Former bank executive Diane Smith-Gander will chair a sevenmember commission that will attempt to devise a strategy to save the league.

Joining her will be fellow BA board member Bruce Spangler, association chief executive Larry Sengstock and four representatives from the seven clubs that have submitted bids to play next season.

The four club delegates are expected to be ratified in the next 24 hours.

But the future of the Adelaide 36ers is one of the key planks in the process of setting up an eight-team league, which would include a Melbournebased franchise. If the 36ers don’t survive, the league could still collapse.

And although the Perth Wildcats made a submission earlier this week to play in a 2009-10 competition, they have not committed.

The West: "One-on-one with Andrew Vlahov."

What should the salary cap be for NBL clubs? Why?

It should be linked to a percentage of gross revenue which secures the financial viability of the clubs and the employment of all involved in the sport.

Does the player points system work? What changes would you make and why?

It works but clubs and players must move to a disciplined system in which salaries are linked to performance. Performance is established by the objective ratings system. So the better you are, the more you get paid.

Where and when did the NBL go wrong to the point where it has got itself in this mess? Who is to blame? Can it be fixed? How?

If all of us who love basketball and want it to thrive, work together, then we will be able to do what soccer has done and develop a new league. There are no winners in the blame game and I believe even though there are two schools of thought at the moment on the best way forward, there’s no bitterness between the parties. Everyone has the best interests of the game at heart and it’s not too late to unite and get a professional competition created correctly.. I believe this new competition would be underpinned by a new financial model, a Green (environmentally-friendly) League.

Adelaide Now: "New NBL keen to find VIC entrant."

Sengstock said BA would introduce teams from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane into the competition in 2010 when a shift to a July-December format is expected. It is believed that would comply with FoxSports' desire to throw its weight behind a truly revamped league.

At long last it appears the game is moving ahead by divesting itself of its self-interest partners. It was two years ago BA and the NBL, with the support of the Australian Sports Commission, initiated the extensive two-stage independent review which determined the existing NBL had to be replaced by a more workable and financially viable model.

"By playing the 2009-10 season, we can maintain a presence in the market-place, continue to provide employment for our elite players, coaches and referees and set the foundation for a truly national competition in 2010," Sengstock said.

Adelaide Now: "36ers out but Dome tenants okay."

Sixers staff were told this week Hemmerling's version of the club had reached the end of the line and while the "Save Our Sixers" consortium is very much in the picture to take over his license, his absence leaves that process somewhat in limbo. For the Lightning and Basketball SA though, their agreements with Dome management - Eddy Groves - remains intact and the 36ers also will be welcomed back when/if the time comes.

Dragons captain Mark Worth-nothing-ton also has shown himself as misinformed as he is tactful by bagging BA, essentially failing to grasp it has shown rare courage to not be bullied into handing stewardship of any new league back into the hands of those whose irresponsibility helped drive the game to its lowest ebb in 30-plus years.

Look on the bright side. While salaries in the new league will be in line with what the market can afford, many high-calibre players come into the free agent mix. Larry Sengstock Medallist Donta Smith would be on my radar.

"I'll head back and try out for the NBA like I do every year, then we'll have a look at it," Smith said after South won the grand final.

"But I love it here. I wouldn't mind coming back. The crowds are great, the basketball's great."

Lest we forget, Daniel Joyce - one of the only multi-talented players nominated in every NBL &!#@%!*& award category last season - also is now available.

Gaze.com.au: "Corletto escapes to England."

With the wheels already in motion in preparation for a worse case scenario, Corletto is set to jet his way to England and land himself a gig in the English Basketball League using his dual-citizenship to play as a local.

But firstly Corletto, along with NBA superstars Ben Gordon and Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls, plus Steve Leven (who spent the 2006/07 pre-season with the Perth Wildcats) will spend three weeks in August trying out as part of England's 18-man squad for the 2012 Olympic games.

