Hm, I thought this was the land of the free...

What Stacker can do to stop good basketball players going overseas, imprison them?

About 8 years ago a very strong move, spearheaded by a recently "retired" long term BA staff personage to change the BA policy for automatic FIBA international clearances for junior players going to US collages , to a policy that would only clear players who had NOT represented their states or Australia in any BA or FIBA sanctioned event. So if you had been to u/14 clubs , u16 nats or a u/19 (u/17) worlds - no US college.

Very Old, are you telling me that FIBA would tolerate someone going against sections of the FIBA policy? It would not last too long in the court. The main reason for bball players to go to a US college is not to play bbal but to STUDY, which is the most important reason for FIBA to allow even transfer between nations. Nobody has right to prevent individual development, so what you are saying does not make much sense. Also FIBA does not regulate NCAA or NBA competition, so individually these players are free to go anywhere they want. It is a very big world.

Have you read any of the agreements players sign before going to these competitions? These players are under the agreement during the commitment and afterwards there is no legally binding requirement. So, the only thing that can come out of this so called policy is that these players may not play for Australia, well I guess it will come down to a personal choice.

Alpha

All I am doing is telling you that 8 years ago there was a strong push by some BA and state staff and office holders to create a policy that would discourage or prevent "blue chip" ( the phase used) players who had the potential to represent Australia from "leaving" the OZ development structure and going to the US.

And if you think that there is some semblance of similarity to this ultimately defeated policy change and that of the non-selection of Opals players who don't play WNBL or who stay in the WNBA for Olympic years - then you may well be right.

However I have absolutely no idea how you seemed to get the numbskull and frankly personally insulting idea that I thought this was a good idea either at the time or now - I did not and I still don't and I said so at the time.

Please read my original post before trying to start a flame war - as you will be quite lonely out there all alone.

Hm, maybe I interpreted the post line wrong, thought you were saying the intention was to do the same as 8 years ago, which went in line with a poster above. Anyway no need for name calling, I am all in favor of helping these kids excel, so AIS may or may not be a pathway and it always boils down to an individual commitment. Academically AIS is a waste of time and those serious of going to the US will think twice of taking up a scholarship offer.

Why can't the AIS have two squads of differing age groups, like the big European clubs do? For arguments sake, let's say they go with an U18 squad who complete high school at Lake Ginninderra (the same as they have now), and also introduce an U23 squad, partnered up with a local university. This could provide an option for those players who are academically minded, and wish to pursue a degree, but not neccesarily have to go half way around the world to do it. This may not stop the big guns from going to Division 1 schools (I'm thinking say Dante Exum going to North Carolina or another ACC school), but it may stop those guys going to Division 2, 3 or JC's. It could also prevent 18 and 19 year old guys from swapping sports, leaving basketball for AFL etc, keeping them connected to basketball for a big longer.

Just a thought. Not sure how feasible it is.

All this talk about AIS brings me to 2 players both went to college but had different careers

In Sydney I played with Steve Leven, great athlete and a guy that made a name for him self everywhere but here. He had a chance to play AIS but decided to head to the US.... he did have a chip on his shoulder about BA because he turned his back on the Australian program
In Tassie i played with another guy Nic Campbell, This guy was a gun, he was going away to all the national tournaments putting up huge numbers and was caption at the AIS (later did 4 years the states) I look at these 2 careers
Nic play 1 year NBL with the Blaze and was cut for Joyce son and is now married in the US with a lovely wife and just had his first kid
Steve never played NBL (ok he did sign with the wild Cats) but made money in Europe, played for Great Britton national team. Now lives in Sydney running MSC
who was better off?
Steve didn't play in the system and made a career
Nic played the system and never really full filled his career but is happy now

AIS isn't for everyone.