SVD
Years ago
If You Are Around Long Enough
Was watching the NBL Grand Final Game 5 on Friday and commented to a friend that if you hang around the NBL long enough you are guaranteed to win a championship. He of course said I was talking s***. I qualified my position and said I could not imagine that there is more than a handful of players in the NBL (Australian or naturalised Australians) that have been in the league more than 10 years without a championship. I then shortened it to 6 years.
So I went through the list of current Australian or Naturalised Australian NBL players to see which ones have not won championships. Turns out there are a few more than I thought but not many (most of these players have mainly played for Perth, Cairns, Townsville or West Sydney).
Darryl McDonald Yes
Lanard Copeland Yes
Anthony Stewart Yes
Shane Heal Yes
Darnell Mee Yes
John Rillie Yes
David Stiff Yes
Tony Ronaldson Yes
Brett Maher Yes
Paul Rogers Yes
Martin Cattalini Yes
Jason Smith Yes
Chris Anstey Yes
Ben Melmeth Yes
Stephen Hoare Yes
C.J. Bruton Yes
Glen Saville Yes
Aaron Trahair Yes
Axel Dench Yes
Ben Knight Yes
Mat Campbell Yes
Sam Mackinnon Yes
Michael Hill Yes
James Harvey Yes
Daniel Egan Yes
Gary Boodnikoff Yes
Nathan Crosswell Yes
Bradley Sheridan Yes
Stephen Black Yes
B.J Carter Yes
Luke Martin Yes
Luke Kendall Yes
Brad Williamson Yes
Daryl Corletto Yes
Oscar Forman Yes
Mark Worthington Yes
Jacob Holmes Yes
Cameron Tragardh Yes
David Barlow Yes
Graeme Dann Yes
Tommy Greer Yes
Adam Gibson Yes
Brad Davidson No
Ben Pepper No
Scott McGregor No
Ben Castle No
David Cooper No
Aaron Grabau No
Russell Hinder No
Damien Ryan No
Peter Crawford No
Neil Mottram No
Matthew Burston No
Matthew Shanahan ???
I think Shanahan was in the SE Melbourne team when they won ... but his stats on nblstat.com don't reflect that - that said I could be wrong.
Just thought it was interesting ... sort of proves my point that you just need to hang around long enough and with a bit of luck and you will get a ring.
To look at it another way, no stars of the league don't have missed out. And to answer your question Ben Pepper was never a star.
