gosh wortho should stick to just playing basketball

Sorry but Wortho is an f.ing tool.
If he didn't try to squeeze close to $3m over 3 years out of the guy, it might be a different story for them both.
This is one of the parts that is so frustrating- players who demand big salaries, do little if anything (Brisbane were a prime example) to bring dollars in by engaging the public and expect white knights to come along from la-la land and wave their magic wands at them so they can take, take, take and then blame, blame, blame when the pipe dream is unsustainable.
He'll find some other club to bleed dry no doubt, then simultaneously bitch and whinge about there not being enough money when they struggle to pay him.
The short-sightedness of some of these guys really just boggles the mind.
I suppose some perfect Cindarella girl that puts up with all sorts of crap will be next on the shopping list.

Yes, because turning up to a grand final game would have saved the league.

I have to agree with HAHA on this (and most recent BA issues) - all these guys have their hands out, but dont hesitate to complain when the harsh reality hits them. Wortho is clearly only interested in his own salary.

BA haven't killed "our" game (grassroots, Boomers), more so Wortho's game (NBL).

Did Wortho give any indication as to what he thought they did wrong? Did he not like the $1m guarantee that protected his wage? Or the original increase in salary cap that brought teams like his more in line with an actual cap?

Not much of this situation is ideal but when you're trying to reconcile the interests of BA and private owners, it can be helpful to hear what a critic thinks would've been a better path to take.

As it is, the two recent drop-outs have been two cap-smashing, $1m-affording teams.

Simply put Wortho is a tool! What has he done for the game besides getting highly over paid. He needs to shut his mouth and let people who understand run things.

I didn't hear Worthington offer to take a pay cut so the team could keep going. NO NO NO he wants to up the salary cap so he can be paid more. Hope he gets left high and dry next season with no team to play with then a pay cut might not seem so bad

At some point, you'd hope these 'adults' stopped pointing fingers at each other and refusing to compromise and finally get their friggin' act together on both sides. Enough already.

It's like watching children being told off.

but he started it! :P

Spend some time with the guy away from the court, and you'll soon see he'd rather stab himself with a blunt pen knife than take a 5c paycut.
He plays under Goorj as much as possible because he knows he'll be more than looked after financially.

Takes one to know one :-)

You'd really hope some of these guys work it out. It's pretty simple. A league isn't economic when revenue is less than expenses. Either salaries need to fall or the players need to get out there and promote the sport getting more people through the turnstiles increasing revenue.

I've had enough of these clods who want more pay without getting out to promote the game that feeds them. They need to realise in its current form the league is unsustainable. As much as a Frank Lowy would be fantastic to fund the league there doesn't appear to be anyone on the horizon with pockets like that. If that's the case, teams need to be economically viable.

Wortho,

Calling BA idiots = great way to kill your Boomers career.

TOOL!

HAHA - Wow, that was painful (until Gaze rang up) - Wortho should let really just let his basketball do the talking. I honestly wonder how much he 'actually' knows about the whole situation!

Was awesome when Gaze rang up - totally owned Wortho! He couldn't even form a proper sentence without stuttering, to rebut Gaze. hahaha I wonder if they told Wortho that Gaze was going to call up, BEFORE he started bagging him about his article!

Gaze beating someone in a battle of words... who would have thought!

PS. Wortho's Boomer's Career was already waning before this - undersized and overrated at an international level.

fan, good point. Real contrast to the Spirit and Taipans players last year.

One thing I'd like to see is a for/against matrix of owners/identities on various issues. See once and for all who is for and against what - $1m guarantee, option of $50m asset alternative, $1.5m cap vs $900k cap, etc.

Wortho definitely got owned. But a few points came to mind:

1. If the BA proposal for government was so good with great reviews, why isn't there funding?

2. I'm pretty sure Gaze and Seamus don't mesh well on the board. At the Tigers' board there's always been tension between the 2. Coming from a club perspective Gaze owns the junior boys club while Seamus last year? (possibly the year before) took over the girl's club from Gaze and has also been pursing the boy's club. Which is why Junior Tigers' and NBL Tigers' logo look different.

3. If the planning for reform was on going throughout the season, then what have they been doing to end up in this situation?

What have they been doing? Coming together at a glacial pace before playing a game of bluffs trying to reconcile what's wanted by either party.

Funding from the government for BA? May be waiting for them to prove that the model works - why pitch in funding if it's all going to get messy. Surely any funding the government would provide at this stage couldn't be the crux?

