A quote from another article:

Johnston has not returned Harmison's phone calls, text messages or emails since the Kings' financial meltdown became public.

Given the public information available about Johnson before he even purchased the licence, you would have to say a prudent organisation would not have had anything to do with him. Harmison and the league were happy to accept his money in the first place, so who is to blame?

R.I.P. Sydney - the league won't be quite the same without them.

The King is dead.

Sad day for Australian basketball.

I hope the league are prepared for all of this. With an alternate program and provisions for other clubs to be able to fit the players without a team.

Are Brisbane still likely to go under as well?

Who do i hate now? mmm....i think melbourne seems like a good option.

I think Brisbane are gone, yes.

If they both go it will be a long way back for NBL unless a real revamp is done. Pity one of them couldnt be saved as between 2 clubs enough plyrs to still be competitive and more importantly has anyone any ideas how NBL will assist those players still at Kings and Bullets. Surely some rules re points etc would have to change to get spots for these plyrs.
Changing salary cap would be dangerous though as would create a greater gap ie Melb. teams to Hawks etc

I agree. Heard talk of BJ Carter and the Hawks though so he could be alright.

If Castro didn't have that must-start clause in his contract, Singapore would be boosted by Kendall. I guess he could still go there and back-up Castro and Ng pretty well.

Issac,

If Sydney drops to one team, would the pig's marketing arm be straight onto a name change for them to the Sydney Razorbacks? Would the league allow this or would they see that the name change might harm their chances of getting a second team off the ground in Sydney or in future relaunching the Kings?

Seems that anything that the pigs can do to widen their supporter base would be a positive for them & maybe even the league.

No, they wouldn't rebrand - they still have to sort out a venue!

The league will probably look to push the Pigs out of the league in a season or two anyway and bring back a single team (whether to replace the Kings or represent both past brands), I think.

how bout say a 5 point kings/bullets player exemption for each team,only to be used for kings and bullets players would open up 11 jobs for the players of which there would be only 13ish contracted between the 2 teams and would allow almost all to be signed as if a team currently say adelaide who has 4 points left would now have 9 which is enough for a kendall or hinder. and guys who miss out say a adam tanner for the bullets could be given the opportunity to take a development spot for another team. The league should also allow 11 players to be suited up per game so that the kings/bullets players can actually suit up or dont take the place of say a brad hill or winitana in the 10 in the case of the 36ers.

It would help the players, but it puts the burden on existing clubs to pony up the extra money to support them for a year (potentially for little benefit if they don't have court-time or can't keep them for more than a year).

Someone like Carter may not want to relocate for little money and with a young family.

If the league shifts to 10 teams, that will mean 30 players out of jobs then too.

Not sure what the solution is there. Will be hard for young/fringe players to find jobs then.

In the restructure could we look at having a D-League type thing, for all the fringe players and give each team a D-League affiliate. Try exactly what the NBA does and allow players to be brought up and put down into the D-League?

Could be an idea.

sydney people dont give a rats anyway !! they are the worst supporters of any sport in australia.look at the turn out to there state of origin(rugby) match.they dont deserve an nbl franchise,give to a city that would support it like darwin !!
brisbane to townsville to cairns to darwin to perth to adelaide to melbourne etc

I only skimmed this thread (pressed for time), but is both BNE and SYD dont put a team in, SURELY the NBL needs to bump the pts cap up a bit.

While is sux that the Bullets wont play this season (Adelaide fan living in BNE), surely the standard in the league has to be massively improved.

I prey that the NBL starts to get serious about its branding and marketing. It has to turn this from a negative to a serious positive much like the A-League did.

The A-League was built off the back of a very strong showing by the Socceroos in the World Cup. Basketball may have a similar opportunity with Bejing.

Press conference tomorrow morning:

NBL CEO MEDIA CONFERENCE

National Basketball League (NBL) Chief Executive Officer Chuck Harmison will be available to Sydney media for a brief media conference between 10:30am  11:00am tomorrow (Thursday 12 June) at the League offices in Mascot to make an announcement regarding the Sydney Kings.

Which will start with the words...

'We sincerely regret...'

this is CRAZY!!!nbl without kings is like nba without celtics/lakers!!!how can a league operate like this!

Lets hope for the sake of the NBL that there is actually media in attendance.

You guys are clueless about what goes on here in Qld.
State of origin is league, not rugby.
Adam Tanner signed with the Breakers on the weekend and NOTHING about the Bullets has been decided.
Thanks for circulating your inaccurate and baseless declarations.... typical.

So much for having a brother in the NBL and being in the know!
Pleez!
What a bunch of dickcheeses!

A recent version of the NBL draw didn't have Brisbane in it. Whether they make it in remains to be seen.

It's hardly wise to get into draws when there are clearly issues with two teams that are yet to be sorted within the allocated timeframe. Most people aren't interested in collecting various versions of draws until concrete decisions are made by people in a position to actually do so, rather than putting the cart before the horse- it's pretty senseless.

The draft draws are being done by (or at the instruction of) the league you'd assume, and you'd hope they have some idea of what's going on.

Anything I've heard from Brisbane has suggested that there may be interest, but that a buyer would likely sit out the season. Same with Sydney.

Lets hope for the sake of the NBL that there is actually media in attendance.

Major media release about 2 weeks after the olympics is my $5 bet.

Scrapping of the whole league as it is. A new league created by the remaining financial clubs and a move away from the BA controlled model. Probably only a short summer season and a move back to the dependable winter season.

Assume?
No thanks- that's how wires get crossed and it's the worst time to assume anything.
Like they say, when you assume, you make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'

We're making casual speculatory comments on a forum (based on information available), not making major business decisions. I think it's OK, to make a few assumptions here and there for the purpose of conversation and trying to guess which way things will go.

On the topic of the Bullets, Courier Mail says today that Sarina Russo says no.

I think, either way, the Bullets will sit out 08/09. You're welcome to disagree or provide any other rumours you've heard.