Basketball: Jumping into the big league

By PETER JESSUP

The Tall Blacks' success at the world championships has had further positive spin-off for the game, pushing the Australians to accept a Kiwi team in their national league.

Entrepreneur Jeff Green, a four-time national champion coach, will lead basketball's as-yet unnamed equivalent to the Warriors or Kingz.

Green's fellow directors of Proteam Holdings, the company granted a franchise by the Australian NBL, are former Waikato rugby director Dallas Fisher and cricket manager Michael Redman, who is the interim chief executive of the new team.

It will cost around A$3 million ($3.3 million) a year. Fisher denied the franchise had paid that much but would not get specific about cost. But on top of that one-off payment will come venue hire, entertainment, training costs, medical back-up, travel and accommodation, and that's before they get to a player roster.

Negotiations are under way with several Tall Blacks playing in Europe, not least of them captain Pero Cameron, who captains the Chester Jets in England. Cameron and Green are friends but Green made it clear that Cameron might be out of their financial league.

The Australian league imposes a salary cap of A$900,000. Proteam would not be able to sign a full complement of Tall Blacks, Green said. Australian clubs were more aware of the New Zealand players after their success in the world champs and the appearance at the Sydney Olympics and he expected them to compete for signatures.

Proteam had also learned from the Warriors and Kingz that hardened professionals, used to backing up week-in week-out, would be required to teach the top locals.

The ANBL side will not be allied to the Titans. Proteam has agreed with Basketball New Zealand that it was not in the best interests of players or the domestic competition for it to be dominated by a "super-team".

But Basketball New Zealand was clearly pleased that its best players would not necessarily have to pursue overseas contracts to earn a living from the game. Their presence in the domestic league was likely bring media cover and sponsors' dollars, as well as building a development path for the stars of the future.

The arrangement will require close liaison between Green and the man who beat him to the Tall Blacks job, Tab Baldwin, and the pair have not always seen eye-to-eye. Green said he wanted Baldwin involved in player development and would be sitting down with him to talk procedure for the smooth movement of players between the local league, the Australian league team and the national side.

The Australian league, which has struggled financially, is looking to increased returns from the transtasman rivalry.

The competition will be fierce - the sport's international governing body, FIBA, rates the Australian league the sixth-best in the world. Tall Blacks Mark Dickel and Tony Rampton have been the only New Zealand regulars in it, with the Cairns Taipans and now-defunct Victoria Titans respectively.

Auckland up-and-comer Lindsay Tait trialled with the new Victoria Giants when they got into injury trouble towards the end of the current season. The finals start this weekend.

A pre-Christmas bid by Green and Proteam to buy the Canberra Cannons collapsed when the players came under pressure not to assist a transfer to New Zealand hands.

Proteam directors will attend a meeting of all Australian franchisees next month to finalise details of their participation in the league. With less than six months from there to tip-off, there is a lot to be done, not least of it securing finance from sponsors and broadcasters.

That should be easier given the high that basketball is enjoying and the value of trans tasman exposure. Success breeds success.