Looking forward to watching some basketball after a few clear nights on the schedule.

Both teams wanting to win for various reasons. SEM to stay in the play-in conversation, Cairns to keep their precious top two position.

Going the Snakes by 5 with too much polish, but really wouldn't be surprised if Creek dragged Phoenix to a W.

2 nights in a row without a game was too long.

Let's go, Snakes!

So I'm not the only one suffering withdrawal symptoms. Think Willams too physical for Pinder with SEM bit more desperate so picking them. Which probable means Cairns the win.

Broekhoff much bigger loss than the Serbian sniper, actually the sniper being out is a bonus for Cairns. If Williams can play quality again without foul trouble SEM will be in it. I can't believe that McCall isn’t in mvp talk, absolute gun. Who wins, both are good enough, hopefully a cracking game.
Yes nice to have game on after a few nights with out.

https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/australian-basketball-team-players-refuse-to-wear-pride-jerseys/220735

Surely the NBL saw this coming after the Manly rugby league fiasco from last year.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=736715684561280&set=a.223211862578334

Saw that Gordon. The scenario could've been avoided though if the NBL didn't lean so heavily in to virtue signalling.

In other developments, we have Lowery on commentary for this one. Doh :(

Kinda odd for Cairns to be selling players refusing to wear Pride uniforms as them being accepting of anti-nonheterosexual views, but whatever.

Interesting officiating players bashing the shite out of one another and williams gets called for 2 softies

Same foul Williams has been called all year, he doesn't stay in front of his opponent.

Refs are woeful for both sides.

Not saying it wrong call just saying inconsistency in officiating.they cant even agree with themselves

25 fouls in a half Jesus Christ let them play

I think it's time for the sbc stadium plans to go through, 3,000 too small. 8,000 min.

Refs, oh my, they just got get some consistency, it's a lottery, even Creek said at halftime interview.
Set up for good game if refs back off a bit.

Very nice D by Pineau and great rebound, no foul there. Is Pineau just supposed to let him have the ball.

Obviously Humphries never going to play for Cairns with there refusal support pride round, he was talk of town for his coming out, now Cairns can just say it's against my religion.

Isn't this the third novelty round in less than a month?

You can't just elbow someone in the head with your arm swinging outside your cylinder Dunkman

They weren't outside his cylinder, he went straight up , Pinder stuck his head in there. Creek is always hanging off players in D now that’s a foul. Let players rip the ball to keep hangers off the offensive players.

Such a difference the way they're reffing this game - it’s almost brutal what the refs are allowing

Ummm no

Best team won in the end, while it was a tense game, too much head throwing, diving, hanging on and basically a poor quality game. Refs certainly not helping.

Refs completely ruined that game. A little bit of consistency from them would be such a welcome change. Over call or under call, doesn't matter if it’s consistent, the players will adjust, smdh

Pineau's play on Pinder originally looked like a harsh intent-to-hurt arm movement, but I understand why he did it.
He was trying to hold Pinder down and stifle his jump to avoid getting the rebound snatched at the top by the more athletic guy. Just got him in the face. Certainly a loose ball foul even if no face contact was made.
Should get a talking-to, Pineau, because he created the situation with an illegal play. Didn't intend to smash him, but he did.

Ladder-wise the Cats would have been helped more by a Taipans win, but it turns out I'm happy the homophobes took an L.

Yes I couldn't agree more with you @ Luuuc, next if have objections fine, but sit out the round like manly footballers did.

Pineau's elbow was in his cylinder & didn’t move, it was more of a case of Ponder crashing into it. Scott’s tunnelling of Foxwell had a lot more intent about it & was incredibly reckless. I hope both Pinder & Foxwell have a speedy recovery

Just want to give people the proper picture of what happened.

For those tech savvy, what's the HTML code to embed a screenshot I've made on my phone into a comment?

It'd be the 4sec mark of the below video. Pineau clearly has his elbow and arm well outside his cylinder and coming down on Pinder:

https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1618192464304820228?t=h7QbQu2bTqfcNPOWOC2cIg&s=19

That's a foul in every league in the world. And Scott tunneling Foxeell, what are you people watching?

