Would be a nice fit. What about Homocide? That would b the biggest kick in the ass 4 Gleeson!

good signing.

Gleeson could care less what happens with the Tigers or Homocide. Saw him in Kangaroos gear at North Melbourne so pretty sure he will be just fine.

Braswell = Naturalised Kiwi/Local
Homicide = Import

So Braswell has married a Kiwi and taken out citizenship?
Because he is American and played as an import previously.
natwhereyouat, you know something we don't or we know something you don't?
Just asking.

Braswell isn't married and is single but got his citizenship somehow.

Kiwi's are dodgy in that regard, rushed it through hoping to have him for Olympics i heard.


He met the criteria for NZ citizenship and applied and it was granted so he can now play as a local much like Rychart, Ballinger, Redhage etc.
Basketball NZ hoped it would be through in time for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament but it didn't so Casey Frank went. It has prob been granted and hence why he is training with the Tigers. What's dodgy? Would you have preferred him to spend a stint on Christmas Island while he waited for his application to be denied to be processed?

The point is mystro is that it is far more difficult to get Australian citizenship than NZ

This potentially gives the Breakers and unfair advantage

if the situation was reversed there would be a large number of naturalised imports still playing in the NBL

Farley
Groves
Abney
Ellis

anyone who has spent longer than 2 years in the NBL would have their citizenship and still contributing in someway to an NBL team.

so do you think NZ are going to quickly let another 20 million people into NZ and Braswell isn't signed with the Breakers because they can't fit him under the points cap and any Australian franchise is able to recruit players from NZ as locals so where is the unfair advantage?

BJF, those players could take the time and naturalise if they really wanted. Ballinger, Gruber, Redhage, Rychart, etc have all done it without too much drama.

How many naturalised Americans are there playing for the Breakers? Smith is (possibly) with the Kings. Braswell (supposedly) with the Tigers.

And yet, he's been signed by Melbourne. At least NZ have some standards to meet the criteria. I've only one more thing to add, Bo McCallebi?!

A few imports are trying to go down the same road as Braswell, but like Mystro said they rushed his through in the hope it would be cleared by the time the Olympic qualifiers came around, but it was a few weeks too late.
I highly doubt they would do the same for someone like Abney as there is next to no chance he would make the Tall Blacks.

Dodgy? Yeah. But I don't really care either way. Like Isaac mentioned, these former imports haven't signed with the Breakers so it's no real advantage at the moment. Only people this effects is the fringe Aussie talent who's spot is now taken. But if they were good enough you could make the argument they would be in the league regardless.

Complete lie. Brasswell is not even in Australia at the moment.

Basketball NZ has no say over the immigration status of a player, they can only endorse the person as a future employee. Basketball NZ would have liked his immigration rushed through in time for the Qualifying Tournament but the Government does the paperwork and gets the final say not a sports body and like Anon#369920 said, you can only have 1 naturalized player per team per Fiba rules internationally so no, the Tall Blacks didn't gain any unfair advantage either.

@Isaac those guys had to wait twice as long to be naturalised.
The Kiwi flexibility is an advantage to imports playing in NZ.

Not out of the realms of possibility that Horvath could end up on an NBL roster purely because of the softer NZ requirements for citizenship

I'm not sure that it's a big worry given that the Breakers are showing little interest in it. If they wanted, they could've paid for Wilkinson to play NZ NBL and naturalise for the Breakers but instead they overlooked him staying to favour Pledger.

As I said, the immediate advantage may prove to be with Melbourne and Sydney instead.

Horvath was NZBL MVP last season and didn't even get a trial with the Tall Blacks. Any NBL team is welcome to him.

What lineup does this give the Tigers? Do we expect Braswell or Tomlinson start at the PG?

he was MVP because all the guys who are any good play for the Breakers and were winning another championship ;)

Touche mystro

Lot of hot air blowing around in here...