1. The government does fund Basketball in Australia by funding the AIS and the Boomers programme. It would be great if they could give additional funding to the NBL but the recent results in both World Championships and the Olymipics have had an effect on this funding. Maybe Mark should look at his own performance in these tournaments and take some of the blame for this redduced funding from the Government.
2. We can only hope Mark Worthington goes somewhere else to play and stays there.
3. As a Boomers player Mark has done nothing in this interview to promote basketball and I really feel he should be sanctioned by Basketball Australia and appropriately fined and suspended. I for one do not want him representing my country.

well isn't the idea of funding to support a proposed a project that is about to commence? If they made adequate planning and discussions in regards to reform during the course of last season, how are they in current situation? I know there were lots of things happening (eg. Spirits etc.) so I guess it'll be somewhat understandable...

And if organizations start fining and suspend people for making criticisms then that doesn't show real good leadership and I actually do respect them for not bad mouthing Dragons after what they posted as open letter. They really showed some class dealing with this situation.

Ability to accept criticism and change if appropriate is the recipe for success in my mind, and they've done a decent job in that category thus far.

one way for BA to raise some money slap wortho with a $100k fine! no boomer should be bagging BA, no matter what, they should be promoting there sport to ENCOURAGE fans not bag them!

jono- no comment about the rest but I do like the idea of fining him $100k though.

In this case Bogut should be fined too because he was shitting about NBL a few months ago, and he don't even play in the league so he should be fine $1m!!!There's the guarrantee for 36ers.

I must admit I've had a few conversations with Bogut about it and although I like the guy and his passion here- not one of those guys that leaves our shores and can't find us on a map not long after, he is great friends with Wortho and they both share some rather sad analysis on what the crux of the issues are.

It seemed like one of Wortho's biggest problem with the NBL was the fact they reduced the salary cap to $900,000. He then went on to say that some AFL players are on that figure alone.

That's great Wortho but the AFL has a multi-million tv deal. That's how they can pay their players so much money - the NBL doesn't have that. He then said that if they increase the salary cap players like Matt Nielson would come back. Again, where are you going to get the money from - Cowen might have deep pockets but plenty of other owners do not.

Thank God that Andrew Gaze called up. He really put Wortho in his place about spouting rumours and innuendo on radio! SEN should bypass Worthington next time and go straight to Drewey.

Bogut has since redeemed himself by putting some of his $$$ into helpin the NBL with the Spirit, so i dont think anyone will be bagging him anymore,

No one in basketball should be bagging Gaze after what he has done at all levels as a player, worthington is a good player, but hasnt achieved anything close to Gaze or put in the time and effort to promote the sport that Gaze has.

I hope the NBL puts together a league, even at a smaller scale and it promotes the game well, gives some good young players who love the sport a chance to play and it generates a great competition for players, fans,etc, its not all about the money, players need to learn this and for the league to survive they need to drop the cap not raise it to $4million, no one can afford $1m let alone 4.
I think losing teams that constantly cheat the cap could be a good thing, as it will make it cheaper for clubs to compete and they will no longer need to send themselves broke to make the playoffs ala Cairns.

I think, people such as isaac are on the ball and i reckon they should take the remaining NBL teams
36ers
Blaze
Hawks
NZ
Perth
Taipans
Crocs
Add say 3 of the stronger SEABL teams or go by location and grab for example Canberra, Hobart, a victorian based team eg geelong and/or a nsw team, i think QLD is covered with 3 teams, and even consider a second nz team, grant them all a one year license with the option of trying to meet the criteria and stay in the next year, gets the game spread out around the country more and gives more players and coaches a opportunity, and a wider spread fan base. This gives us around 10 teams, i wouldnt mind having 12-14 if enough SEABL teams were interested. (to do this they would have to put some of the criteria such as $1m guarantee on hold for 12 months, but make it a criteria for the next season again, or atleast re assess it then, which would give the 36ers the green light i would think).

Drop the cap to say $500k and enforce it as much as possible, sure we may lose a few of the top players like Schenscher but atleast we will have a league and the clubs would come alot closer to making a profit, making them more attractive to investors i would think and more likely to survive long term.

even if the SEABL teams use there same rosters and finish as the bottom half it still spreads the game around, gives us a national leage i almost guarantee one will surprise and make the top 5 teams, and we will find a few diamonds in the roughs along the way which is always exciting!

