Julius Hodge’s return to the Adelaide 36ers last round may be just as influential to the future of Australian basketball as any recommendation in the recent Henderson report.
Hodge may not have turned around his team’s fortunes on the court – the Sixers lost back-to-back games against Sydney and South Dragons – but his signing appears to be a boon for the club off the court.
A crowd of 5358 turned out to the Distinctive Homes Dome for Saturday night’s clash with the South Dragons, a healthy figure considering the home team entered the game with a 5-8 record and Adelaide United were playing simultaneously at Hindmarsh Stadium. All this came off the back of a week where there was a genuine buzz in the city about a club that, on the back of just one signing, appeared to have regained its mojo. “Lights, camera, title – Julius sets the scene”, “Julius seizes interest surge”, and “Importing the WOW factor” were just some of the headlines during the week in the Adelaide Advertiser. A similar turnaround occurred last season when Hodge joined the team late in the competition, with Sixers crowds soaring from 3500 to 7000.
The significance for basketball as a whole is the consequent question of how much effort, if any, should be put into using imports to leverage greater interest in the game from next season. Considering Basketball Australia will now have some control of the national league, it is expected that most of the marketing budget will be spent on top local players. But surely the case of Hodge cannot be overlooked. The Advertiser’s veteran basketball reporter Boti Nagy went as far as writing last Monday:
“So there is my recommended import formula for each new franchise in 2009-10.
One workmanlike, quality import such as Adam Ballinger and one high-octane entertainer such as Julius Hodge.
Or TWO entertainers… “
Signing these bona fide entertainers could be made possible by the recent report’s recommendation that the new league should allow a marquee player outside of the salary cap (although, the league’s considering not having a salary cap at all). It’s a policy that has been used effectively in the A-League, with Dwight Yorke instrumental in generating hype prior to the inaugural season and Adelaide United going as far as releasing a special membership package for games featuring Romario.
This must not mean trying to turn the sport into a circus, however, for that will gradually kill the league’s credibility. For example, the South Dragons tried to lure Dennis Rodman to play an exhibition game on the eve of last season. While this would have gained some column inches and potentially filled Hisense Arena, if it was to infiltrate into the home-and-away season it would make the league look more like a traveling American road show than a serious sporting competition. But if clubs were to use the marquee player rule to import legitimate, flamboyant entertainers near the prime of their careers, it would go a long way in seeing crowds swell.
It is worth considering the following quotes from Richard Cashman’s book Paradise of Sport. Writing in 1995 – the apex of the NBL’s popularity – Cashman attempts to explain basketball’s success in Australia:
“The growth of American sports [in Australia] undoubtedly reflects the decline of the English connection and a greater interest in things American or things modern and global.”
“It is also possible that the game [basketball] has become popular because Australian teams feature a large number of African-Americans. Black entertainers, whether they be musicians or sportspeople, have long held a special place in Australian society and have enjoyed a greater measure of acceptance than in North America.”
This interest in Americana certainly hasn’t waned in Australia since this book was written. Hollywood blockbusters continue to gross millions, television schedules and Top 40 music charts still feature a strong American flavour, we still eat at fast-food franchises and the schoolgirl at the bus stop still pronounces literally as “litter-ra-lee.”
Yet, paradoxically, so many Australians seem to dismiss basketball as being “too American.”
It’s time to make the NBL, and its imports, “hip” again.
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Interesting points. From a pure basketball perspective, all I care is if my team wins. I am in favour of the feature player idea. If a team can afford to pay David Anderson to pay 3 games, they should.
Great read dude! I always like your work
Make sure that you write more
This is sort of what I was getting at a couple of post ago – ‘flash’ should be something that basketball is comfortable with. This import player rule is a good way to do this, but I think you overestimate the success of the marquee in A-League. I think it has been a moderate success, not the be all and end all. The Dwight Yorke thing was good, I think it worked, as it should in Sydney. Sydney is a far more superficial market, it sometimes takes something like that to bring crowds in up there. Melbourne’s marquee, Archie Thompson, is not an elite player, but he has the flash, the goals, the big performances to his name. He’s only on 250K a year. Currently Sydney FC’s marquee, John Aloisi, is the highest paid footballer in the country, and has been pretty lukewarm since he moved to those scumbags. Sure he scored against Melbourne at the Dome (goddamn him) but he has been coming off the bench a bit until recently.
The new NQ Fury team has signed defender Jade North as their marquee. Clearly ‘North goes North’ was a far too enticing headline. But a defender is not going to draw punters. Archie Thompson does, but North will not. The marquee needs to be an entertainer, I agree. But some owners are using them to slot their highest paid player into and help with the salary cap, not really for bringing in a flash import.
Simply creating this option doesn’t mean teams will use it correctly.
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