And it's about as far outside one's cylinder as you can get.

Luuuc, thanks for that. What's the coding you used, would you mind copy/pasting.

To embed an image, just post it as



... where url is the complete url of the image
eg. in this case, url = https://i.imgur.com/tvQrGIK.png

How about we go next level?

I have automated the conversion of Twitter-sourced MP4 to GIF in my attempt to sexify Hoops.

The only problem is the GIF output file size blows out so it is a work in progress.

Stay tuned my dudes.

These are huge so I won't embed them for now:

Original angle
(56MB)

Baseline
(25MB)

(My account has never been able to embed tweets directly into posts and isaac doesn't know why so here we are. Plus Twitter sucks.)

The reality in the end after watching back and play by play is they call a foul on McCall for pushing Pineau into Pinder

Yeah righto, thanks gents.
The source must be web-based not local to the device's storage?

I think it's clear to see that yes Pineau's elbow was indeed inside his cylinder. His right elbow

The source must be web-based not local to the device's storage?

Excellent after match interview with Mitchell and Williams. Both highly good humans. Mitchell should get another year after the way SEM have performed under great adversity.

Pinterest doesn't work?
Was responding to that close-up of the pride round logo with Homer Simpson screaming about the boogeyman - the episode Marge becomes a gambling addict

Use Imgur.

You have to retrieve the version of the URL that contains the file extension at the end.

I'm happy the homophobes took an L.

The false equivalence fallacy is alive and well

The Taipans had a choice. They could support the LGBTQ+ community, or they could support homophobia.

Trying to play it like they were doing neither is bullshit.

Imagine if one of those players is LGBTQ+, and having to hold their tongue because the team so clearly doesn't have their interests at heart.

It's an absolutely trash decision and every single player who was a part of it is a terrible person.

Choosing Pride Round to say "we support this, but only so long as it doesn't inconvenience us" is garbage. Oh no, some people were bullies. Obviously the queer community could never understand what it's like to be bullied.

Homophobia is a choice.

The Taipans had a choice. They could support the LGBTQ+ community, or they could support homophobia.

Trying to play it like they were doing neither is bullshit.

Imagine if one of those players is LGBTQ+, and having to hold their tongue because the team so clearly doesn't have their interests at heart.

every single player who was a part of it is a terrible person.

Choosing Pride Round to say "we support this, but only so long as it doesn't inconvenience us" is garbage.

Oh no, some people were bullies. Obviously the queer community could never understand what it's like to be bullied.

Homophobia is a choice.

Obviously a terrible person wouldn't think terrible people are terrible.

I don't shy away from my own shortcomings. The trauma associated with having to wear a jersey that has a thin rainbow outline around the little Champion logo is something I clearly need some assistance with comprehending.



Let's hypothetically say I thought gay people were beneath real people, BUT then I went ahead and wore that jersey anyway.
That could potentially lead members of the public to believe that I thought gay people were equal to real people and should feel welcome and safe.
Could I live with that?
SHOULD I HAVE TO?


Pride round is about making the LGBTQ feel welcome and safe.
The Taipans have gone out of their way to say "nah, f*ck that, they're not welcome"
Wearing a jersey with that little rainbow outline around that little logo was just too big of an ask.


AJ Ogilvy put it very succinctly.

To everyone who said "the @NBL doesn't need a pride round" - this is why they do.

Haha I give up

I don't understand what else the Taipans were supposed to do regarding the Pride jersey issue. When it got out that some were uncomfortable wearing it, the players and team were targeted and abused. Why should the team then front up to a game with the players happy to wear the jersey clearly identifying the ones who weren't thus having those particular players subject to more (probably ongoing) abuse?

The league gave all players and teams a choice yet when some players express their desire to not wear the uniform all hell breaks loose! It is hypocritical of the LGBTQ community and it's supporters to call for inclusion then unload with abuse when a minority express some hesitancy in wearing the jersey.

