Perthworld
Years ago

LK reponds to Paul Smith's allegations

Peter FitzSimons' latest column in the Sydney Morning Herald:

(and yes, he spells LK's surname wrong.)

Wildcat strike

Well I never. Two things seemed obvious to me regarding the cancelling of the NBL grand final series between the Kings and the Wildcats. First, that it was the right thing to stop the series dead. And second, that as the Wildcats were ahead 2-1 when the series was called off, it was right to call them the winners, no questions asked, and congrats to them.

Not everyone, however, saw it like that, least of all the owner of the Kings, Paul Smith, who told Andrew Webster of his dealings with NBL owner Larry Kesselman: "We had an explicit three-way conversation last Friday ... It was explicitly stated by the Wildcats and the Kings that neither was to have the championship without completing the five-game series. Explicit."

This is a very strong charge. I approached Kesselman. He is the bloke who put a good chunk of his fortune behind resuscitating the NBL when it was about to collapse five years ago and is a fellow I know personally to be a very quietly spoken, understated businessman.

His answer was without rancour but immediate and firm.

“My word is my bond and there was categorically no such agreement reached between us and the teams. I am proud of our sport and my team, how we have conducted ourselves and the process we ran to achieve what we feel was the right outcome in an unprecedented environment for all involved. We feel blessed on the timing of our season and feel for other sports and the greater community. Thank you.”

Done. Game over. Broadly, basketball's timing could have been better, but only by a few days. In the post-coronavirus world, the NBL is one comp I would name now as the most likely to quickly get back on its feet.


https://www.smh.com.au/sport/call-it-off-this-is-one-opponent-we-can-t-afford-to-run-into-20200320-p54cb3.html

Topic #47083 | Report this topic


Anonymous  
Years ago

Do we really need yet another separate thread about the same thing?

Reply #801280 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Always trust someone who says trust me. "My word is my bond"

Lolz

Reply #801291 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

I dont trust either of them but Smith's stories just dont make sense.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Will we trust larry when he can't start next season because he is personally losing a bomb on Prahan. Cairns for sale, Hawks for sale, Tassie entering.
A licence used to be worth $1mill before LK came along. Now it's $10mill. Untrustworthy.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Kings could be proved right in the end all of this. The whole Coronavirus thing is getting bader and bader. Every major sport in the world is shut down. Don't talk about afl, nrl, they are not major and after this weekend I doubt they will make round three.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

That doesn't prove the Kings right at all. They didn't cancel the series because they had concerns about players catching the virus.

"A licence used to be worth $1mill before LK came along. Now it's $10mill. Untrustworthy."

What?

Reply #801298 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Kings set the example about player welfare on the virus. I've actually criticised them numerous times but after watching the football codes over weekend I’m changing my tune, it’s a bad look and the players will soon pull up stumps, they are not happy.
In hindsight the kings paid a massive penalty for leading.

Reply #801301 | Report this post


FM  
Years ago

Kings honestly thought they could cancel the season and not lose the season.

Reply #801303 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Kings were right to not play, the situation was getting worse. I don't get why the Kings management and their fans need to cream over each other on that point. It's self explanatory.

However the Kings only had player welfare in the forefront when it suited them.

All the options open to the Kings made finishing the series safe. Kings didn't want those and just wanted a cancellation. And when the cancellation was not offered, they used player welfare and threw the NBL under the bus.

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Andrew  
Years ago

The Kings are minnows acting like the Big Boys, get a reality pill and see that you aren't Collingwood or Richmond....more like Gold Coast.

Reply #801310 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

The Kings set nothing! They went rogue and against advice of medical experts and took their bat and ball. It's absolutely fine. Make your decisions and live with them. Please don’t make the Kings some maters or victims in this! Because they are not. It will always be recorded as a forfeit.

Reply #801311 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

"All the options open to the Kings made finishing the series safe."

How is it safe for potentially infected men to be pushing up against one another for 40 mins? The rest of the country is told to have 1.5 metres. 

Reply #801314 | Report this post


D2.0  
Years ago

I don't know why Sydney keeps rabbiting on?
I think the issue(s) has been clarified nicely.
Had the series been cancelled (ie after 1 or 2 games) there would have been no winner. So yes, that part of their story is true and undisputed.
Furthermore it appears that Sydney were offered that option after game two, but rejected it, believing they were favourites to win game 3 (and thence probably the series.)
When they lost game 3, they tried to back-pedal and go back to the cancellation option. But the series wasn't cancelled, it was shortened to 3 games, which is perfectly legitimate.

Reply #801315 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Kings were offered to shorten the series to 3 games and declined. That tells you all you need to know about how forward looking they were in terms of player welfare

Reply #801317 | Report this post


Ben  
Years ago

I stopped reading this thread when Peter FitzSimons' name was mentioned.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Richmond and Collingwood, how more games have they got you imbecile. The afl and government have suddenly realised how bad this virus is. Kings got this right letting their imports go and pulling the pin. It's only now that I understand this as so many others are starting to realise. The wildcats should not except the premiership and no winners declared.

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Cornholio  
Years ago

Try keeping 1.5m with 4 children . Not easy.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Casey Prather is still in Melbourne. Going home is up to the individual player

Reply #801354 | Report this post


Perthworld  
Years ago

Terrico only left yesterday.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Been told owners might pull pin due to economic conditions as can't tip money into loss making nbl teams when other businesses are effectively stuffed

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Oh the Wildcats can and surely did accept the title! The Kings could of finished the series!!! If it was about letting your Americans go then just let them go! And finish the series. It wasn't about player welfare. It was virtue signalling. I would bet the farm it was not a unanimous decision in the Kings lockeroom to pull the pin on the series. With state elections this year you’d be a fool to think that the states going around the federal government and advice of the experts to shut the borders and close down had nothing to do with that.

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