Sydney quit, then tried to control the narrative and take the moral high ground.

Now they are backtracking, because they couldn't get the moral high ground and the narrative was already written.

Good response from the NBL, and they handled it diplomatically. Still a lot that was unsaid too - Sydney should be thankful that they didn't go to town on Smith for his disgraceful attitude.

It appears almost nothing could've been done to avoid the series finishing prematurely.

What if LK used a private jet and both teams played back to back in Adelaide over two days... Import players wanted out in case they were gonna be stuck here for months, it wasn't purely a safety decision. It seems all unavoidable.

No one was playing in bloody Adelaide. The court had been dismantled ages ago. To set it all up again would have been ridiculous

Nbl is in good hands, and I'm an anyone but Perth supporter.

so to me, someone is telling little fibs... either the NBL didnt have any contingencies, the players assoc didnt talk to their members OR the sydney front office didnt relay information to their team.

hmm

" Don't come out and say you need a few more days for your players to rest, then turn around a day later and say you don't want to play."

Bingo!

Speaking of transparency, maybe Sydney needed to be transparent and admit their imports wanted to go home, they tried to hide it by saying they felt it was unsafe. Just one of many problems to how they handled this.

Bogut is just a disgruntled employee who didn't like the way management did things.

Could managment done better? Yes. But it's management, and they can do what they want.

Imagine if we all got to hold press conferences when we didn't like thew way our company did something.

Shayno is a bitter troll.

The world has been about winning only for years, sport, politics, business, etc, as the saying goes. Winners are grinners and losers can please themselves.
If Sydney are leading the way to a new compassionate society I'm happy, let’s see lots more off it.

Shaynos post was a big hoo ha

The criticism toward the NBL is 100% valid. I post here as an Anon but I posted a fair bit last week and was consistently saying that the NBL needed to 'control the narrative' in posts about this, through the first three games. This is exactly why.

When it came to cutting the series to three, or moving game schedules, or game locations, the NBL should not have been leaving it to the clubs to decide.

I think *everyone* could see that there was a 90% chance it was going to end after the weekend. The NBL absolutely should have either called it a three game series ahead of game 2, or been *super* explicit about what was going to happen if it had to be called after game 3, or game 4 if that had gone forward.

They should have understood that there could be different circumstances that lead to a cancellation. Player testing positive. Sudden transportation issues with teams stuck in different cities. Some other government edict that in some way has a side effect of cancellation. Certainly that players and key staff from other countries might need to (or feel they need to) accelerate their departures. I can't see how it would have been difficult for them to think of all of these potential issues, as they were all brought up on this forum and no-one in here seems to be particularly bright, to be fair.

At that point in the hours before Game 2, when they knew they had a really precarious situation on their hands, they should have been extremely clear and specific and public with some different scenarios, and some clear results based on those scenarios, and let both the players and fans engage with the remaining series with that in mind.

- Game 2 is definitely going ahead as it's in a few hours
- At the moment we can see no reason why Game 3 can't go ahead in a couple of days.
- If something/anything happens between Game 2 and Game 3, even if the series is at 2-0, it will be called a no-win series.
- If we can go to Game 3, the teams and the fans should consider it a three game series at this point, and engage with it as such
- We will reconvene on Monday to determine next steps for a potential game 4/5. If for *any* reason there is not a path forward - external change or internal thinking, league mandated or team decision - the three game result stands and the overall winner determined by that result.

So simple, and actually so easy to see that as being necessary a week ago.

If the main charge is that the NBL completely messed up the handling of this, it seem to be 100% correct.

Best of 3 was discussed prior to game 2 but the Kings declined

Yes, but what I'm saying is that the NBL shouldn't have accepted that as "ok well I'll guess we just wait and see then". They should have taken control of the possible scenarios from there. The Kings were saying they didn't formally want to make it Best of 3, but the NBL should have still said okay fine, but there's a huge risk it will be, so let's make some scenarios and their results clear from here...

Is that what Bogut's complaint was, because I was struggling to put my finger on it. He said the league office should've been pro active in coming up with options. But when they did come up with the options the Kings preferred the status quo.

Its clear the league won't consult teams again, they will simply decide. Ironically thats basically what bogut is getting at, most would think having a say is ideal but not Sydney it seems

No - it's not that they shouldn't have talked to teams or asked for their opinion, of course they should have, it's just about clarity. It seems that the NBL obviously didn't provide any clarity.