The Taipans players were not saying we are against Pride round and the LGBTQ community. They were simply saying it's not acceptable for their teammates to be subject to further ongoing abuse.

Rather than it being a sad day for the LGBTQ community why not look at the fact that they have an entire round of basketball promoting their cause rather than focus on the small minority uncomfortable with that.

"Stand up for who you are, unless someone is mean to you on the Internet in which case hang minorities out to dry" is not the message the round is trying to promote.

The ONE PLAYER who objects could have played without the Pride jersey, or just not played. That the ENTIRE TEAM felt that player's feelings were more important than the feelings of the entire LGBTQ+ community is the entire problem.

It would be great to live in a time when people can be themselves regardless of sexuality or religious beliefs and not cop attacks. Live and let live. That should be the case but unfortunately it's not. Sad.

It would be great to live in a time when everyone understands that the way someone is born is not equivalent to the way someone chooses to behave; that a person's height and race and eye colour and sexuality and shoe size are not personal choices.

Thinly veiled intolerance is still intolerance mate.

Yes, that is exactly my point.
Homophobia is not acceptable regardless of what other label someone tries to slap on it.

Nor is abuse of those labelled as homophobes

Yes, heaven forbid anyone says something mean about a homophobe.
They must be made to feel included too, right?

Being mean and abuse are 2 different things. You are not going to change a "homophobes" view or belief by excluding them.

It's a shame to see people condemning the same thing they are doing themselves, because you know their intentions are good.

The trauma associated with having to wear a jersey that has a thin rainbow outline around the little Champion logo is something I clearly need some assistance with comprehending.

That could potentially lead members of the public to believe that I thought gay people were equal to real people and should feel welcome and safe.

Pride round is about making the LGBTQ feel welcome and safe.

Very sad week IMO.

I don't understand what else the Taipans were supposed to do regarding the Pride jersey issue. When it got out that some were uncomfortable wearing it, the players and team were targeted and abused. Why should the team then front up to a game with the players happy to wear the jersey clearly identifying the ones who weren't thus having those particular players subject to more (probably ongoing) abuse?

The ONE PLAYER who objects could have played without the Pride jersey, or just not played. That the ENTIRE TEAM felt that player's feelings were more important than the feelings of the entire LGBTQ+ community is the entire problem.

Homophobia is not acceptable regardless of what other label someone tries to slap on it.

Donnell Wallam was one player that could have just not played as well. I seem to recall your support of her decision.

Social media as you'd expect was abuzz at the news with the Taipans’ statement being picked apart line by line from furious fans.
Then there’s the other side of the coin and people praising the Taipans and stating politics don’t belong in sport.
It’s the latter which is sadly missing the picture and proving why Australia, in the 181 days since the Manly saga, isn’t moving forward.

Pride Round and Pride Jerseys aren’t a political statement. It’s basic human decency. It’s a simple message that everyone is welcome.
For Manly it was seven players who refused to don the harmless rainbow jersey. For the Taipans, the picture is far worse.
The decision to side with the players who refused to wear it shows that the club isn’t welcoming at all.

"These young men should be criticised. Their views should be interrogated and tested. Otherwise, as a society, we are implicitly saying there is no problem with their attitude."

It’s time we took a step forward and stopped treating fellow humans as lesser.

Cairns Taipans major sponsors, CQUniversity:

So you post an article from a News Limited journalist @Luuuc which you are claiming validates your view yet you don't post the 37 comments on the article, the majority of which completely disagreed with the writer, with some straight out supporting the Taipans stance.

The fact CQUniversity are not happy with the Taipans stance doesn't mean it was the wrong one. They are protecting their brand. Given everything happened so quickly it is not surprising the Taipans didn't consult them and that is something both parties will have to sort out in the coming days.

You are one of the better posters on this forum Luuuc and that is because you generally give balanced views on anything basketball and Wildcats and you make some hilarious comments at times. I don't think your view on this matter is all that balanced however.

