled together a group of business people to discuss the new team from Brisbane, but i can imagine Leroy sitting there at the head of the table and in the spirit of the movie "The Castle" saying to the potential investors "Man, we just gotta have a team in this league. So, who is in?"
I was fortunate enough to play a season with Leroy Loggins and many seasons against him and as a player i have always been amazed at what he can do. what makes the Leroy Loggins phenomenon more special is how people react to him and his overwhelming coolness and presence. As basketball people we have been lucky to have such a man come to our country and his involvement back in the NBL would be a great thing to happen.
Lets hope that the great man can pull together good people who want to be involved in our great sport for all of the right reasons.........man.

It seems like every time i read a story or speak to someone about basketball here in Australia, it is met with negativity or furrowed brow. I have also been guilty perpetuating negative comments about our game also, mostly with the hope that there would be some healthy debate and that out of a constructive argument may arise some resolution, however perhaps it is time to start telling the Australian sports world all of hte grerat things about basketball.
I remember an interview of Paul Hogan many years ago, i do not recall the interviewer or the exact words but the message was this, Australia is such a great place that we do not need to go out tell people about it, because people will come here because it is grouse.....(not sure if Paul said grouse, but i hope you get the point).
Basketball is in my opinion the best sport in the world and we as people involved in it need to adopt the "Paul Hogan Philosophy" with one small change, the change is that we need to start telling people about it.
On this web site last night, i was able to watch the Boomers play the Chinese National team and it was reported that between 40 - 50 million people watched that game. that is lots of people. The upcoming world championships will be viewed by a billion people, the sport locally here is as popular as ever, today here at my offices at MSAC, there are ten courts busy all day with kids playing, yesterday the greats of our sport Andrew Gaze, Mark Bradtke, Michele Timms and Alison Tranquilly held a clinic for kids who were affected by bushfires over the years, public use stadiums here in Victoria (sorry for being victoria centric, but that is where i live) are at capacity every night of the week and there is demand for more venues.
Our Mens team is ranked 11th in the world and our womens team ranked second, we have players playing in college and in Europe and in the NBA and WNBA, we have coaches all over the world being leaders in their fields and our wheelchair teams are winning medals for their achievements in international tournys.
And in addition to all of these great stories, i heard of a recent story where a group of under 16 boys were riding a tram in the city here in Melbourne when another passenger had a fit of sorts, the rest of the tram vacated and our basketball boys stayed and rendered support until the Ambulance arrived. they then went on to win the National junior classic that weekend. Point is that the sport of basketball is playing a role in bringing up good citizens also.......
How can we get gthe word out to the masses that our sport is doing great things around the world and also here in Australia? i do not necessarily know the answer, but perhaps a start is to start thinking positively about the sport and the people who are involved in it.
A national registry for good basketball stories could start here on the gaze site..............thoughts please...!

Every day i buy the local newspaper here in Melbourne and search through the rag for some news on basketball. Invariably there is no news or space dedicated to the sport except for some team scores from the SEABL or the Big V. Sometimes there might be something about Lauren Jackson or Andrew Bogut playing well wherever they are in the world and during the NBL season, there will be some game reports from some junior reporter which esssentially tells what the final scores were and who was subbed in and out. Reports which lack any insight or understanding of the game.
In the same newspaper that I scan each day, there is literally hundreds of stories surrounding the AFL and the players and the clubs and injuries and who is in the side and who is out off the side and coaches bagging other coaches and media people having a crack at each other and rankings of who is the best player and how will this team beat that team etc etc and i hope that you get my point. Recently one of Australia's leading players Matt Neilsen who played for the Sydney Kings and for the past several years has been playing in Europe, signed with one of the big four clubs in Europe, Olympiakos. This is and should be massive news for both him and for basketball here in Australia. Validation of the strength of our development programs here in Australia and a great story for basketball. This is truly something to be celebrated and promoted as a good news story for our sport but in the media there has been little or no noise about this. The only media i have seen about this is a sub article on the NBL web site.
Now this next point i hope is not taken the wrong way, but over the course of the past several weeks, i have received many press releases about the under 17 Australian girls team and the efforts and results of the Wheel chair basketball teams, and this is great news, and this has been duly celebrated, but from a media grabbing perspective, an issue which i believe is the sports biggest problem currently, these press releases will not get any more than a bi line in major newspapers. Where are the reports and promotion of the fact that Neilsen is with Olympiakos. Has there been any press releases or contact editors to promote this achievement. How can we capitalise on the good news regarding Neilsen. Furthermore, where is the debate and fire regarding the wrolds coming up in Turkey. How do we generate some conversation about this pending event? What should we expect? who should be in the team? what structure is Brett Brown going to have his team run? Where might the Boomers have an edge over other teams?
What is the strategy for BAsketball Australia to get some articles for me to read in Herald Sun or the Age here in Melbourne.............. or is there a strategy at all?

On the back end of the Socccer World Cup, basketballs show case of the World Championships is seeing many of the worlds best not put their hands up to be involved and represent thier country. Excuses such as "busy Schedule" or "uninsurable contract" or even simply "unavailable" has popped up from our own Nathan Jawai as reasons for not being able to play for their country.
The USA team will have some great players and will no doubt be the highlight for the tournament but many of the top line players from the worlds best league the NBA will not be playing. Indeed the highest profile player will be the brilliant Kevin Durant and he alone will be worthwhile tuning in for, but apart from him there appears to be not too many big names putting their hand up to play for their country.
Dirk Nowitki has pulled out of the tourny and will not represent his Germany.Ginoboli will not be there to represent Argentina and Gasol not representing Spain.
With this in mind, David Anderson said who will be our starting centre during the worlds said that with many of the big names not playing, that this might present the Boomers with an opportunity to finish high. There are two ways to look at this, the first is to suggest that we can only beat who the other countries put on the floor to represent them. The other way to look at this is that without the big names, this tournament is starting to look second rate.   
Some players who are legitimately injured have a good excuse to not compete but what a shame that the big names do not see these world championships as worthy of their effort, and what a shame that many players seem to put their own personal interest ahead of the honour of playing for their country.
When these players who cannot be bothered playing in this tournament hold their hands to their hearts when they play the national anthem at domestic games, will they feel any dishonour or guilt for not making the efffort when their country needed them.  I would suggest not.

The World Championships are coming up in mid August and Brett Brown is putting his team together to represent our country. As a basketball public, what should our expectations of this tournament for the Boomers be? Is there any debate on what would be considered a successful tournament for our country and what would not be considered a successful tournament for our country? Acknowledging that Bogut and Maric will not play and Matty Neilsen's availability is apparently undecided, should we expect much more than finishing between say 8th to 12th? 

As a show of strength, the NBL is advertising the membership for the A League on the home page of the NBL's web site.
Wonder if the A League would support basketball as much the NBL is supporting theirs.