Back home

Admit it, you didn’t even know what I’d been away for the last fortnight. Laying in the Turkish sun, apart from the one-day boat trip, without a care in the world but still finding time for a quick rant each day. I always figured that I’d miss a day and then post a picture of where we were with the highly original headline “life’s a beach”. But that never happened, I even managed an article about Ennis Kanter without being slung in a Turkish jail. The streak goes on, it’s day 246.

Obviously I didn’t get away from basketball. The days of getting the fixtures in early May (Nicky used to send them on the Friday before the first bank holiday and cunningly clear off on holiday) are long gone. They now arrive just as the schools break up, so we all spend hours chasing people who are on holiday. It’s not great, and beginning to wonder if I’ll ever get it done.

But it was good to (almost) have a couple of weeks and the Turkish National Day celebrations were a good way to finish yesterday. Now it’s back to basketball.

Money for nothing?

Don’t worry, this isn’t a Dire Straights tribute article, I’m not that desperate to keep The Streak going. Though I should probably listen to “Why Worry” when BE are driving me nuts.

It’s about the fact that there’s even a suggestion that Lakers might burn $47mill by not playing Russell Westbook next season. It was an insane amount of money to offer him, anyway, but it’s an incredible amount to consider paying to not play him. If you believe the projected stats, they’re better off without him – a truly stunning “fact” in itself – but that does assume everything goes to plan. Pat Beverly isn’t exactly a spring chicken, but once Russ is told it’s over, it really is over.

If this was football he’d be packed off on loan somewhere for a fraction of his wage, but that’s not possible in the NBA.

You’d think, at the very least, they’ve give it until Christmas to see if the latest bloke who’s coaching future lays in LeBron’s hands can make it work.

It seems incredible that a guy may end up sitting at home next season earning $900k a week.

This shouldn’t happen

I was skimming through the newly loaded NBL tables the other day. There’s an argument I should find better things to do with my time, especially as we’re nearly the end of the school holidays and I guess I’m going to have to return to fake teaching, but I don’t have to defend myself – I like looking at league tables. Even when there’s been no games.

Anyway, I noticed that Division Three North is down to just seven teams. how this happened, I’m not sure because it’s not even a small region, stretching from Sheffield to Newcastle & Teesside. Clearly teams have withdrawn, even BE wouldn’t put together a seven team region when the other six D3s have 10-12 teams, but the real crime is that the seven teams are only playing each other twice. Twelve games is a pitiful amount for a national league team. Teesside Lions appear to be building something worthwhile with big crowd, now they have six home games.

This is where there seems no sign of proactiveness from our NGB. No NBL teams should be playing less that 18 games, if a league goes below nine teams, they should be automatically scheduling a third round of fixtures. It shouldn’t be discussion, no BE emails in August asking clubs question they know won’t get answered. Getting the U16 South 1 division to play each other three times last year was beyond painful. And it only happened because I’m an annoying fucker, This is basic level stuff, it’s insane that teams at the same level are playing anything between 12 and 22 games. They all pay the same amount to play in the National League, where’s the value for Lions playing in what is basically a glorified Trophy group?

There’s just no interest from BE. I expect there are loads of short-handed divisions, I’ve only done limited research but several U-14 boys divisions look very small.  I’ve arranged a couple of pre-season games for the girls against Cambridge Cats. Their U-16s have a massive ten games. That’s pathetic. That’s not why you enter the National League, I think Cait played more than that when plague was rife.

There seems to be no one at our National Governing Body who ever thinks “shit, that division is crap, we need to come up with a solution” . I’m not good enough to do that, and I never expected any different and neither do I intend to complain about it on a regular basis, but it’s basic level stuff:

If you’re going to take people’s money to play basketball, offer them a decent amount of games. I guess it comes down to the fact that the NBL – junior and senior – is simply too big for BE to cope with. They want the fees but they can’t cope with the workload. They need to sit down and come up with a solution, because the system is broken and what their core objective should be – getting a lot people playing a lot of basketball – isn’t happening.

My new team

The press releases for the East Asia Super League just keep dropping into my inbox. How I came to be on this press list is one of life’s mysteries, but it’s thrilling stuff.