Personally, if I was a player, I would have been happy to wear the jersey however I would have taken the same stance the Taipans players did and not worn it, after seeing my teammates being abused and vilified on social media.

It is supposed to be a game of basketball not an LGBTQ activist gathering. The Taipans job is to try and win basketball games and if the Pride logo is as insignificant as you and the News Limited writer claim then it shouldn't bother you as much as it does, if they don't wear it.

Being balanced doesn't mean being right.

So you post an article from a News Limited journalist @Luuuc which you are claiming validates your view

The Trevor Torrance interview at halftime of the Wildcats game was powerful & highlights the importance of this type of round. What a legend TT was/is.

Yeah, what does "being balanced" mean exactly? Having to agree with both sides? Why can't I just disagree with the hateful/brainwashed/ignorant side?

Until someone can convince me that either 1) gay people are gay on purpose, or 2) gay people are inferior human beings, then I see no justification for siding with those who villify them.

Even if a person was somehow only contemplating this issue for the first time now, how could they listen to the story of Isaac Humphries and still come away thinking this pride thing is a negative or a waste of time?

This stuff really matters, to a lot of people, and it costs virtually nothing.
We're asking people to be decent humans for 2 hours towards a group that still to this day suffers.
It beggars belief to me that that is too much to ask of an NBL player.

I don't need an opinion to "validate" my view. All I need for that is common sense and the most minimal amount of empathy.

Even if a person was somehow only contemplating this issue for the first time now, how could they listen to the story of Isaac Humphries and still come away thinking this pride thing is a negative or a waste of time?

I thought religion was about opening your heart to everyone, maybe that is why certainly in Australia people are walking away from religion.

Sadly Dunkman what could be the greatest and most humanly beneficial core value of religion seems to get lost in the process.

All this why do we need this blah blah the very same week one of the first Australian openly gay sportsmen was found dead in his home at just 35 years of age. Not hard to connect the dots to understand what that means.

Balance is putting up the entire opinion piece - comments and all.

10 out of 10 teams are actively supporting the cause

Yeah, what does "being balanced" mean exactly? Having to agree with both sides? Why can't I just disagree with the hateful/brainwashed/ignorant side?

Until someone can convince me that either 1) gay people are gay on purpose, or 2) gay people are inferior human beings, then I see no justification for siding with those who villify them.

Even if a person was somehow only contemplating this issue for the first time now, how could they listen to the story of Isaac Humphries and still come away thinking this pride thing is a negative or a waste of time?

This stuff really matters, to a lot of people, and it costs virtually nothing.
It beggars belief to me that that is too much to ask of an NBL player.

We're asking people to be decent humans for 2 hours towards a group that still to this day suffers.

Players should not be subject to abuse and vilification for simply not wearing a logo and the LGBTQ community really should be focusing on how the great majority of the players support the Pride round rather than focusing on the minority who are uncomfortable with it.

Actively supporting it by...declaring it less important than their precious fee-fees?

This is where woke goes seriously awry. 1 side is 'just and moral', anyone not on that side is 'hateful/brainwashed/ignorant'.

A person's own belief is not 'virtually nothing', they are being asked to set aside those beliefs that form part of what grounds them as humans. I am going to respect their position just as they have respected others' choice to celebrate this event.

Magda Szubanski and those of her group will get on Q&A and happily suggest people are homophobes, bigots, haters if they declared they wouldn't support the proposal

The Cairns Taipans openly expressed their support for the Round in their press statement.

I mean...yes? "Gay people should be allowed to live their lives" is reasonable, "gay people should not be allowed to live their lives" is not. This isn't complicated, there's no need to "balance" anything or "find a middle ground", that's ridiculous.

This fucking snowflake "you have to respect all my beliefs no matter what they are" bullshit needs to stop.

Because that's the definition of the term

Actions speak louder than words, and frankly I'd have more respect for them as a club if they at least owned that they were refusing to support the round and in fact felt that the LGBTQ community wasn't worthy of support. At least they'd be honest.