Gold Coast Blaze sack playing roster

The Gold Coast Blaze have sacked their contracted playing roster and administration as the club awaits confirmation of a deal worth more then $10 million. Coach Joey Wright along with players Mark Worthington, Adam Gibson, Anthony Petrie and Chris Goulding have a been sacked from their current contracts. If the team can stay in the league and this new investor funds them into next season then we may see them get re-hired. However Mark Worthington and Adam Gibson may chase better pay in Europe having gotten some international attention playing some decent minutes in the Olympic Boomers Squad. Anthony Petrie in my opinion is one of the most underated players in the league and would make a handy player on any team and im guessing a few NBL teams would now be chasing his signature. Chris Goulding can shoot the lights out on any given night but having given such late notice in the year for a signing it may be difficult for Goudling to find an equivelent position in the league. Wherever these players choose to go im sure they will find a team within this league or bigger leagues throughout the world. And it will be interesting to see if the Gold Coast Blaze can manage to stay in the NBL for 2012/13 season or if the league will be reduced to an 8 team roster. On Monday we will see if The Gold Coast Blaze are still in the competition and what NBL teams snatch up these off contract players.

Kevin Smith signs with the Sydney Kings

The Sydney Kings have signed on the American born Kevin Smith. Kevin is coming to the NBL as a local player as he became naturalised during his time playing in the New Zealand NBL playing for the Auckland Pirates, Harbour Heat and the Bay Hawks. At 32 Kevin still is looking very athletic and standing at 6'6" will a good back up for James Harvey and can possibly swing to the forward position when required. During the 2012 NZ NBL season Kevin Smith played for the Harbour Heat and averaged 16.3 points, 4.7 robounds, 1.3 assists and 1 steal per game. Check his game below. But with an experienced, athletic 6 foot 6 player who can shoot it is a decent signing for Shane Heal. However looking at the line up James Harvey, Ian Crosswhite, Aaron Bruce, Ben Madgen, Graeme Dann, Luke Martin, Tom Garlepp and Corin Henry (import). They are going to need a good second import to make them a real title contender next season.

Australia defeats China 3-0 in the YouYi games

Australia defeated china 3-0 in the friendly Olympic warm up YuYi games. The games were played last saturday 9th of june, Monday the 11th and wednesday the 13th with Australia taking out each game. I was only able to watch game 1 so far with game 2 not televised and game 3 having a delayed telecast on saturday on channel 9 at 2:00PM. Game 1 was close with the boomers shooting abismally at 27% at half time. And the score line showed it going down by 10 in the third. But they showed that they can shoot and took out the victory by 11 at full time 55-66. This was largely due to the impressive shooting display of Peter Crawford in the last half finishing the game with 21. Mark Worthington played good hard basketball throughout his time on the court and if it wasnt for his poor shooting would have been the best player on the court finishing with 11. I hope people who doubted his effectiveness on the Boomers squad now see his skill and effectiveness. China played some impressive zone defence that seemd to stifle the Boomers who could not get access to an inside shot.

Game 2 was not televised so I did not get to see the game. Australia won 69-65 in a closer game with top scorer Aron Baynes 15 follwed by Mathew Dellevadova and Mark Worthington with 11. The game high scorer was Sun Yue from China with 22 followed by Wang Shipeng finished with 12. It was a close game throughout the first half with China at one point getting up 13, till the Boomers went on a 14-0 run and closed out the half 1 point in front. The final half was close in a high pressure defensive effort, but Australia finished on top 69-65.


Game 3 is going to be televised on free to air on channel 9, Saturday at 2:00pm. For now all i'v heard is that the boomers won but apart from that I'm trying not find out, sorry.

Gold Coast Blaze saved by credditors

The Gold Coast Blaze will remain in the National Basketball League in the 2012/13 season which kicks of on October 5. The Team was saved from liquidation today following a credditors meeting at the Jupiters Hotel and Casino. The majority of the companies creditors voted in favour of a deed of company arrangement, put forward by the administrators which means they will revieve 7 cents to the dollar that they are owed. Not sure if this rights off the debt still owed to Brendan Joyce after being released from his 3 yr contract after 1 year, but it is good to see that the team will stay alive for at least one more year.