But the latest – and apparently final – team to sign up are clearly destined to be my favourites. I bring you the San Miguel Beermen. Not just a basketball club, but they’re beer men, as well. What’s not to like?

And not only a beer-obsessed basketball club, they’re bloody good as well. Because to quote Wiki ” It is the most successful franchise in the history of the PBA and the only remaining original franchise in the league. The Beermen currently lead the league with the most titles (27)^[2] and the most all-time victories (more than 1,200 wins). In addition, it has won the Grand Slam in 1989 and the Perpetual Jun Bernardino Trophy after winning three straight PBA Philippine Cups from 2015 to 2017. It is also the only team to have won at least one PBA title in each of the five numerical decades of the league’s existence and was the first professional basketball team ever to come back from a 0–3 deficit to win a best-of-seven playoff series which they did during the 2015–16 Philippine Cup Finals”.

Fantastic stuff.

They’ve been through a plethora of names, including the Magnolia Ice Cream Makers and the Magnolia Cheese Makers, but always return to Beermen. That’s understandable. I like ice creme. I like cheese. But beer is best.

Further news of the Beermen to follow.

The slow demise of the Trophy

Yesterday’s blog was depressing. Today’s is bordering on farce.

When I came up with the original D1 (L Lynch) Trophy format we were going to have two 4-team southern groups, with teams playing each other twice, and a six teams northern section who played each other once. The top half of each group, together with a lucky loser, would progress to the last eight.

Time dripped away a bit – Covid was a bit of a shit in many ways – and we ended up with four groups of four playing each other once. Which obviously didn’t quite work with a 14-team top division. So we invited the relegated teams. Westminster snapped up the chance, Liverpool couldn’t be arsed, that much had been clear for a time. In the end, best laid plans, went to shit as Covid rules meant that Westminster Warriors couldn’t take part as they weren’t deemed to be professional (somehow their Leicester namesakes were) and we ended up with Myerscough and Charnwood academies taking part. Ipswich put in a reasonable bid as an academy but – and this is an increasingly common theme – my mate Russell Levenston pushed through his club’s third team into the competition. Where they would play in the same group as their second team.

To my shame I was a bit worn down at this point. I just wanted to get the fucking thing going. You know, to actually play some basketball. So Charnwood played.

We got that year done. Russ tried to let Charnwood players play for Loughborough in the quarter-finals, claiming there was no cup-tie rule. I’d gone from the D1 group by then, but after being told by Chris Mellow about this attempt to effectively cheat, I rallied a few troops. It was the last thing I did with D1, going out on a high, eh?

The format was repeated for year two, which sort of made sense, although there was still an argument for inviting Westminster, but I wasn’t around to suggest that one. And I’m sure Mr Levenston was happy with that.

We’re a year on from that now. Westminster have their rightful place having pissed D2 South. And obviously there’s still two “guest sport” available. The obvious invite is either the two D2 runners-up sides or the two that went down. The latter option was chosen – so I’m looking for table officials for Wolves’ home games – but apparently Leicester turned down the offer.

Obviously no other team wanted – or possibly weren’t asked – to take part because the mighty Charnwood Riders are back in it. That’s the Charnwood Riders who won a four-way tie to finish sixth in D2 North. That’s assuming that BE ever got the table correct, because suspiciously the four sides are listed in order of points difference, and we know our NGB struggle with tiebreakers. I don’t even need to link that sad tale of our U16 boys any more.

But regardless of whether Charnwood really came sixth in a 12-team regionalised second tier, they posted the unimpressive record of 9-13. Hardly the stuff that gets you an invite into a top tier competition. Unless you have good old Russ pulling strings, using his influence for his club rather than the good of the game. Again.

We need people to stand up to him. He’s an absolute control freak with little interest in anything at doesn’t benefit Riders.

This is why the NBL is going nowhere.

A sad tale

During the dark days of 2020 the Division One clubs achieved two things.

Actually it was three if you include Cait taking her first steps towards being the youngest fully trained statto in British basketball history. But you probably don’t.

So, number one. We got basketball played. That might seem a very small victory but we really had to fight our national governing body to make that happen. I didn’t know quite what I was starting when I launched a little Whatsapp group one afternoon. It’s possible I was just bored. But it got things moving, and maybe they never would have got moving without it. Because BE were quite happy to throw in the towel and have a year off. I think anyone who dealt with them during those crazy days would agree.

