Just another sad indictment on the cancer that is the Gold Coast Blaze.

Shite, long time since I've seen an offload like that published about basketball!

Good on him, the Blaze and Melbourne have made the whole league look like a joke

of course the breakers owner admitting he had double contracts didn't either.

Wouldn't call letting loose the facts as "scathing" but glad someone did it. No media at the creditors' meeting so I guess this is just a repeat of what he said then.

Its good to see a player speaking their mind rather than AFL players who give you nothing.

I wonder if he will be fined by the league for this..

Piss off vv. good on Harvey for speaking up on the gc cowards.

@Nat - interesting situation if he does. Has he brought the league into disrepute or just highlighted the actions that have brought the blaze and league into disrepute ?

Senstock leaving so suddenly around the time the blaze went in to VA is starting to make a lot more sense.

The league needs more openness and honesty from the clubs, league and the players. How are we going to grow the league and attract bigger sponsors (more $$$ for players) if the public sees the NBL feeding on itself ?

I dont like the Kings (Heal - ewww) but I can guarantee i will be applauding Harvey when he steps onto the CCC - Respect.

Harvey won't be fined. He's already been screwed by receiving only 73% of his wage.

Yes , I can now well see why Sengstock made for the exit - I suspect that he wanted to make a very firm stand against the Gold Coast and was told by the other board members to cool it as it "would be bad for the sport" - undoubtedly the Tomlinsons had spun some "she will be right" line to the other longer serving board members such as Derwin - and they delivered what they wanted to believe.

I wonder how long Kristina Keneally will stay as BA chairperson if this really hits the fan. She would have been told a lot of BS coming in as a "newbie" - and this will open her eyes.



Quote from article

Harvey confronted Basketball Australia chief executive Scott Derwin at last week's creditors' meeting. He admitted the seven-figure sum was never guaranteed by the Blaze.

"Every time I saw Scott Derwin on the news it was to support the Blaze owners and the organisation. He never once supported the players or an unfairly dismissed coach who gave 30 years service to the NBL."

IMHO - Derwin has been successful at sucking on Basketball's money glands for well over a decade now.

Don't make this about Harvey and the Blaze.
Just keep it to Joyce and the Blaze.

Anyone who has served as long as Derwin on a board with this kind of reputation should be cleaned out on principle. In fact the whole board should be cleaned out on principle. Saves the trouble of bothering to find out who the bad eggs are, even if I can smell them from here.

And I hardly think Larry was trying to be the deep-throat here: in the past he has spewed the same kind of opaque airy-fairy bullshit as the rest of them.

very very old, there is no way what you attribute to Sengstock would have been the way it went down.

Sengstock it appears was shown the door by the Board for a range of issues, some to do with the to date unsuccessful Melbourne franchise and how that situation was allowed to unfold.

Its an interesting comment on Derwin. My understanding is that at the start of his time with BA (1999ish?) BA was in a pretty poor way financially and he largely repaired that through prudent management.

I also am led to believe that his replacement (LS) was on significantly more money than Derwin was on when he left.

I agree with Harvey that Derwin should have come out in support of the players, and strongly, but he was also not involved when Joyce was terminated.

Should Derwin have spoken about Joyce? Not sure. If he had would he also have been expected to speak about all the other unsecured creditors?

Mick, Derwin has been on the board for about 12 months.

Mystro; the whole league is a joke, and has been for a VERY long time.

@ Ho, yeah but he was CEO for a decade, arguably the darkest decade of the sport. He's implicated.

Mick, he was CEO of BA which was separate from the NBL. It was hardly dark days for basketball outside the NBL with participation staying high and the Opals, Gems, Emus and wheelchair teams all doing well.

True it was the BA not the NBL. However I CAN remember him being in on all sorts of decision making and on boards as the representative from BA that had to be there. Maybe we can pitch some of the blame back at that highly paid American CEO who resigned to do something with one of Canada's Olympic sporting teams. (I think) Anyone remember his name?

OK HQ

I am happy to be corrected , or at least better informed re Sengstock's departure , perhaps a bit of misplaced nostalgic loyalty there on my part -

However Derwin was the driving force behind the "one basketball" concept of BA taking control /merging /absorbing the previously independent NBL, WNBL , and ABL ( seabl etc) and ( I think) referee national association.

He was "in the room" , if not actually voting - on every major national basketball decision for well over a decade- and getting well paid for it.

He bagged the shit outta joyce & so did Heal. These 2 are running away 2 a new town but have there own poison on the GC. The only bloke with half a clau said this...



Funny how when the shoe is on the other foot Harvey is happy to air things in public.

Wonder what he would have thought if the Blaze went public with his salary and extras demands outside of the salary cap in the past

Not a pretty situation at all but there is always 2 sides to a story.

very very old.

Forget for a sec that it was Derwin. We had a CEO for ten years, who primarily in that time administered BA, and only at the end had a role in bringing the NBL under BA. In the end he was not there when this happened.