"I'm in the process of finding a team," said Corletto, just hours after he heard the one and only NBL club he had played for make the announcement to players, "I've been put in the (English) national squad and that comes first."

An unofficial derivation of Basketball Australia's new logo, photoshopped to integrate the national colours of Australia. Unfortunately I think it looks a little bit too much like Football Australia's logo.

Over at Hoops.com.au, Isaac Forman has come up with a fantastic idea to help push Basketball Australia in the right direction. This is the perfect example in itself, of the latent ingenuity that is out there in the basketball community, just waiting to be harnessed to drive the sport in the right direction.

Isaac has proposed the concept of a Basketball Ideas Summit to bring together the experts of the basketball community to provide the "Wisdom of the Crowds" and hopefully cover "things like local club marketing, broader league marketing, players, parity, branding, grassroots, financial viability of clubs, future planning, game nights, etc."

The idea involves a collaboration of approximately 100 minds across various disciplines. I think this is a brilliant concept, as it not only brings in more angles on the issues the sport faces, but it is essentially a cost-free solution. To get an idea of how successful this could be, all one needs to do is check out the discussions that take place on Hoops and Ozhoops Boards -- there are plenty of very passionate fans out there that have stuck with the sport through thick and thin and have a wide range of specialities that could be put to good use. You would have to think that we could bring in the knowledge of fans, club officials, referees and opinionated players such as John Rillie and Chris Anstey.

If you're passionate about the state of play, I'd encourage you to join the discussion over at Hoops on this topic.

****

Meanwhile, for inspiration, here is a flashback to the 1980's when the NBL was at it's peak -- very fond memories.

Basketball Australia has had a solid year to come up with a reform plan for the game of basketball in Australia -- more specifically, they have had that long to develop a structure for a new elite senior mens' competition in Australia; a successor to the National Basketball League (NBL). Technically they have achieved their goal, with the annoucement by BA Chief Executive Officer, Larry Sengstock, that a seven team competition will go ahead in 2009-10.

However it is a struggle to find many that would call the reform package a success.

The seven teams that have continued with their expressions of interest for the new competition are the Adelaide 36ers, Cairns Taipans, Gold Coast Blaze, New Zealand Breakers, Perth Wildcats, Townsville Crocodiles and Wollongong Hawks. Notably absent from that list are two teams that have pulled the plug on their 2009-10 aspirations, finalists the Melbourne Tigers and South Dragons -- the only two teams from Australia's sporting capital.

The newly touted league will hence be without teams from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane for the coming season -- hardly a success-drenched plan in anyone's books. Sydney (Kings) and Brisbane (Bullets) were already absent after their respective collapses a year ago -- however there had been speculation of a return of one/both clubs after parties attempted to resurrect them for the new competition. Sydney's only entry in the 2008-09 season, the Spirit, decided against lodging an EOI for next season.

Victoria's Sports Minister James Merlino has joined a chorus of cat-calls that BA has failed to deliver a new structure that appeals to all parties and that they have decided to go ahead with the 2009-10 season, despite the fact that things are clearly not in a format that looks to be promising. Merlino was interviewed on the ABC's World Today, calling the decision to go ahead with the new competition "a joke."

It is just extremely disappointing for Victorian basketball fans that this league will go ahead it seems without any teams from Melbourne and frankly it is a joke.

You know, we have got a situation where, an extraordinary situation where at the local level, at the grass roots, the sport is absolutely thriving. At the elite level, you know the Boomers and the Opals are at the top echelon of the sport world-wide, yet Basketball Australia and nationally, we just can't seem to get our act together for a fair dinkum national league.

When asked whether he would approach the Federal Government on the issue and whether they would be supportive of change in the league, he had this to say:

It's really a responsibility of the national codes to put together proposals that stack up in a governance sense, that stack up financially. So they've got to put the case to the Federal Government so whether we are talking about the national soccer competition or the transnational netball competition or basketball in this country, they've got to make the case.

