Joes No1 Fan
Years ago
Cal's Bruton- This ones for you!
For most basketball fans, to lead the life of an NBA scout is to be living the dream.
Ron Meikle travels the world in search of future stars. He is one of over one hundred NBA scouts roaming the globe at any given time, and this week arrived in Melbourne to preview the national league.
Meikle's whistle-stop tour to Australia allowed just enough time to catch the South Dragons in action at The Cage last Wednesday night and at Geelong Arena on Sunday.
And Meikle was impressed with what he saw.
"Obviously it was a tough loss tonight but it was a good game at the end, they made a good run and tried to come back and it was a really good second half,'' Meikle said after the Dragons' loss to Cairns at the weekend.
It's an enviable job but one that comes with a sizeable challenge.
"I travel all over the world and I watch the best ball players,'' Meikle said.
"We have a list that we make at the beginning of the season and on that list we put the top 100 ball players in the world and we tear that list down to 60 by the end, right before the draft.''
In watching the Dragons Meikle was especially excited by star rookie Joe Ingles who, given time, he believes can make it in the NBA.
"Joe was not on my list last year, I heard about him but I didn't see him in person so now that I've seen him I can safely tell you he's on our list of players to watch in the future.
"He's a nice young player who's very skilled offensively, his body just has to get stronger. He's got to mature a little bit as a player, he's got to become a better defender, but I think he can get those holes in his game fixed. Everybody has holes when they're that age, everybody has weaknesses that they work on, but to be that tall and that skilled is a great thing.
"I don't think he'll be in this year's draft, I think he'll declare and he'll stay and I think it's in his best interests to stay because he still has to work on the strength of his body, he has to get stronger.''
