i dont wanna pay a lot of my money on season tickets to watch anstey and barlow. Imports are what make the game entertaining. If you lose them, you will lose fans.


And if you don't believe imports make the fans come to the games then just remember what Hodge did for the 36ers when he was here.

interesting but i wouldnt support it. I think the imports are the most entertaining players to watch. Players like Ere, Hodge, Thomas and even Lampley were great to watch in the league.

I disagree mate. Imports are what make this league exciting and entertaining. It's part of why I love the aussie league and watch it. This is why I pay for season tickets.

Totally against this proposal.

lets have a team full of white guys who can't do any spectacular dunks but just jack up threes and plays no defense and thinks they're gangster.

the aussie coach would then have the inside running if he coached and NBL team, all of the good players would want to be on that team to maximise Boomer selection.

Imports raise the standard of local players , & therefore add value to our league. However, if the league cannot sustain itself, you would have to consider all options. I feel that if the league does not grow this year, imports should be reduced to 1 per team.

We must continue with the 2 imports policy as they really make a great contribution to our league.When I think of great players in the league a Hodge will come to mind before an Anstey.

on the contrary open up the restrictions to include asian and southern hemisphere born players as non-imports, merge the nznbl into 4 teams, stick a team in jakarta,singapore,kuala lumpar, manilla, guam & darwin, make 2 asian divisions including perth, 4 qld teams, west syd, syd, canberra, gong, mel1, mel2, adelaide, tassy, thats 24 teams, top 2 teams in each division make playoffs n the best team makes the finals against the top team in the new 24 team comp in china/japan/korea,

just a thought my friends, ill donate the first hundred bucks to the cause.

Losing all the imports would be counter productive to the employment of Australian Players. If 24 Australians are out of a job as a result of 3 clubs folding, a whole lot more would be out of a job if the league wasn't entertaining enough to attract spectators and sponsors. Its not a good thing to see clubs fold but on a positive note, it does boost the quality of the league. The 24 out of a job now, in the future will be replaced by current players who are not up to the same standard. At the same time, some of these licenses may be bought in the future adding more teams to the NBL again. Sorry, the no import idea is not a good one.

no imports is as good an idea as no lines on the court, the fun just goes out of the game

I must be a minority here. I "kind of" agree with the original poster.

I have never gone to a 6ers game just to watch our imports. I have always gone to a game hoping to see the 6ers flog some team. If the team happened to have 1,2 or 3 imports it never really bothered me as long as the team kept winning.

Maybe cut back imports to 1 per team.

We have to keep more Aussies playing.

Imports are not the be all & end oll of a comp. I seem to remember one of the Gelong Supercats last starting 5's had 4 imports (2 may have been natralised) and a young Shane Heal playing point. That team certainly didnt seem to do so well from memory.

The idea has merits, but I think it would reduce the appeal of the NBL and we could potentially lose more Australian players as a result.

Some of the imports (Ballinger, Redhage, Rychart, DT, Franklin, Groves, Ere) have been playing in Australia long enough and there's nothing saying that the new wave won't like it here and settle as well. Think of how many great names have stayed and settled down.

Work on improving the opportunities we have (increasing popularity of the SEABL, strengthening the NBL) rather than subtracting from what's there.

If you took the internationals out of the NBA, it'd be a less interesting league.

look at what happened to the quality of players in the ABA when imports where taken out of it.

Imports improve the quality of the league as everyone has to play at a higher level to compete.

I remember just over a year ago when North Adelaide had a home game against Norwood. Before the game started (women were still playing), I just happened to sit next to Rupert Sapwell and chatting. As much as he would have liked Dusty on his side, he did say it was great to have in the league because all other teams have had to lift their game just to compete. If the imports do this in the NBL, then the quality of the league improves. If the quality of the league improves, then that can only be a good thing for Australian players because the rest of the world starts to take notice and opportunities arise for them overseas as a result of that. Imports create opportunities rather than take them away.