It is the responsibility of the sporting codes to make the case to the Federal Government and to states and territories that their competition is viable so really, the essence of this problem stems to Basketball Australia putting up a commercially viable national competition.

When they do that, they will get the support of governments, they will get the support of the key basketball teams around the country.

Former NBA player and Melbourne Tiger, Chris Anstey has called the moves by BA "a piece of crap". He also doubts that he would travel interstate if he did compete in a new competition, saying he may be retired as of now.

Meanwhile, NBL superstar and superblogger John Rillie has indicated that he is looking for other work, as he has severe doubts about the veracity of this new league structure. JR posted this video on his thoughts (before the BA annoucement went live) and he had this discussion with Isaac Forman of hoops.com.au on possible players that would join a rebel league, should the newly discussed league not find its feet.

It has been clear for some time now that BA should have elected to take a year off and get the league sorted out once and for all, re-launching out of the ashes like a Phoenix and making the kind of impact that soccer's re-birth made with their A-League. The withdrawal of the two Melbourne sides in the week of D-Day should have only added fuel to the already burning fire on this topic. Another punter has a similar view on this here.

The only possible benefit of running with the downsized seven team league this season is to keep players in work -- however the long-term disadvantages of this ill-chosen move are too numerous to discuss here and now. BA needs to re-think this move -- and fast.

Ten News had this report on the situation:

(Photo credit: NBL.com.au)

The 2008-09 National Basketball League season has passed with nary a mention on this site -- the most recent entry being a review of Game 1 of the Finals. This fact has not gone unnoticed by me. In fact it has bothered me somewhat, raising the question in my mind as to why I lacked sufficient passion to blurt out at least a cursory summary of the Finals series.  

Soul-searching complete, I've arrived at a summary of reasons as to what has diminished my previously huge passion for our league downunder in recent times:

1. The temporary nature and winds of change in the air have made it hard to take the 2008-09 season as seriously as in the past. The collapse of teams and the back-of-the-mind knowledge that the league would be turned upside down at season end, almost make you think, "well, let's just wait and see what is going to happen next year, once it's all sorted out." Now, I'm almost certain that most semi-passionate fans have been lost by the league for this very same reason. Would it have been better to have just taken the year off? Perhaps.
2. From my current base in the rainy UK it is much easier to follow the NBA than it is to follow the NBL. Whilst improvements were made to the official site's live scores system and the ability to listen to some games online via radio broadcast was a welcome addition, it's just not the same as being able to WATCH a game. The advent of the NBA's International Broadband League Pass (ilp.nba.com for those unaware) made it much easier to feel a part of the NBA. I'm blissfully unaware of the cost structure involved with setting up a similar package for the NBL in order to air games online, but if it's possible to do it at a reasonable fee to fans, please do it. It pulls in punters like nothing else -- particularly in this everything-is-online age.
3. The Finals series being an all-Melbourne affair would have been absolute dynamite for those in "the world's most liveable city", but not so envigorating for those that are fans of a team like the Sydney Kings that no longer exist (though I hope they are to return soon).
4. On that point, the loss of my home team, one I have been passionate about for going on two decades was an absolute passion killer. It was like wearing socks to bed on your wedding night -- in other words, it didn't kill the passion completely, but it sure put a damp rag over it. 

All of that off my chest, it is now time to redress the situation; both for the sake of my own catching up on the season that was and for the sake of documenting 2008-09 for posterity on the site. After all, this past year was potentially the most monumentous in the history of Australian basketball. We've seen financial collapses, countless suggestions of improvements that can be made to the league, a complete restructure of Basketball Australia, not to mention a darn good, no... great Finals series.

Over the next week A Stern Warning will take a look at all of the aspects of 2008-09 -- a season review, if you will (if you won't then I will). We'll look at the individual award winners, the champions, the wooden spooners, those that will be back next year and those that won't. Ultimately this will lead into the off-season of uncertainty with developments on the NewNBL (or whatever it is going to be called).

This post will be updated with links to all of the respective articles that come out of this NBL season review.