There's already an entire thread for this.

Good to see it would've made a mockery of the competition as other teams would've tried it on in future too.

Danny Mills fucked it up not foreseeing the potential delays and leaving it too late to procure a clearance. But i'm wondering what the clause "exceptional circumstances" would consist of

It seems pretty clear from this:

The NBL made enquiries of its governing bodies, Basketball Australia and FIBA, and determined the processes associated with the issue of Brown's Letter of Clearance, although complicated by a dispute with Brown’s former club, were undertaken in the time frames published by each of them

Wildcats have released a statement trying to be as upbeat as possible about it.

I think they should start planning for next season immediately, this one looks to be done. With insufficient talent , injuries and doubtful coaching lets try and sort this out for next season.

If only Russia had invaded a week earlier this could have all been so different.
I've been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt but it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. I'm feeling negative feelings about you, Putin.
Although...
The timing of the military operation in Ukraine was allegedly adjusted to come after the winter olympics. So ok, maybe you're off the hook this time, Vlad. I'm still keeping an eye on you though so you'd better not put another foot wrong.

But you, IOC President, Thomas Bach, this is all your fault. YOU SUCK!!!!

I heard Paul Smith asked Putin to put off the invasion for a week just to get revenge for the Covid finals.

"With insufficient talent"

That's a pretty bold statement. I'd say we're 3rd overall in terms of winning the title behind Kings and United. Norton back and better decision making at the end of games is all it's going to take to win.

If they had sufficient talent why the whole John Brown Saga of trying to bring a contracted 4 man over here to replace Frazier ?

As professional commentators said they lack depth at 4 spot and have all season. Compared to the current top three which have better depth at all spots and greater height.

Less look at the roster:
- Vic Law playing a very small 4 man, and sometimes is the 5 man when we have both centres on the bench (which seems to be long periods of every game)
- Less mobile and athletic centres - old school types versus Sydney and Melbourne with the more dynamic newer generation centres that can move more with the ball, shoot 3's at a consistent clip.
- Backup point guards : White looks to be a bit slow defensively these days, Zunic been totally ineffective at hitting the open 3. Compared this to Melbourne or Sydney who have solid defensive and offensive options at point
- Shooting Guard - Too many in the same position. Ignoring Cotton who you could argue is equalled to Adams - you have Blanchfield, Frazier, Travis ? Probably our strongest position but at the cost of the other spots being weak

Overall Bench - White and Wagstaff- debatably should of retired last year so very little long term upside keeping them on the roster. Shervill out. Zunic not been impressive in any game Ive seen, Frazier was generally the lead +/- negative for most games I checked the box score for. So he just hasn't brought intangibles and scoring to make a difference. May be the way the cats are coached but sadly he hasn't been effective.

Next stars - these guys can be be hit or miss but in the case of Illawara Jessup is a serious contributor. As the cats dont have any next star on the roster we are missing a NBL funded spot contributing further to the roster being weak.

I am not convinced based on the recent run of games that cats can even beat NZ and cairns. For a while now their 3 point shooting has deserted them, some of the guys on the bench couldn't hit a barn door. Cats dominated early through very good three point shooting which covered up some of the above bench issues.

Cotton starting to look a bit like late season cotton from last year - been doing too many minutes and looks tired. Cats need to respect him better with getting more depth around him next season.

Cotton needs a game off.

Whether Perth sacrifices a game against a top team or takes the risk against a bottom team is up to them, but they're taking a big risk with his health the way they’re depending on him for major minutes and points production.

I understand going after Brown due to other teams having guys like JLA, Zim, Qi Wetzel etc, true centres that we can't match up well on, but to say that's because we have insufficient talent is a stretch. In some of our more recent title years we've had strings of losses where we play below par. I definitely believe with a 100% healthy Norton we can make up for that lack in the big man department. I'm disappointed and how we've gone the last few weeks, but I'm definitely not calling the season done.

Cotton needs a season off.

"With insufficient talent"

The leading scoring team in the league does not have insufficient talent. They have had a tough run with injury and their state government, and haven't been hard enough on the boards. Nothing to do with talent.

The way the statement is reported, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Seems to be saying that it doesn't matter if the process was delayed, as long as it wasn't delayed more than they said.
Which is a bit like the old, "It's ok if I punch you in the face, provided I give you written warning."

But then Jezza seems to confuse things by implying they wouldn't have granted an exemption anyway???

I supposed that what I'd like to ask is "what is a reasonable time to grant a clearance?"
He was supposedly given permission to leave, and did so, in late February. Yet couldn't get a letter of clearance by the cutoff of 26th March.
Is 4 weeks reasonable?

If so, what would the NBL have considered unreasonable and grounds for an exemption? 5 weeks? 6?

If one of the other players, who left Russia at the same time, got a clearance to play before Brown, would that be ok?

Also have to ask, were Kazan paying his salary for those 4 weeks?

Do we just have to ignore the possibility that his old teams decided to be cunts?