As Paul indicated during this period the non NBL part of basketball largely performed well. (I would add to the WNBL comments and say BA largely saved this once independent league)

What is the problem with the CEO a), being paid and b) being paid well?

What do you expect a BA CEO to be paid? And what was Derwin's salary relative to that? All I ever heard was that the CEO who replaced Derwin was much more generously paid than he was.

HO

to be open , my personal views re Dewin is 75% based upon his performance in the NBL / Canberra Cannons / Newcastle Hunters debacle, where his (covert) advice to many of the parties involved meant I was gob-smacked to learn his background was as a lawyer. He was astute enough to have none of his comments/advice committed to paper.

The other 25% is based upon my personal experience re his ability to talk a great deal prior to that re furthering basketball in Australia in his role as BA CEO , followed by his inability to back up that talk in real action as and when the time came to act upon his ( many) assertions.

Basically BA ran on the performance of the Opals and the Boomers in Olympics and worlds to attract money from the federal government.

And if Sengstock was on $280,000 a year, then he MAY have been on a salary increase from Derwin, but it would be a close thing , given Derwin's salary in the mid 00's

In any case I was unsurprised to learn that BA's public face has been to back the owners and hope it all goes away.

I think that if anyone researches prior threads they will find my previous posts re what I thought the blaze could be doing - which appears to have been correct

Ok, I've seen your comments previously on the Newcastle/Canberra thing - and I can't comment as I have virtually no knowledge. I think previously I commented that I would be surprised how much influence he had at the time given the NBL and BA were firmly acting as separate entities at that time.

I am reasonably positive about Derwin's tenure as CEO.

My view is that he had a lot of shit to deal with early, including a poor financial position and then the Boomers losing to NZ in 2001 which actually threatened Govt funding. The Boomers program was completely dismantled by 2001 (retirements, coaching changes etc) and then rebuilt largely by 2004. Whatever people say, he appointed Jan Stirling, and they got the job done in 2006. As an administrator you have to create what conditions you can for team success.

On top of that, having hostile states to deal with never makes this role easy (in any sport), and NSW are the main culprit here.

Certainly he did all the ground work for the NBL and BA merging, even if he did not get to follow it through so I am positive that was the right direction - and a significant outcome.

BA saved the WNBL in his time basically, because when Leanne Grantham left it was in poor condition, and I am not blaming her for that, I just think it had run its course as an independent league.

I remain of the opinion that during his tenure grassroots basketball performed very well (questionable how much he would have influenced this) in most states, our high performance and development remained strong. It's not like he tore things down.

Everyone hates their sports CEO, its in the DNA of everyone who is passionate about their sport. People hate Buckley, and Demitriou, and Gallop etc.

BTW, I heard more than 280k for LS. maybe 25% more.

Even so, right now I reckon the job is a 350-450k role.

You guys give Derwin waaaaay too much credit. :)

If you have ever met Scott or seen him in action you would know that he doesn't have any cahunas. There is no way he would have pushed any issue at all.

This is probably what makes him a good chair.

When Larry took over I saw it as a good thing but lost a bit of respect when he told the league to stop playing the anthem before games.

Question for any NBL players that posters here may know personally....
Do you know if your NBL club has paid the 1 million dollar surety to the NBL?
If so, do you know under what conditions you could be
reimbursed/paid out etc if your club got into similar Blaze financial difficulties?

How good is the NBLPA?

The Hawks semi-famously got their guarantee from Arun. Not sure how they'd be reimbursed - I imagine most players just hope it won't come to that.

The NBLPA have made a couple of brief comments on the Blaze situation on Twitter recently. I get the impression that they're trying to get a bit more active in general.

That's what I thought, total bankruptcy only.
BTW, 3 personal responses tell me those 3 players have no idea what the story is with their own teams.

No money changes hands with a guarantee. It is simply a piece of paper typically provided by a financial institution. The effect is that the provider of the guarantee can ensure the offerer can perform financially if required.

Only one thing wrong with all of this.
A Supreme Court ruling should have been carried out between last June (?) and this May.
Very sad.

Nothing he did ever justifies multi million dollar owners ruining him and his family over a $300k payout that was commanded by the courts. Sorry but that's totally unfair, it's unacceptable.
That team is a hobby for the Tomlinsons. Why do the sport team owners always try to pass it off as a gift to the Community?
Donate to schools and medical centres.

Nicely said Anon.

J0yce would also be liable for back-dated income tax if the ATO ever audit his affairs as he was effectively an employee, yet retaining profits in an entity attracting a lower tax rate (I assume so, why else bother with the corporate structure that was put in place?).

If the NBL contract had been signed as it should of by the coach then this would be a dead issue as the existing contracts were void when the NBL was reborn.

Bruce was due to play in Adelaide but left as an example

As Julian said trying to be clever tax wise has been his undoing here.