Number two was part of that. We got the National Trophy back. Like trying to play a season despite Covid, this should never have been an issue. But BE tried to get rid of the Trophy in 2015 (I think), they certainly tried again in 2018, and having failed with democracy, they just scrapped it anyway in 2019. It was quite outstanding how much effort out NGB put into staging less basketball. Whether we really needed the Trophy in that crazy season is open to question – especially as we ended up with a reduced league programme – but the clubs were determined that we had one and it was a bit of a power battle as no one was happy with the heavy-handed wat BE were dealing with us.

That’s pretty much all gone to shit now. The D1 committee now has an “independent chairman”, who’s recently been on the BE Board, a representative from BE’s National League Dept and (my pal) Russell Levenston, who’s also on the BE Board. Any thought of a level of autonomy for the NBL’s only pro division have gone. Apparently people have stopped “attending” the online meetings because it’s all pretty much a done deal before they tip off.

And the Trophy’s a mess. Levenston’s attitude toward L Lynch helped end that relationship. Instead there’s a proposed new sponsor, conveniently based in the Leicester area, but it’s a kit supply company and hinges on clubs all agreeing to dump any previous deals and buy kits that are – in many cases – more expensive than they’re currently paying. It means the clubs have to rip up deals with companies that, in some cases, have lasted for years to shell out additional money. The value of two-year deal to each club would have been around 0.5% of Leopards’ annual turnover. That’s not a typo (I’m sure you can find out elsewhere in this rant), half of one percent. And we had a smaller turnover than many of the clubs quoted when numbers were being discussed back in the plague days.

Clubs are being asked to give up their right to decide on their right to decide their kit sponsors for two years for considerably less than the registration fee for a single import player. They also have to put up signage around their court for the Trophy sponsors for the entire season.

They won’t event get the less than “0.5% of Leopards’ turnover” because the costs for the final have to paid for. And you’ll never guess where it is.

It’s Morningside Arena. Where Russell Levenston’s basketball club is based. And it’s not free. So the “0.5% of Leopards’ turnover” becomes a lot less. Because it isn’t cheap. There’s almost a suspicion that it desperately needs some income because Russ can’t generate enough income.

It’s a massive shame. We set out with an initial aim to get a D1 season played. We succeeded. It possibly saved my sanity. Genuinely. But it swiftly because a wish to develop the second tier, to make it into a proper (at least semi)professional league. And Russell’s massive ego together with his desperate need to make money for his venue have pretty push killed it off.

There’s a real possibility the Trophy won’t happen because of this. It’s due to start in under a month and some clubs are flatly refusing to sign up to this. Meanwhile BE flatly refuse to acknowledge the Trophy on their website.

Leopards don’t exist any more . Only I knew that in June 2020 when I got things rolling. Wolves aren’t in D1 any more. I have no horse in the race any more. The chances of D1 becoming BBL II – and the second tier becoming genuinely professional – became much smaller when 777 took over the top flight. But it’s massively disappointing that BE and the walking ego that is Russell Levenston have managed to divide and conquer

I’m relieved I walked away.

One for the Riders fans

History is written by the winners. And the winners when minnows (and one of Leopards II’s two forerunners) Ware Rebels took on Leicester Riders were the Division Two side. In double overtime! Riders’ fans will probably never forgive me for this or indeed this.

But I know they check in on here to check I haven’t been nasty to King Russ or IRF, so this one’s for you chaps:

Plenty more Leopards’ history here, if you’re bored.

Oh Kev

I guess the Empire finally stuck back. Not arguably the shittest movie of the original Star Wars trilogy. But the KD v Nets debacle.

His strop got him nowhere. Kyrie never got a contract extension as a reward for trashing their 21/22 season. Steve Nash is still coach. Sean Marks is still GM. Both were expendable, but still have jobs. The bloke Caitlin (probably me, I’m just unwilling to accept responsibility) named a guinea pig after – and he was a nice piggie – has failed to manipulate an NBA franchise.

