Passion the key in ridding Sydney of its sins

 

“Bringing the game into disrepute” is one of many buzz phrases bandied about by sporting administrators these days when reprimanding players or coaches.

 

In the National Basketball League’s case, however, it is not a player, coach or official who must be found guilty as charged of this offence.

 

Instead, it is the city of Sydney – Sin City by name and nature. The character and perception of the NBL has taken a battering over the past 12 months, and it has been Sydney where the most debilitating work has been done. First it was the controversial Tim Johnston, who fled the country after killing off the Sydney Kings and leaving players, coaches and staff out of pocket, not to mention the duped investors of his Firepower company. 

 

Now we have Greg Evans, owner of the Sydney Spirit, issued with a default notice after threatening to place his team into administration. The circumstances in which Evans handled the situation have again tarnished the competition’s integrity. According to Basketball Australia interim CEO Scott Derwin, Evans only informed the league of his decision by email, in which he said he would not communicate with them by telephone. It seems he couldn’t even muster the respect, or decency, to explain his decision to the playing group, nor coach Rob Beveridge who was only told by League CEO Chuck Harmison two days later.

 

The timing of this for Australian basketball couldn’t have been worse. After the recent unanimous vote for reform, it seemed the sport’s shattered reputation was finally being mended with the news of Fox Sports’ $35m offer to show every live from next season. Yet, just 3 weeks later, the media’s narrative of basketball is back to being a sport in ‘crisis.’ Sydney can do that to you. Most of the country’s networked media seems to be concentrated in the Harbour City. The Daily Telegraph, for example, is notorious for being the most sensationalist tabloid newspaper in Australia. Its coverage last week of the Spirit’s ordeal was damning, with a double page spread featuring the predictable “basket case” headline and a tombstone saying “RIP Sydney Basketball”. The Telegraph’s basketball writer, Tim Morrissey, has become infamous within basketball circles for his hyperbole and, when his copy is picked up by other News Limited papers around the country, Sydney’s woes are unfairly seen as being representative of the entire league.

 

This is not to say that the league should just make its life easier by abandoning the city when the composition of the New NBL is decided. The Herald Sun’s Grantley Bernard wrote last week:

 

“Sydney has forfeited the right to any team in the new competition. Multi-millionaires have thrown good money after bad at the NBL and the result is one near-death team in the city.”

 

But, despite the fact that it has brought so much shame to the sport, Sydney remains Australia’s most populous city; and it’s the home of Fox Sports. If the New NBL is to have any chance of hitting the scene next year with a new perception, a healthy Sydney team should be a priority. This is the case for any sport wishing to have a legitimate national competition. The NRL can get away with not having representation outside of the Eastern coast because regionalism has been its adjunct since its inception. The northern states have always been the strong hold of Rugby League, just as Victoria is the home of Australian Rules. Basketball’s popularity, however, is dispersed, meaning national must truly mean national.

 

Knowing this, the league will no doubt do its “due diligence” to ensure any future Sydney team (likely to be a reborn Sydney Kings) is viable. It will apply the new criteria, such as a $1m bank guarantee and  $500,000 in paid-up capital. But the most important criterion will be intangible: passion. This past week we’ve heard Dragons co-owner Mark Cowan describe himself during a Fox Sports broadcast as a “cat on a hot tin roof” when his team plays, and we’ve had Blaze owner Owen Tomlinson tell the Gold Coast Bulletin:

 

“My son Ben and I will continue to back this game until we are broke.

 

But I am very confident that will not happen. This game will survive and prosper.”

 

Contrast that to Johnston – who used the Kings as a vehicle for his dubious Firepower company – and Evans – who has effectively worked against the league’s attempts to help save his club – and we see that it’s passionless owners with overarching agendas who are unworthy of a spot in the new league, rather than the city of Sydney. 

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