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Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

No.

Gaze joined the NBL as an 18 year old. Won ROTY averaging 29.1/6.7/4.1, plus 1.6 SPG. Almost 30PPG as an 18 year old rookie... Made All-NBL First Team in 15 straight seasons. At the age of 22, he averaged 44.1 PPG for a season.

In his 20 NBL seasons: 612 games, 18,908 points at an average of 30.9 points per game.

If you want to judge based on championships, David Stiff won 6 championships and acted in a Star Wars film. Maybe he can be your GOAT.

Please Gaze him covered easilly. Silly thread.

And Gaze didn't have 4 import/naturalized Americans on his team each year.

We are sad to announce the unfortunate passing of Matt's Damian Martin argument at the young age of 20 hours, on March 3 2017. A celebration of the life of Matt's Damian Martin thread will be held later today at the Hoops Community Centre.

Expressions of sympathy in memory of Matt's Damian Martin thread may be made by donation to Hoops.com.au's bank account.

Please, no flowers.

god love Perth fans, its like the NBL doesn't exist outside their borders for so many

Brad Robbins is the second best ever I believe.

This is funny. I would have him in top 10 (possibly) but Gaze is the greatest. I would have CJ, Maher, Smyth, Anstey and others ahead of him. Perhaps if you were talking about influence on a team but you are saying he is the best Aussie ever. Not even close.

Best Defensive guard, maybe top 5 captain...that's about where it ends. There are way better all round players, Gaze number 1 (though he wasn't as good a defender)

It was a brief but brave fight to survive against huge odds!

Perth fans...smh!

This thread is pure gold.

Nothing wrong with a bit of Damo love.

He's not the best player, not even close. I think it truly is a case of Gaze then daylight then talk about everyone else.

Although I feel Martin is unquestionably the best defensive player possibly of all time in the NBL and that tends to make him very inspirational.
How often do you see a defensive player take out the playoffs MVP?

Also the Wildcats are a completely different team without him.

If I was picking an Aussie team from the NBL to go play in a tournament, Martin would be my first guard picked. But if you were picking an all-time team I don't think he would even make the bench. Sorry Matt.

Who would we say was a better defender, DMac or Damo?

Best defender....yes. Great leader....yes.
He will go down as an NBL great but certainly not the greatest.
I would put him in the same group as Vlahov. He is inspirational to watch.

He's not even the best Wildcat ever, that mantle IMO belongs to Ricky Grace. So he cannot be considered the best in the NBL if he is not even the best for his own club.

Hahahahahaha, i see your thought bubble went just as well over here too Nima. Oops, i mean Matt.

Hoops Community Centre - An öff the grid"mainframe located in a secret location where blocked posters are teleported to be "rehabilitated".

I guess now that Dazz is gone someone had to step in his shoes, Matt making us cats supporters looks bad.

In Matt's defense, I have always said Gaze was massively overrated and benefited from a system that was built around him scoring.
Damo makes things happen, Gaze could shoot.

I don't put Gaze in the top 5 let alone number one.
He will always be a Koala Bear to me. Cuddly and protected.

For the record, I do rate Damo higher than Gaze, but not 1.
Also for the record, my number 1 is not a Perth player. I will never mention his name cos I hate his guts.

Jason.

#TheGOAT

btw, check out the score. lol

#bringback12mins

I have Damo battling it out with Jason Smith as the #1 Australian guard to ever play for the Sydney Spirit.

I don't think Matt's post is that far from reality that he should be called and idiot, stupid or ridiculed. IMO opinion he is the greatest defender to play in the NBL and deserves to be talked about in this discussion. Do people really have to come on here and play the school yard bully everytime. He could be a young kid for all we know.

Train, In the interest of protecting your son's self esteem put the parental lock on your devices! :-)

Gaze joined the NBL as an 18 year old. Won ROTY averaging 29.1/6.7/4.1, plus 1.6 SPG. Almost 30PPG as an 18 year old rookie... Made All-NBL First Team in 15 straight seasons. At the age of 22, he averaged 44.1 PPG for a season.

In his 20 NBL seasons: 612 games, 18,908 points at an average of 30.9 points per game.

@Big Ads - Don't have kids mate ;)

Not the best player but I struggle to think of a better competitor in any sport I have watched.

Maybe not the correct approach but a great theoretical question.

How do you compare what Damian Martin brings to the court, team and the organisation with some of our NBL legends?

Imagine a prime Damian Martin defending an Andrew Gaze, interesting, would Gaze get his (I was a bit young) but i suspect yes, but would Damo do enough to get his team over the line, quiet possibly yes.

4 Championships and arguably the teams most important player in each one, without been a factor on offence is some achievement. If you don't think he was a factor look at when he was injured or absent against NZ.