They asked the Kings if they wanted to definitely make it a three game series and the Kings said no, and then the NBL said... what exactly? "Okay well lets just see how we go then" ?

The situation was fluid, and they should have spelled out what would happen if certain events occurred - which seems obvious, and that several of those events would seem quite likely to have occurred would seem obvious too, and not just in hindsight.

For example, did they provide any clarity around what was going to happen if a player had contracted the virus? You'd think they would have thought that there was a chance of that, and would have known they would need to cancel, and so would need to have a mechanism/s in place for awarding the winner, and that everyone should know exactly what that is, no? Doesn't seem like they did.

Think of it another way - the Kings are saying that they thought the NBL said if it was called off for any reason, it would be a no-winner situation. The NBL is saying that they didn't say that. If you think one side or the other is lying here, then you are reaching for what should quite obviously be by far the least likely reality. It's ridiculous to think that the Kings are just making that up (how old are you?) and it's equally ridiculous to think that the NBL did say that and are now lying with their denial.

What is *most* likely is that there was just a lack of clarity. And you can tell because no-one has suggested that they said the opposite either, i.e. that the NBL made it clear that whoever has a series lead will be the winner, or if it's at a point where the series is even, it goes on points or whatever. They obviously didn't say that *and* they are saying that they didn't say it would be a no-winner situation, therefore, their whole argument is that they didn't say *anything*, which is completely clear and obvious because when the Kings withdrew they said they needed 48 hours to figure it out.

This isn't an argument about whether or not the Wildcats should have been awarded the win - I think they should have - it's about it being messy and unsatisfying. That's 100% on the NBL.

#165
Get out while you're well behind.

The league offered both clubs options but the kings wanted the GF series to stay exactly the same. They then decided to not play on. You don’t have to be that smart to work it out.

The league made recommendations, kings rule them out.

I’m an anyone but Perth supporter.

The league did make a decision, just not the decision the Kings players made.

Their decision was game 4 goes ahead.

Sydney withdraw, league calls it off - team leading the >50 % completed series is crowned.

Not really that complicated.

"Bogut's point is it shouldn't be left for the two teams (and players) competing for the championship to make the decisions, and the league needed to step in and show leadership."

Bogut wanted the league to make the same decision the Kings did ie cancel the series and award no winner. The league made a different decision saying game 4 would go ahead, but we can bring it forward. The Kings didn't like that decision.

What else should the league have done?

Sydney outcome was decided on the court. Had they been up 2-1 they would have been champions. Ultimately in this debate you gotta win on the court.

"Are you guys really that smug and dumb?

Bogut's point is it shouldn't be left for the two teams (and players) competing for the championship to make the decisions, and the league needed to step in and show leadership."

The NBL did make a decision, and that was that the series was to continue and that the Kings withdrew. That's clear from their statement where they specifically mention the Kings decided not to play.

It's just that the Kings didn't like the decision, so they're complaining about the "process". It's the result they didn't like.

"upset with the uncertainty"

What uncertainty was there? The league said the series is going ahead, and even offered to bring game 4 forward to help move things long. Sydney rejected this.

The only reason there appears to be uncertainty now is because the Kings are trying to muddy the waters of what went on so they can continue to pretend they didn't quit because they were getting embarrassed.

If the Kings wanted certainty they could've just agreed to Best of 3 when they were offered it

Kings were made to look childish , inflexible and not prepared to try and do the right thing to give fans and the NBL season a decent close to the season.

Sorry Kings, your just embarrassing yourselves more. The Wildcats show the level of professionalism and flexibility in these crazy times your guys were not prepared to.

So you were beaten on the court as well as off the court. Who were the worthy winners - Cats by a long shot not just on the court.

Just be quiet and learn from this, not helping yourselves at all by whining in the press.

Would love to see the legal fallout from this as its a clear breach of contract by the NBL but it wont get that far.

Which part of the contract have they breached?

"Now u going to award port Adelaide the afl premiership now cause they on top of the ladder atm??" That's what they did with the Sheffield Shield.

"Nbl breached contract by not delivering on 5 game series,"

Yeah cool. Can you point out which parts of the contract says the league must deliver on a 5 game series?

Shayno, I'm starting to think you aren't the legal expert you had us think you were!