That shouldn't matter. It's still there to be covered. I doubt there'd be a mention if the Kings and Hawks won game 1, even if they were all time classics.

Front page if hawks and kings upset and make grand final
Kim jong un will definetly have to fire a rocket if that happens

Once again the idiots at BA and the NBL scheduled the finals right as the AFL has round 1. Thats more than half the country with 90% sports media already taken.

Wildcat Fan. I suspect the Sydney vs NZ game will get more coverage than the NZ vs Sydney game. As I have said here, little interest in regional markets (Auckland).

News Limited have virtually no presence in NZ. It might have got more coverage if they had.

Both first games in time-zone challenged locations. Australian media is totally east coast centric.

I am not excusing them, just highlighting why Sydney and Melbourne are so important and again, why Geelong, Hobart, Mackay, Townsville, Cairns, Auckland, Perth etc. are not.

I agree with all those comment, and thanks anon, a few media outets are reporting something even though smh is local to Sydney, and I'm talking about national news, particularly on TV. I certainly was not expecting much coverage to begin with, but I was expecting at least a mention, or the scores at the bottom of the screen etc... I've always been aware of the lack of coverage the NBL gets, but it always grates me at playoff time when the coverage should increase - even slightly.

The challenging timezones point is a fair one, but then again, ABC24 is on all day, there's always sports reports from teams all over the country, not just Sydney, and they have plenty of time to get a report of the games played, regardless of who is playing and how regional they are. It's still a national sporting league, but that's something KK and BA will need to work on, rather than the media to care about. Besides, it's not going to kill their ratings if they mention the NBL for 5 seconds!

AFL round 1 was always going to kill the NBL, but to also get thrashed by the A-League is embarrassing. Particularly Western Sydneys story of winning the minor premiership in their first year - which I think is actually a bad thing for the A-league, because that just shows any 1st year team can come into that league and dominate straight away. But that's another story...

Wildcats coverage almost every night on ten news and on Friday after the win on seven nine and two news.. Not sure how much more coverage possible

The local coverage has been great. As said a couple of times, I'm talking about the national coverage! That's been poor.

I guess that because I live in Perth I'm used to seeing a good amount of news about the wildcats. But on a national level, the NBL is largely ignored.

" If that was the case, you wouldn't be seeing guys like Del Piero, Heskey, Ono etc join the league, not to mention Man United wouldn't be coming down in July"

Without entering the argument, these things come down to money, not talent.

I didn't say it was a failure, I just think it's a bad thing to see an expansion team come in and finish on top of the ladder in their first season. To me, it downplays the quality of the league. You would never see Gold Coast or GWS achieve this in the AFL. They will struggle for a few more seasons until their list is developed enough to contend with the bigger clubs. Even the Sydney Kings have struggled ever since they rejoined the league. And that just shows you can't be number 1 straight away.

Also, what will happen to the Wanderers' support if they start losing next season? Their fans are now accustomed to winning, they won't accept failure, and that's a lot of pressure for a new club and the A-league in an important market like West Sydney. Will be interesting to see if their support drops off if that happens.

I'm not pouring hate on them, but I can see the negatives to this success story. I'll concede that it was actually a big story and was worthy of it's coverage, but the NBL deserves a mention too, which is what I'm complaining about!

Even the local coverage here in perth surprises me, first story in the sports news tonight on ten was the game today.

Not being familiar with the sporting scene in Perth or W.A. for that matter, what I see from afar is this:

In the Perth sporting scene you have the two AFL teams, both doing well, the one A League team that is up and down and the Western Force Union team which is also up and down.

Then you have one of the most successful NBL teams in the country (NZ not included, although in the comp), so why would the sports media not be on board?

In Victoria, the NBL Tigers have to compete for media exposure against too many teams and too many sports to mention!

Just a thought...

The kings game is on at 10:55 pm in Sydney today, enough said.

Bear, Since were now talking about local coverage, rather than national coverage, which is what I was referring to originally, in Perth, it's all West Coast Eagles. I'd suspect they would make up the equivalent of maybe 3 Victorian AFL teams with the amount of media coverage they get compared to Melbourne's news. Then there's the Dockers, and they are always second to West Coast by a fair way - particularly on Channel 7.

Then after West Coast and Freo get their slice of the news, the coverage turns to the rest of the AFL. Once the AFL news is done and dusted, there's probably about a minute left on channel 7, 2 minutes on 9 and about 5 minutes on Ten. That time is divided up between the Wildcats, Glory, Force, cricket, EPL and other sports like surfing, motorcars or whatever. Only Ten gives the Wildcats a good amount of coverage in that 'slot'.

So even though the Wildcats get far better coverage than the other nbl teams locally, it's not exactly Wildcat Nation here in Perth like some people think, and even the Cats have to have an exceptional news story to get on the news sometimes.

I'd be interested to know if that's the same in Adelaide, which has a similar sports market to Perth.

Anyone else notice the lack of media attention that NBL has received during the playoffs so far? Still no attention.

NBL Playoffs are on, right? You wouldn't think so.

Its almost as though the season has already ended.