If this works, keep it as is and build slowly as profits come in then slowly raise the cap etc,or work towards having another crack at a top league with a bigger budget and if teams like the Dragons and Tigers wish to come in, make them comply with all criteria and charge them a $1-2m license fee, the both say they have $$ so can afford this and that would be a good cash injection the the league some could be distributed to the exisitng clubs and some could be put towards marketing, paying for league staff, refs, etc or having a crack at buying some airtime on one HD, id have a crack with a small scale league and offer it to one hd to show for free, surely they would have some time to spare even if its not the best hours to show atleast one game a week, if not, doesnt hurt to try.

All the best to BA and the 36ers i think we should all get behind them so that there is a league and a club for us all to support in the next season!

Jonno, he would get away with getting the fine dismissed at this present time because there is no league and he does not belong to any club in particular. He can bag the NBL just like the average Joe Blow on the street because no NBL club has any obligation to him.

No, no I wasn't bagging him- like I said I quite like the guy and what he's doing just that some conversations we've had on Facebook about the state of the League and where in particular problems lie, that's all.

I'm not sure about Gaze's position with BA and how he's doing. But behind the scenes of Tigers he actually isn't as popular as many think (which is why I've always been cautious when dealing with him). He however maintains a great public image. But I'd suggest to always hold back a bit on what he says and don't believe 100%.

Even over the last few days it really shows how much he actually don't know about the Tiger's decisions. And that's because the board has been trying to keep him away since his retirement (when they also won a championship next season).

LA, I think they are where they are because owners keep demanding the goal posts be moved. Then another will make another demand. And another. Every little change prevents the two sides (including the fractured group of owners) from coming together.

One thing I could understand was if the owners collectively had a problem with a cut that BA wanted to take for non-NBL operations (Boomers, grassroots, etc) and, while that's been hinted at, it hasn't really hit the media like those taking issue with the bank guarantee, suggesting it's not quite a factor.

People will start crying if I mention two tier many more times, but if it does anything, it provides separate answers to (broadly speaking) categories of owners (higher cap for those who want it, lower cap for those who don't), and it spreads the load of running BA on more owners.

The one argument I've heard against it to date is whether fans of second tier teams would want to support the 'lesser' product. But when it's something vs nothing, and could provide the opportunity to get promoted to the elite tier, I'm not sure if that's such a deal breaker.

Who knows what alternative they'll come up with - an adjusted ABA with conferences?

All I know about Gaze , and his dad is that the two of them seem honest and have a genuine love of the game.

Last June I had a child who played the Gaze's team in Melbourne. Our team won convincingly; both Andrew & Lindsay came up to the team afterwards to congratulate them on their efforts and were still chatting with the team 15 mins later. Lindsay came back to talk to the team later in the tournament when he spotted us.

This was not a case of two people making an effort to look good in public; this was a case of two legends of the game with a genuine feel and rapport with the people who play it.

I have seen some other "legends" of the game at a number of torneys throughout Australia most notably Heal and another Tigers player whose name escapes me. All I can say is the Gaze's are all class.

I wonder how many people EOI's they would have got if the bank guarantee was lower - say 250k, salary cap was 500k, proven working capital of 250k and there was an upfront licence fee per team (no exceptions) of 100k. Have the season run for under 6 months to allow players to supplement their income elsewhere if required (NZBL, McDonalds wherever they want)

Id suggest there would have been a hell of a lot more people interested and all of a sudden BA would have been able top pick and choose who they want in rather than having rich people trying to dictate to them what will and wont happen

Sure we would have lost some big names to overseas but tahts happening now anyway. The league could have then had a new base to work from, allowing the teams and salary cap to grow at a sustainable pace and ensure that everyone was financial into the future.

If this was the case Id say the Blaze for example would lose Harvey and the imports, the rest of the team would probbaly be able to be kept together. Sure the overall quality will drop off somewhat but we need a solid base to start at and build on. Id be happy to go and watch some young up and coming players (Demos, Vanderjaagt) paired with some savvy veterans (Mcgregor, Melmeth, Mick Hill) running around for the Blaze.
They would probably play with more passion than some of the more well paid 'superstars' we have seen of recent times!

don't get me wrong I'm not saying they don't have a passion for the game, they obviously do or they won't be here. What I'm saying is working with them, if you're in an organization with them you've got to be careful about certain things.