When Laura Hodges says every spot on the Opals roster is important she isn’t speaking in platitudes, she is talking from experience. In almost 14 years with the Opals program, Hodges has played near every role in the team from being a young role player off the bench to being the team’s sixth man and in more recent years a… Read more →
The NBL’s latest round of off-court dramas serves as the topic for another interesting email exchange between Liam Santamaria and Roy Ward. SANTAMARIA: What a wild few weeks it’s been for the NBL, Roy Boy. It began with MVPgate, accelerated with Wollongong bringing in the administrators, gathered speed with the Breakers winning their fourth title in five years (did anybody… Read more →
Where will Todd Blanchfield be three years from now? Will he be still running around with the Townsville Crocs? Will he be a Boomer? An Olympian? A European star? Even an NBA player? Those who are closest to Blanchfield, especially Crocs coach Shawn Dennis, believe the sky is the limit for the Mackay native who at just 23 year old… Read more →
There are doubts when the Houston Rockets don’t pass the ball, doubts about their stars, their bench and even their coach. But with each win and each pass the Rockets appear to be quietly quelling those doubts. The Rockets gave NBA followers around the world a taste of how good they can be during their 112-101 win over Oklahoma City… Read more →
The WNBL season is now on its Christmas-New Year break and will resume on January 2. At the halfway mark Townsville Fire are a couple of games ahead in top spot and have to be considered the title favourites after two second place finishes to Bendigo Spirit. The Spirit are right in the mix too but have suffered two disappointing… Read more →
We are through the first third of the NBL season and are fast approaching mid-term. Cairns Taipans started the season on fire but have cooled as New Zealand Breakers and Melbourne United have started clicking into gear. All the while Perth Wildcats and Adelaide 36ers, last year’s grand finalists, have shown both strengths and weaknesses after some difficult player changes… Read more →
If you could select any player from any era to construct a starting five for each NBA franchise, which team would win it all? Downtown’s Tommy Greer, Liam Santamaria and Roy Ward snake-drafted 16 NBA franchises, divided them into two brackets (East and West) and randomly assigned their Conference seedings. Five starters were chosen along with one extra (either a Coach or a 6th Man). Over the… Read more →
If there is any phrase to keep in mind when discussing Australian women’s basketball - it’s that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. When Penny Taylor left for Europe in 2002, few would have predicted she wouldn’t play a minute in her home league for the next 12 years. We all knew Taylor was a world class… Read more →
As I sat in the stands at the State Basketball Centre and took in a high quality WNBL clash between Bendigo Spirit and Melbourne Boomers on Sunday - something struck me. I could hear my own thoughts, mostly because there wasn’t music booming while the game was on. Compared to the blaring volume and questionable taste of the MC’s for… Read more →
The 2014/15 WNBL season is here and as always there has been plenty of player movement to discuss. Downtown’s Roy Ward looks over the new additions to each of the eight rosters. New to the league: Kelly Faris comes to the WNBL with exceptional pedigree playing for Team USA women’s coach Geno Auriemma at University of Connecticut then in the WNBA… Read more →
