Boti pretty badly misquoted him paraphrasing his statement the first time around. Nothing particularly wrong with what Heal said first on the broadcast or then on twitter.

Heal still thinks there are more talented teams out there that could beat the Sixers in a series - that is not a ludicrous proposition.

Heal's a dickhead but he's not said or done anything wrong here, more Boti looking for attention. I went to the link and now Boti's site has a popup asking for you to sign up to his newsletter. Put two and two together.

Unfortunately Boti lost it a couple of years ago when he was putting out dud rumours over and over saying Conklin was going to sign with MU and a few other ones he put out there turned out to be false too. There were about 3-4 howlers in one offseason so clearly someone was stringing him along.

I respect Boti for his dedication to journalism in the NBL but he seems to have a bee in his bonnet about something every week. I thought his attack on Dwayne Russell a couple of weeks ago was unnecessary.

It's almost like he really wants a job as a commentator and wants to belittle them all out of jealousy.

I thought that too Train his OTT criticism of Dwayne Russell almost seemed personal and his continued shots at Carfino border on childish.

It's borderline bullying!

Very old

Are you saying Heal was an overrated Basketballer?

Are you saying all he could do was shoot, and offered nothing on Defence/rebounding/or passing(average passer)?

Was Heal's defence a liability that his team's point? In other words, are you saying Darnell Mee is a better point-guard than Shane Heal?

Was Darell Mcdonald a better point guard than Heal in your view?

Shane Heal has a point and it's a legitimate question mark over Adelaide. He doesn't have to answer to anyone as a commentator who's paid to give his view when asked.

It wasn't an attack on Adelaide.

I enjoy Boti's blogs and I appreciate that there's someone out there keeping tabs on things, but yeah I agree that he regularly goes far too hard at his targets.
Point out flaws in the NBL product, including graphics, commentary, etc. is not necessarily a bad thing. It's caring about it and identifying room for improvement. But it does appear to lean towards overkill/hating/personal beefs at times.
I'm all for having "Yeah no kidding" as a light-hearted running joke, but in reality there's no real harm if a guy says that a few times per broadcast. It's not going to ruin the whole game for viewers. Neither is "stopping on a dime". I mean it seems pretty hypocritical to get patriotic about language when the whole sport and its associated terminology is imported from overseas.

With the Heal thing there's clearly some personal stuff behind it all. But at the end of the day there's not much real harm in an online twitter exchange.
Hey, I'm torn about Heal as well. I was never really his biggest fan as a player, but at the same time I respected how good he was. Now post-playing career there's all the business allegations plus everything that transpired in the WNBL with the SEQ Stars, which is more than enough to put him back in my bad books, but I also think he does excellent work as part of the commentary team this season.

Neither is trolling, to answer the topic. Boti goes after the commentators a bit too much, and was rough on the sideline commentator this week (worth keeping in mind that sports rhetoric and pandering to basic fans isn't exactly unique to the NBL).

I did initially wonder if Heal's response was a bit sensitive, but his comment verbatim doesn't strike me as crazy at all. Every week I wait for the 36ers slide to start, and every game they surprise me. If the other finals teams were Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, I'd be pretty nervous for the 36ers, and that's after they've won 12 of 13, home, away, etc.

It's also fair to consider that one of these guys works in a medium where they write and re-write their material, while the other was responding off-the-cuff. I say it every time, but I think Heal is a good NBL commentator; I think it's a bit much to criticise him on this.

I hadn't read the weekly wrap for a long time until I heard about this little spat.

It's tough producing lots of content and Boti has found a formula that his audience enjoys, and part of that formula is a good chunk of negativity about commentators (and other things) each week.

Nothing has changed since I last read it and I don't expect that to change as long as the audience keeps reading, which is fair enough.

As for this particular incident, what Heal said and what Boti reported he said were very different things, so can understand Heal calling it out but not sure why he would really bother.

heal is a great commentator. I have agreed with him about Adelaide being vulnerable. But every win that doubt gets smaller and smaller. They are a great unit, and I highly respect what Mitch Creek has done as captain this season. I sensed trouble when they were 6-3, but Sobey, Randle and DJ have been amazing since then

Boti seems like a pompous dick to me. Attacks the man too much. You can make your point and seem perfectly intelligent and intellectual without putting others down; in fact it makes him appear less so.

No fan of Heal one way or another, but that's part of what commentators do to fill in, and add colour. His comments are reasonable, and besides they have to take a slightly contrarian view to make it interesting. If they all just sat around agreeing that Adelaide was the best, it would be rather boring.
And yes, Boti seems to have taken an unnecessary swipe at Heal.

Heal's language on Twit-box? Nothing much more than Australian vernacular, but yes, as a professional commentator he should hold himself to a higher standard. For people in his role, social media is simply an extension of their media role.

Can someone clear this up with me, with all this Heal stuff.

Who was better Darnell or Heal?
Darell Mcdonald or Heal?

I put a more detailed post up about Heal in this thread, it's mid-section of this thread!

Oh Dwayne says full house too often and hypes up the product too much... what a criminal. Seriously Boti, you have been complaining just for the sake of it. Even when th league is the best in years, he will find something.

"Who was better Darnell or Heal?
Darell Mcdonald or Heal?"

Heal's career was better because he was an outstanding Olympian, had some great seasons in Europe and some quality games in the NBA.

In terms of purely NBL, Heal posted big numbers but didn't become a genuine leader until later in his career for mine, whereas D-Mac and Mee were excellent in that area and at the defensive end.

Adelaides self proclaimed leading basketball journo is clinging on to past glories when people actually cared what was written.

In effect now its all about click bait and bagging people who are basically trying to pump up or comment on the league as they are being paid to do.

Maybe its jealousy or that cranky old person syndrome about "Good Old Days where better" but the reality is the self proclaimed leading bball journo is irrelevant in the new NBL media world

And how many Olympics did Botbrain go to.
Fighting out of his depth here.

Boti is a petulant child who has seen the journalism game go past him unfortunately. He put's down these people as they have a voice that is being heard in the NBL commentary landscape whilst his is no longer cared for.

I remember back in 2010ish, Nagy was invited onto one of the basketball shows they had where Heal and Gaze basically ambushed Boti.

To an extent, they've always had it out for Boti and one can presume Boti has always had it out for them.

In this case, i'm with Heal - not only do I agree with what he said, but I think Nagy interpreted his works incorrectly.

While i'd agree Boti seems a little more aggressive in his articles over the last couple of years, he still is a quality journalistwith a strong track record - I think many here perhaps not from South Australia struggle with his clear SA parochialism.

It seems like some are saying Boti is the Les Murray(Australian football) of Australian Basketball.
Actually Boti and Les are both Hungarian post WW2 immigrants to Australia or Boti may of been born here. But it seems like Les, maybe the game has past Boti by and he's living of past glories when he was the face of Australian basketball journalism. SBS is no longer football in OZ, maybe same applies to Boti and the NBL.

for using the phrase talk shit? lol u poor precious boy get real