Anonytroll said
> In all defense Jason. You my friend are a basketball idiot.

Awesome! If it wasn't for this part you might have been able to form a valid argument. You almost seemed intelligent enough!
Great try though!

Jason

If you don't think Gaze made things happen you're kidding yourself. For mine he's clearly the best Australian we've seen in the NBL.

He was more than just a flat out scorer - he was a great passer, great leader and under-rated defender (until his later years when he became a bit of a defensive liability.

Hes not even the best cat, that's .....

Aaron Trahair : had an absolute stupendous first season, and if perth had been smart enough to keep him during the 1997-2007 he would have been the standout player of this century, once the franchise had developed his full potential.

Damo's "defence is better than most"?? He's the best defender in the history of the NBL.

"Damo can't shoot"

Tell that to the Hawks after he dropped 4 of 5 from downtown on them :P

hate to grng this thread towards respectabilty but I Have to point out that when making BOAT claims for the NBL ---- that even as late as the early 2000's local full time 24/7/12 professional players in the nbl were not always in the majority. defense is supported by fitness and scouting, bot of which greatly improve with the time to 9 and tecnology) to watch tape and engage or work with professional trainers.

In the guards positions it hard to know exactly how very well respected defensive players who played the number 1 spot like Wood, McLeod, Smyth, Mee etc would have done with that amount of time and support.

at the least you have to acknowledge that Martin has won the DPoTY 6 out of eight consecutive years, but then Smyth won it 4 times in eight years (only losing out to a very high profile Leroy Loggins one/2 years), and not even having any award made for 3 of those years !

Mee has 5 in an eight year spread.

It can be argued that both Mee and Smyth contributed more offensively to their Championship winning teams than Martin generally has to his.

martins' a future NBL hall of fame player , but its been shown that he absolutely needs a top 5 Shooting Guard ( or at least a SF) to be his partner to balance out his teams.

Darnell Mee for me!

Anon, who's better?

Terry Dozier/Dave Simmons also great defenders and Darnell Mee of course and Darren Lucas.
Marto is in there league who is best defender in NBL ever I don't know. Darnell Mee often would guard forwards and Centre's. Michael Jordan did that sometimes to.

Gaze can get challenged and will one day. Records don't last forever, maybe a long time but records or GOATS can be challenged. Marto is good though, as other have noted it can be put out there. Even if Gaze wins this debate, Marto is good enough to challenge Gaze's GOAT crown, even if said he ends up losing to Gaze.

Andrew Gaze won NBL MVP 7 times.
Maybe we can re-visit this topic once Martin has 1.

Matt, Martin has 30 players easily to get past before he's even in the conversation.

"TD15 said "He's the best defender in the history of the NBL." Yet another idiot post."

How is it an idiot post?
TD15 is expressing his opinion, which he's allowed to do. Even if you disagree, that doesn't make him a idiot.

In addition I would suggest that his opinion is shared by many people.
Its always difficult to compare against past players, but Martin is unquestionably the best defensive player of the current decade. Without injury Martin would have won it 7 years running.

Pizza Hut
Thank you for your kind post. Some people out there are like rabbid dogs if certain topics are brought up,they just whinge and get aggressive if you don't agree with them. It says a lot about there character. bullies often. yet when someone disagrees with they are the first to cry and go all sensitive. just annoying some people are.
And stats don't always tell the whole picture as said, Marto does a lot of stuff that can't be measured in stats.
Who ever is better so be it, even if Gaze is better Marto has legitimate right to challenge Gaze's GOAT status anyway. get over it some of you cry babies.

Thanks for the laugh, both OP and Isaac.

Martin is lucky to be in the top 50 Aussie players to have played in the NBL., let alone #1.

Is it school holidays in Australia?

Matt, how old are you and how much past NBL have you seen or read about?

David Stiff, Darryl Corletto and CJ Bruton are the Aussie GOATS of the NBL.

(Using the logic of this OP).

So harsh on Matt some of you guys, very funny some others and missing the point of the thread for so many.

Matt is purely trying to compare Damian Martin's NBL career and record, saying he is one hell of a leader and has inspired his team to a record 4 NBL titles now, who knows he could get more...

If we are going to judge titles as one of the main criteria, along with leadership and the value one player gives to his team, knowing how Martin came back from a devastating injury more than once, just to continue playing this long is amazing.

Overcoming adversity and playing the hard man, tough nose defender, while also taking on the scoring when he had to, being the most inspiring player I can recall in Perth and possibly the NBL in general, yeah I can understand where Matt is coming from.

Calling him the best NBL player ever isn't technically what he is saying, he is qualifying his statement, so baring this in mind, especially with four titles in the bag, he has a point!

IMO Opinion ;)