I dont always agree with him .. But at least he keeps basketball in the public forum (in one form) .. albeit AFL has been the dominant run of the Advertiser for yrs..

Better bad press (at times) than NO press for our beloved sport!

Is that why you are anonymous ?

well said Skyhook - it is no use bagging poor Boti, at least some exposure is better than no exposure.

cheers Dr Dunk..

Basketball needs more press.. maybe anon. and Jay could give us some suggestions?
Who would they like to see writing NBL/WNBL?

For what it's worth, I think Boti's done a great job. The match reports have been excellent all year and the coverage from The Advertiser during the regular season has been as good as we can expect in a non-limelight sport.

I agree. If it wasn't for Boti, what Basketball would there be to read about in The Advertiser. Oh wait, there is the occasional 'in brief' NBA review isn't there.

Basketball struggles for coverage at the best of times...look how much space the kings 3peat got!
Take Boti out of it and Jay and Anon would be bitching a lot more than they are now thats for sure

Boti has done a fantastic job of keeping basketball in the public eye. It would be unrealistic to say that everyone would agree with everything he writes, but he always puts in very informative match reports and is a great creative writer. Every Advertiser I open, I go straight to his artice first and then read the rest. If you're highly interested in basketball, then his articles make for compelling reading. His news is sometimes old news but still interesting nonetheless. Basketball does not enjoy publicity through FTA television stations so let's not take it out of our newspaper and support Boti in his work.

Jay you seem to take every opportunity to bag Boti. As has been said above there would be little to no coverage of the sixers in this state if it were not for his efforts.

Be thankful that he is here and that we dont live in Melb or Sydney.

So Kent you seem to upset that I bag Boti every chance I get. So you want to defend a bloke who bags let's see, Giddie to the point of boredom, called Bradtke a player with out heart because he chose not go to a (another) World Championship, bagged triple Olympian Shane Heale, crawls up Rogers arse when he comes back and then bags him when he leaves, bags Stiffy when he leaves, bags Goorjian constantly and goes on holidays when the Goorj wins another Championship and this from a person who never achieved anything on the court or in a coaches box. You cry that poor Boti gets bagged. Give me a break.

Boti is not on holidays at the moment and was not when the kings won.

Warwick Giddie was hilarious...still remember the back page photo of Rillie shaving his head and Boti commentating how Rillie had been watching Tigers game tapes to work out how to stop Giddey offensively.....Jay you dont find that funny?


Bagged HEAL? why not every one else does....what good did he do?

When did he bag stiffy?

Bagging Rogers? the guy was so injured that he even missed games because he cut his finger doing the dishes!!!

I dont cry that Boti gets bagged most responses on here are supporting him....only the minority find time to bag him, most are thankful to get some bball news at all.

i think he's a funny guy. I remember when he described Paul Rees as being "slightly more athletic than a chair".

Jay obviously has his own agenda to push when it comes to Boti.

Perhaps Jay tried to get a job at The Advertiser, but was declined because the trash collectors job was already filled.

There are a few more than just 3 basketball writers in the league, there are at least 1 for each team in a newspaper sense, then there are the Sportal reporters who are also eligible to nominate, as are any of the OzHoops writers, if any of us felt we wanted to (we dont do it for the glory, so we dont)

Boti's coverage of basketball is excellent, and to the person claiming he is on holidays, funny how there was a full page article today from someone on holidays.

If you refer to his comment in the Around the NBL of "see you next season"...that was referring to that particular column, being done and dusted till then.

Seriously, if you people have nothing better to do than bag the only person who has the passion to continually get basketball in the Tiser, well, take a good hard look at yourselves.

As for the Hall of Fame nomination, I'll post how it works.....

Hall of Fame Eligibility
In order to gain induction to the National Basketball League Hall of Fame, a candidate must have fulfilled a number of criteria.



" Players must have made an outstanding contribution to the NBL, have been retired for a minimum of four seasons, and have played 100 NBL games or more.

" Coaches must have made an outstanding contribution to the NBL, have been retired for at least four seasons, and have been an NBL head coach for 10 seasons or more.

" Referees must have made an outstanding contribution to the league and have been retired for at least four seasons.

" Contributors must have made an outstanding contribution to the NBL, and may be elected at any time.



Hall of Fame Process
All eligible past players are placed on a ballot, with each member of the Selection Committee (composed of 24 long-time basketball observers) asked to nominate a list of ten finalists. At this time, nominations are also called for the Contributors category. The ten most nominated players are placed on the second ballot, as well as nominated contributors, and eligible coaches and referees, and forwarded to the Selection Committee.

In order to gain induction, a player must receive 75 percent of votes from the final ballot from the Selection Committee. A maximum of four players and a minimum of two players can be inducted each year, with a maximum of two non-players each year. If a player does not receive a vote from any member of the Selection Committee in relation to choosing ten finalists over four consecutive years, that player will be deleted from all future ballots.

That is direct from an NBL press release, today announcing Steve Carfino and Michael Johnson as the newest members into the Hall.

I would rather read an article by a writer that "bags" players, teams and coaches than one that constantly talks up its own team ignoring the bad stuff. Atleast there is some thread of truth in what he writes and the articles are not just fluff pieces.

My way of working out if anyone has any idea about the game of basketball is based on their opinion of Boti.

His humor may be a little too intellectual for some who bag him? He is pretty much on the ball all the time. Try reading the bland crap that Grantley Bernard serves up in Melbourne and you will soon appreciate Boti's biting satire.

If you can't take the game of basketball as a bit of fun and can't allow for a passionate writer to have the same courtesy, then maybe it's time to loosen the neck tie and not spend so much time under artificial light.

For those of you who can remember his article 'It's time to cut the Rose' in Roberts last year at the Sixers will surely know that he knows what he is talking about. At the time I thought he was crazy but with benefit of hindsight....

His recent article re selling the sixers and ideas to save the actual game here in SA also has alot of thought and likely insight into the situation.

Sometimes his 'satire' gets a tad tiresome but love the bagging of Heal and Goorjian - they deserve it! Better than the sit on the fence' journos or the ones whose forte is not bball and write incorrect names etc.

Boti has the balls to write 'in yer face' facts and opinions bringing out otherwise ignored topics. How can something improve without constructive criticism - Boti perhaps could do with some, while the NBL, Sixers management, and BASA can certianly do with some.

Spoken like a true coward anonymous.

Why do you grow some cojones, and actually put your name to post if your going to post ill informed, factless crap like that.