You say that as a joke, but if the NBL backed that sort of thing 1 Marquee player for every team - surely every game would have to be a sell out. TV ratings would go up - Marty's three year plan might even work out......argh to dream!!!

Be Good ................only a dream

The NBL may already be thinking about this to try and cash in on the NBA Lockout - i know the crocs are

personally i dont think the NBL is smart enough to think outside of the square on things like this. Dennis Rodman in a pre-season game is about as inventive as they get.

The NBL missed a big oppurtunity IMO.

Perfect time to introduce a marquee player rule with the lockout approaching. Bring in some NBA players, fill stadiums, get publicity.

Of course the lockout will end and the NBA guys will go back to the U.S. But then we could use the rule for future seasons to try and lure back our main guys in Europe ie: Ingles, Newley, Neilson, Barlow.

Imagine going to a 36ers vs Kings game watching Mills and Iverson running around or a Townsville v Melbourne match with Shaq v Bogut. Crazy.

All that supposes that clubs (losing money) can afford to get marquee players. The clubs meet regularly and did just the other day(s) I believe. If the clubs wanted this introduced, I'm sure they could do it. In reality, teams like the Hawks aren't spending the cap, Cairns may not be either and the Kings are recruiting Martin, Dann, etc while still getting big crowds.

If the maximum salary rule has been relaxed, then clubs are already allowed to sign expensive players and fill their bench with scrubs. But they aren't.

The Hawks don't have much more room to fill in their stadium, nor FNQ teams or Perth. Nothing wrong with a slow and steady approach coming out of a particularly tumultuous period.

Shaq's injured and won't be playing anywhere.

Problem is our guys in Europe would be good but not great players in the NBL and they arent household names, and yet clubs would be risking their financial position on them.

The Dragons had Worthington, Ingles, Donta Smith and Tremmell Darden (as well as some other good talent), spent a decent amount on promotion, and still only averaged around 4000 in the regular season, which was the league average for last year.

You could spend a lot of money on an NBA player and he turn out to be not that good in the NBL style and have little impact on crowds.

That would be awesome but Shaq gets injured very quickly it would be a waste of a import but it would boost rating and would be really cool to see him play in the NBL because he is one of the greatest NBA players ever

That would be awesome but Shaq gets injured very quickly it would be a waste of a import but it would boost rating and would be really cool to see him play in the NBL because he is one of the greatest NBA players ever

A.W-excellent idea- i am totally with you, should have a marquee rule just like the a-league!! if clubs can't afford it- don't get a marquee player, but at least give the option

You know, having Shaq as our starting Centre would be a bonus, especially if our "get the ball into the centre" mentality keeps up in 2011-12. No one playing in the NBL would be able to handle the guy, including Big Red despite the two being the same height.

Of course, he'd have to go from earning $1,352,181 US (his 2010-11 Celtics salary according to Basketball-Reference.com) to around $150,000 Australian if he wanted to showboa...er...play here. And any NBL team would risk using up 10 points in the cap and I don't know about you but would he be worth it just to get a full house every game and probably win the NBL championship off his back? You be the judge in this fantasy contest because I'm torn between "Hell Yeah" and "more than likely" on this one lol