Old School Merchandise

After years of carrying former teams apparel from State to State from the many teams i ended up playing for and the need to make some room for a new edition to the family, i went through the bags and bags of team clothes i had and decided to hand them on. It's hard to give away some of those items that bring back some good memories but after being reminded i still had TWO LARGE bags full of memories i thought who would like some NBL and Boomers gear. Also being a little shorter than most basketballers plenty of the clothes i had received over time hadn't fit so there was some nice pickups that had never been worn. I decided the boys from The West Adelaide Mens basketball team might like some gear so i headed out to training with the goods. As you'll see by the photos if the Crocs get up and win the Championship Shane Crothers will be sitting in front of the TV ready as their number one supporter! I think a throw back retro basketball night might be on the cards for the boys soon and if we do I've still got some gear left that the boys didn't want and I'm sure the 4XL orange, blue and white silky snap off tracky pants might make an appearance.

My take on Julius being back

Since Julius Hodge last left our shores in the middle of the 2008/09 season, I have said to a few people that he was the worst teammate I’d ever had on my team throughout my basketball career.

Is Julius a bad person? No he’s not. Did Julius give you everything he had on game night? Absolutely yes during his first season here in Adelaide, but the second season hmmmm - most of the time.

Julius mark 2 came in so much fanfare that you can see why he was so self centreed and deluded and I think a big factor for his attitude was he didn’t want to be here after being so close to fulfilling his NBA dream. The tech fouls, not getting back on defence and general attitude when things were going bad really hurt him in the face of the team. When a guy that really did like you say that you were a cancer for the team you gotta start to think it’s you mate, not the rest of the world that has the problem! I think the Adelaide 36ers were at fault to start the disintegration of the relationship but Julius was at fault there after but not once has he said he wished he’d done something differently so he could’ve stayed in this place that he claims to love so much. I’m pretty sure he was getting some bad advice from his American agent too (and not the first person that has had that, Schensch?).

I think it’s sad that Julius is back. He is easily the most talented player I’ve played with, but is he the best player I’ve played with? No but he should be. Make no mistake about it Julius is going to come back to Australia and put up big numbers and be in the top 3 players in the league. Do you know how good you have to be to score 25 a game and put up the numbers he does with that ridiculously bad shooting style and flat shot? It was like Anna Kournikova - her serve was the worst in women’s tennis but she was still in the top 10 in the world because the rest of her game was so good. I could say that Julius is like Kournikova and isn’t a winner but I never got a championship, so you know what they say about people in glass houses……

Everyone knew Julius and I didn’t quite see eye to eye as we are polar opposites, yet also surprisingly similar. We are both smart arses who liked getting a rise out of people. I would shoot and hit a few threes in a row and say to Julius “if you had this shot you’d be earning five million a year right now” and he would call me ‘mini me’ and enjoyed dropping some short jokes any chance he got. But that’s where the similarities end. Julius worked harder in the gym during his second season here and did spend time shooting, but this was after sitting out the parts of practice he didn’t want to participate in. I personally didn’t want to shoot with Julius after training because I’d already had my workout and didn’t need more fitness work rebounding all his misses. Besides, I would get up more game type shots in 30 mins as he would get up standing still shooting in an hour.

I’ll be interested to see whether Julius has learnt anything since he left and whether he returns with a better attitude. It will be interesting to see if he helps the Tigers get better or whether he still thinks the world revolves around his every move. Either way it’ll be good to watch!!

My Don Lane story

With the passing of Don Lane I thought I'd share my story about him as a few others have. This is one of my favourite stories to flash back to with my mates and is made so much better because it involves a celebrity like Don Lane.

It starts with good friends of mine Steve and Marty Smith. Steve was a teammate of mine at Grafton and his older brother Marty was playing for the Under 20 basketball team that Don coached in Sydney while he was going to uni. Marty and Don weren’t seeing eye to eye on Marty’s courtime during a tournament at Bankstown Stadium and Steve and I were watching the game scouting, as they were in the same pool as us in the tournament. We were standing on the baseline on court 2 when during a timeout Don has ripped into Marty and told him he was off for a turnover or bad shot, I’m not sure and subbed someone else in.

Marty ripped off his singlet and threw it in Don’s face and started to storm off and leave the court. Don jumped up and chased after Marty with half the team trying to hold Don back but he had already got to Marty and had hold of him. As usual I thought that my negotiating skills should be used in this tense situation and I ran out on to the court to lend a hand to Marty as he seemed a little out matched. There was quite a bit of swearing going on as I got to where the action was and from what I’d seen, Don needed to be spoken to in a not so pleasant manner. I got involved in the verbal sparring but I hadn’t seen Marty throw the singlet in Don’s face! My bad.

We got Marty to the change room and the Sydney team managers came in to get Marty’s uniform back from him as he was off the team.....it didn't take long he only had to return his shorts.

