Peter Williams: On-court legend shooting to resurrect league

Larry Sengstock is one of life's high achievers. He played 293 games of basketball for Australia and went to four Olympic Games and four world championships.

He won five NBL championships, is a member of Australian basketball's Hall of Fame and also earned a physical education degree, followed by an MBA.

In a distinguished post-basketball career, he was part of the original bid team for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and worked through to the Games themselves as head of sport and operations.

Until the end of April, he was a consultant for a Melbourne company specialising in various sports venue projects. It's a CV to be proud of.

But on April 27, he started as Basketball Australia chief executive, a job which seems destined to extend his management, sales and diplomatic talents like none before.

Sengstock, once one of the great on-court stars, now has the crucial off-court task to save the showpiece national league from disintegration.

In the late 1980s and early '90s, the NBL was the envy of many sporting codes. By 1994, there were 14 teams, three of them in Melbourne. The league had a TV deal with Channel Ten, an abundance of sponsors and life was good.

Just why it's collapsed to where only seven teams are confirmed for the 2009-10 season is an MBA thesis in itself. Mismanagement, a lack of strategy, the greed and ego of many club owners and some old-fashioned sporting politics would cover most of the issues.

Now Big Larry has to get momentum moving in the other direction - and do it quickly. Next season has to be scheduled, stadiums booked and players contracted so the season can start in October.

Then he needs to get a TV deal together in Australia, and try to resurrect some sort of Melbourne team, not just to make an even eight teams, but because Melbourne is the heart of Aussie basketball.

Last season's cross-town finals series between the Melbourne Tigers and South Dragons, which the Dragons won 3-2, was regarded as one of the best in the league's history.

Sengstock, although born a Queenslander, is a transplanted Melburnian who won three of his five NBL titles with Melbourne teams.

The NBL could possibly get by in the interim without a team from Sydney or Brisbane but needs a side from the Victorian capital to have any credibility. That's why the offer of Wellington's Saints to compete was rejected.

There are 600,000 basketball players in Australia and it's one of the great international sports, with tremendous appeal to kids. Taking into account men's, women's and juniors, the country is ranked by FIBA as the world's No 2 basketball nation. Therefore, it's remarkable that something as seemingly straightforward as an elite national league has become such a shambles.

But the initial steps Sengstock has taken seem sensible, if not well overdue.

He's going to have a seven-person commission to run the league, independent of Basketball Australia.

And he's asked every club which enters to put up $1 million - effectively insurance against financial collapse. It's a demand the Tigers and Dragons don't agree with ... or can't afford.

Sengstock's eventual plan is for an eight- or 10-team league, with strong and successful franchises in the five mainland capitals and Auckland, complimented by some from regional centres.

A rich TV deal, on which a sustainable league and financially sound clubs would be based, can only go ahead if the teams come from the big cities.

It won't happen immediately but there are high hopes for Sengstock's abilities. Like the great player he once was, he has pulled down the rebound of an NBL mess.

There won't be a fast break, rather a slow measured build-up with some astute tactical moves before the three-pointer is swished at the other end, hopefully for the 2010-2011 season.