It is an unfortunate thing to happen to the stars especially for the players and coach.

However on another note it may be a good thing for the Harbour Heat who would have beeen playing them in the second quarter final as in recent games against the stars they havn't really played their best but now playing taranaki they will want to make up for the last game where they lost to them. Should be an interesting game and hopefully the best outcome will come

One difference will be that the Heat are now playing a team who've travelled to their venue rather than just playing their cross-town rivals.

Surely the Stars sponsors and team wouldn't stand for a decision like this? You work all season long and can't give the post-season a shot because someone doesn't want to pay $15k?

Wow. Good to see the L have some balls.

Isaac, I've always been curious, how much do players get paid over there?

On a given team, the number of players being paid any significant amount would vary - maybe 3-6 paid and then the rest getting petrol money. I'd guess a number get around $5-30k (trainings are usually in the evenings, so players have time to work or study during the day).

I'd guess that the top players by talent or reputation could get more, but I'd be taking wild(er) guesses there.

You'd think that the teams with stronger fan bases could have more to offer. Hard to know. Then, Harbour Heat, for example, get fairly meagre crowds of a few hundred, but seem to have strong corporate support. Went to a Waikato game the other week and they might've had 800 fans there (and it was televised!), while some of the other teams can get 2-3,000 people to a game, I'm told.

It's a good option for NBL players wanting to keep working during the off-season, though there is the restriction that teams can only have two restricted players which limits the influx of Australians.

Would have probably been preferable to pull them from the league BEFORE the finals; as that is basically a proverbial "finger to the eye" of the Stars players.

If something of that magnitude were to happen in the NBL, you'd have to consider the kind of flak the league would get due to it (especially in the instances of teams like Sydney or Brisbane). You'd want to save decisions like that til after the finals.

They had a lot of warnings and opportunities to pay up though.

Watch the NBL play hard-ball with the Sydney Kings this week. Licence gets revoked on Wednesday.

Hey Isaac, what are the annual fees for an NBL team to the league? I would have thought an NBL team would have to pay $X for an initial licence and then say $Y/yr to cover the "admin" of the league (eg refs etc)

For our NBL in Australia? No idea to be honest but I'd say you're right about the initial cost and then yearly fees. A new license could be $1m. Some recent teams have bought in cheaply by picking up abandoned licenses (e.g., Hunter) I think for a few hundred thousand perhaps?

An update on the news over here in NZ. The Auckland Stars have be re-instated into the nznbl playoffs on a technicality. After an 11 hour protest.

Not sure how i feel on this especially since the team that was to replace the stars has already made the journey to Auckland in anticipation in playing and now have to hand it back to the stars.
If you want to read the article on it go to:
http://www.basketball.org.nz/news/stars-return/

On another note, Isaac how did you find the game in Waikato the other week, it sure was an interesting game to watch and it was a bit on the cold side to.

The highlight of the Waikato game has to be watching the post game dismantle of the court, who would have thought that brown packing tape had so many uses.

Stars' lawyers have got them back in - dodgy stuff. And it comes after Taranaki players had changed holiday plans and flown to Auckland for the game. Pay up or get lost, I say.

Aims, Pistons game was good, especially following the side that won! Crowd filled up a bit and made some noise. Good level of talent on show.