Bit of personality and altercation in the league doesn't hurt, IMO. Heroes and villains sell tickets. Joyce did make some digs at Galen Young during the week, so fair's fair.


From JR's site, talking about finals basketball:

Tonight we host the Gold Coast Blaze and it is do or die. After winning that game, we board a plane for Perth on Thursday where we will take on the Wildcats Friday night.

Win that game and we move on to face the minor premier Sydney Kings in the semi finals. Lose at any time before this and you will find me fishing on the banks of the Ross River by week's end.

The action will be fast and furious this first week and I cannot wait for the jump ball tonight. This is the time of year every player should absolutely live for. There is no time for excuses and no time for hiccups. We are now playing for all the marbles.

"Joyce did make some digs at Galen Young during the week"

And I'm sure Galen thought about them a lot whilst collecting a nice double-double and watching his team beat them. Reasonable shooting for 11 points and monstered them on the boards for a game high 15. Didn't foul out either :-)

Does playing mind games EVER work?

It seems that there's 2 kinds of players, those that ignore it, and those that get inspiration from it and play better. I don't remember seeing anyone go to pieces completely over comments made by another coach or player during the lead up to a game.

Maybe the 5 minutes spent by Joyce thinking up what crap he was going to spew, would have been better spent working out who he was going to give SOJ's 25mpg to. Certainly wouldn't have hurt.

SOJ IMO didn't do bad at all, he hit a couple of big 3's that actually kept the Blaze in it.

Rillie has to be the most open and honest player
I have met. Never holds back on what he is thinking and is fantastic for the league.

Re: Rowan Gray, check the boxscore. I don't believe he hit the court.

Especially right after I bagged him last night for the first time...

Played well, hit the threes Bizz is talking about...

I spent the next 3 minutes looking for something to wipe the egg off my face..

John John is hilarious ... always great for a laugh and jestful pot stir .

^Woops, that above post was me BTW.

Nice little piece Minx ... JR would definitely be one opponent to let lie .. no need to awaken the sleeping crocodile or is that bear , maybe its giant .. thats ur ass were talking bout Tony Roundedbuns .
oh boy rotating out of control , must be all the fumes from boganville 08 . sick .

Thanks for all the info. I figured there had to be something else going on. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for players speaking their minds, it's just I thought that for that interview, JR may have more important things to discuss than the losing team's coach.

To anonymous above, I don't think Rowan Grey even made the trip to Townsville as Demos and Campbell filled the 9 & 10 roster spots.

Finally does anyone know how far out Crowe was when he sunk the last second 3 pointer. After watching the game, I had the final margin at 11 but this changed to 8 when I checked out NBL.com.au yesterday. Crowe, who missed every 3 point shot I saw, suddenly had 1 from 7. I know the Blaze got possesion back with 2 seconds left and the inbound pass was not a long one, so the shot must have been a monster.

Possibly an interesting incident that was lost in the euphoria of the Crocs victory.