We had to play the Sydney team the next day and my team the Grafton Vikings were completely out matched and predicted to get an absolute hiding. Actually I don't think we'd won a game in the touranment yet. We weren’t helping ourselves with our pre-match preparations and the fact we turned up to our game with about 5 minutes left on the clock in warm-ups due to a late night team meeting at the hotel lobby bar. With Marty sitting on our bench we'd decided at the team meeting to take it up to Don and the city boys and we went about dismantling his former team. A few of us got going and after I hit a pull up 3 pointer in transition in the first half (yes half, it was a while ago) to get us up by around 15, Sydney called a time out. Our team was jumping like the cocky 18-19 year olds that we were and headed to the bench with plenty of conversation (trash talk), physical gestures (crouch grabbing) and general immature over the top banter directed at Don and the opposition bench. This was a time long long ago when you could talk it up and push the limits without getting a tech foul and it was getting a little unruly. They slowly chipped away at our lead but we held our nerve and limped over the line for a memorable victory. Don was gracious in defeat and all was left on the court.

The next day the finals started and we were handed a 40 point hiding by a team I can’t remember (it's funny how you remember the good wins but forget the bad losses!) while Sydney moved their way through the tournament. We’d play our grand final the previous day and all had a great story to tell.

Neil Mottram to the Swedish league

My good mate Neil Mottram has landed on his feet and joined former South Dragon Rhys Carter's team playing in the Swedish basketball league. Neil's first game coincided with Gothia Basket's first win of the season as he had a solid 12pts and 11rebs. Unfortunately he got in foul trouble in his teams second game as their record now drops to 1-5.
Rhys looks like he's settled in well to the league and is averaging close to 15 points a game.

Check it out here http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=SWE&Team=3248

My 1st game at the Dome as a spectator

Last Friday night i went with my daughter to my first NBL game as a spectator. I'd hit up my assistant coach at West Adelaide Paul Bell for some tickets and he said Scott Ninnis had a few spare tickets we could use. At the last minute my great buddy Russ Hinder let me know he'd also organised a couple of tickets for us. I didn't know what it'd be like turning up with no perks like a special car park pass, although it was smooth sailing as we got through very quickly. Up to the ticket booth and I start thinking I should use the tickets Ninny's organised in case he checks up and thinks i'm rude not to turn up after he's looked after me. At the booth the lady asks my name, I tell her and she says well "sorry there's none here for you". She asked who organised the tickets and I told her Scott had, she pretty muched laughed in my face. I heard a few people giggle as I moved away with my tail between my legs. I went to the corporate door and there was no tickets for me there either(Scott, I'm a slow learner but I get it now you don't want me around). Some SOS members ended up looking after us and couldn't be helpful enough as they tracked down my back up contact(thanks Russ!) tickets which were in an awesome spot 10 rows back and mid court behind the Crocs bench.
Now to the game....awesome! The point guard battle was obviously a highlight and neither disappointed offensively. Their defence wasn't quite top notch but i don't think it had anything to do with either of them not wanting to get after each other. It was the way the refs are calling the game and if they had tried to play some more physical defence and happened to breath on each other they would've been sitting down in foul trouble quickly. I was impressed with Gilchrist passing in transition and i think when Matt Burston gets back he'll make a living running the lane with him. It was also the most focused I'd seen Homicide, there was no showboating just all head down bum up eye on the win basketball. Darren Ng's shooting was awesome and when the game was there to be won the stars stood up. Adam Ballinger's shot was as reliable as ever in the last few minutes and Gilchrist hit two massive shots after not looking like scoring outside the key way for the first 39 minutes, it was Rob Roseish and that's a big compliment.
All in all a great night even though i thought Zoe's cheering for Russ's good shooting might get us gob full from someone we were treated well. Actually we did get a few passing comments but they were all positive and the guy who yelled out "Davidson would've taken a charge on that play" at the top of his voice knowing i'd hear, i owe you a beer!

National Under 14 girls club championships.

The under 14 girls club championships are on in Perth at the moment and my daughter Zoe is taking her place for Perry Lakes Hawks. She's missed a game with sore knees and also through having a mild concussion after having her legs knocked out from under her and landing on her neck! The finals have started though and she's battling on.
If you'd like to see what's happened or happening at the championships check out http://www.sportingpulse.com/comp_info.cgi?a=ROUND&round=1&client=1-4101-0-97516-0&pool=1

Coaching will be important this NBL season

With only the 8 teams in the NBL this season and the teams playing each other 4 times coaching is going to be even more important this season. Why do I think this? Well teams may be playing each other twice in a week or very close together turning these match ups into mini playoff series and it’s hard to keep beating the same team over and over again because complacency can set in. Making adjustments, targeting where you went wrong, or right and getting your match-ups right can make the difference.
There looks as though there are three categories with the head coaches this season. New or newish coaches( Aaron Fearne, Scott Ninnis, Rob Beveridge),experienced coaches with new teams (Joey Wright, Gordie Mcloed )and guys that have had a chance to put their stamp on a group (Al Westover, Trevor Gleeson and Andre Lemanis).
The team from "Shabangabang" otherwise known as NZ and Lemanis are in a great position. Their roster is not only settled but them, Melbourne and the Dragons were the teams that got the most out of their system last season. Melbourne now has a bit of a new look and the Dragons have obviously dropped out so i think NZ starts a step ahead. When i comes to attacking a zone, doubling a dominant post player or taking advantage of a certain match-ups they should already have a plan in place that the players are familiar with and not have to have a week of training to use it affectively in a game.
People often say how much effect does a coach have on a game? Well the teams that i believe are well coached are ones that get easy shots from a player standing still and passing to someone for an open shot or lay up or teams that get easy shots from their out of bounds plays. This doesn't take talent to do, just repetition and attention to the right detail of running an offence.