All he’s done is take them off national TV coverage, which in turn gives them less money to put good players around him. The bloke who stropped away from Warriors because they loved Steph more – and who wouldn’t? – has struck again.

It’s nice in the era of the superstar to see one of them taken down a notch. I have nothing against Kevin Durant, but those incredibly rich sportspeople (because this isn’t just basketball) who think they’re in charge, don’t always win.

A bit surprising

I doubt anyone who went through the lunacy that was the Aspire South Super-Region will ever forget it. We’re not allowed to discuss it, presumably to protect the guilty – because the innocent don’t need protecting. And we were never told what action was taken against them. So the suspicion will always be that it’s all been conveniently forgotten.

Among the little information we got was that South programme leader (or whatever his title was) Matt Harber was moving on. I didn’t blame Matt for what happened. While he could undoubtedly have done better, he didn’t actually cause the second day’s games to be cancelled.

When I saw his name down as University of East Anglia’s D3 coach in the handbook, I thought that was a bit of a step down. Until he was named as an assistant coach for Riders’ BBL team. That’s a nice step up, he becomes one of the few people to have coached in both the BBL and WBBL.

But here’s the odd thing.

He’s now called Matt Pitkin.

Clearly the trauma of that weekend Manchester – and he avoided that pub – was just too much for him. He’s changed his identity in an effort to put it behind him. I get that.

I now have to decide what my new identity will be. Any suggestions?

This one baffles me

The 2003/4 basketball season was a strange one. There was no Leopards. The long hours that me, Chris Pullem and Fred Dicker put in to save the BBL version proved fruitless. The new version where yet to come, and went under the name of Ware Rebels.

It was also the season that the National Cup underwent a major change. Originally it was effectively the National Championship, played at the end of the season and even when the National League started teams from outside it competed. In 1979 it went a bit of revamp with BBC showing its final in January and it slowly morphed into a BBL+ competition that looked suspiciously like the current BBL Trophy. Except the NBL teams always got a home draw.

The year without Leopards came along and yet another BE/EB v BBL battle came along. EB decided it was one import only in the National Cup. BBL clubs said (to paraphrase) “bollocks” and promptly withdrew. A mass debate (sorry) on Whatsbev followed – that used to happen – and my prediction that the BBL would simply start a cup of their own and grab that January TV slot came to be.

Sheffield Arrow tried to bring in the idea what it was one Yank on the court at a time, which would have been brilliantly chaotic. Meanwhile BE eventually bended to allowing a second import in games between D1 teams and a couple of years ago extended that to two imports allowed in the last eight regardless who was playing. I got that. Losing your second or third best player for a key game didn’t add to the importance of the competition. The idea that you could get to the final but then have to leave out a key player if you were up against a D2 side wasn’t great.

But now we have:

Changes to regulation to 18.2 to permit Division One Mens clubs to field two NONNational players in all rounds of the National Cup and not one until a certain round if playing against Division Two Mens Teams and below. This falls in line with all other sports and allows Division One Men to play at full strength like all other teams in the cup. Newly worded regulation is below and highlighted in yellow is the change and additional wording.

18.2 Subject to the remaining provisions of Regulation 18, a Team shall only be able to field a maximum of one NON-National Type 1 Player listed in appendix 13 in any Match.

In Division One Men for any Match in the League competition a Club can register on the Scoresheet a maximum of two NON-National Type 1 Players (see Appendix 13 for breakdown). In addition, Division One Men’s teams are permitted to play two Non- National Type 1 Players in all rounds of the National Cup competition regardless of the level of team they are to play against, For clarity, teams in Division Two and below can only field One Non National Player should they compete against a Division One Mens Team in the National Cup in any round.

For clarity I’ve bolded up the last bit. Because it’s mental. I know why D1 players were pissed off that they had to leave a key player out, but not letting the other team also have two “imports” is madness.  If you happened to have two non-national (there’s no need to cap up, but a “-” would be correct), there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to match up against a side who have two non-national players. No D2/3 club is going to sign a second “import” to win a game or two in the National Cup. D2 clubs can’t even sign a pro – still pissed with this one – but it;s clearly unfair that a club who happens to have two (maybe if they run sides in D2 & D3) can’t field a second “import” when they get the chance.

I’m utterly baffled why this has happened.