04-20-2018, 04:36 AM
(04-20-2018, 01:20 AM)LP link Wrote:Most of the games were lower level regional stuff out Knox/Dandenong or down on the Peninsula. But one of the games was a Melb Tigers associated U12 team I believe in at MSAC or one of the city venues, it's also being investigated as there is apparently stadium video available!
My main concern EB1 is we are talking about children, kids who should be encouraged to participate, kids who can barely run without tripping themselves over let alone deal with the technical vaguery of a very complicated sport. One of the parents reports their 10 yo was playing up a level, primarily due to his size, and was ejected from the GF stadium for a two technical fouls!
In another game the refs ended up in an argument with a coach because they fouled so many kids the game stopped when the team was down to one player. The refs wanted the coach to bring a kid sitting on the bench back on to allow the game to continue and when the coach refused he was ejected, the kid it turned out was nursing an injured arm on the bench watching out his teams GF, scans later showed he had a fracture! The ref allegedly later said at a post match investigation that if he'd known the kid remaining on the bench had a fractured arm he would not have called the other penalties, wtf! This was also a lower level U12 match! :o
Is this the ugly parent syndrome, the reach of NBA money into junior sport, people ensuring certain kids get all the opportunity!
As an aside.
A weekend ago our local football team had an interesting scenario. You may know the weather was atrocious, some games were abandoned because of hail, high winds and debris on grounds. They have a kid, U19 200cm, an above average KPF but not really AFL draftable level, who can kick drop punts 70m+ with monotonous regularity. He's having shots at goal from inside the center square most weeks and dobbing a good percentage of them in Rocca style. He's been spotted by an NFL recruiter and signed up for a scholarship starting later this year, when the bad weather hit he got a phone call to withdraw from the team because the conditions were too dangerous! The recruiter/manager rang from the USA, wtf!!! At local level the kid is one of those players that is the difference between a win and a loss, he wanted to play, his team wanted him to play, who told the manager in the middle of the US night? :o
Lot of ugly parents at basketball and it only gets worse as you get up the age groups.....most refs have common sense, they just want to get paid and be incident free, you get the odd ref who wants to impact on the game and show he is in control but I'd be most surprised about them wanting to force a suspected injured player back on the court. When my kids went through you could play with four on the court but if you ended up with less than four at domestic level that was the end of the game in most cases if the team leading were the ones with five players, only exception would be a A grade game between the top teams if it was close and the team say with three players were still competitive and had been leading before they had players fouled out.....most uncommon though as most teams would field at least seven players, more likely to happen in the lower ranks where kids were not so keen and didnt rock up and you were left short.
The other way you get left short is with on court punch ups and you lose several players at once being tech fouled out of the game and told to leave the stadium...
Lots of parents think their kid is the next Ben Simmons, you see it all the time, makes me laugh when I hear AFL players say they chose football over basketball....please....go on some of the club trips to the States it an eye opener on how many gifted players are out there and how difficult it is for an Aus kid to make it.
When the average NBL player makes around 50K a year if they are lucky it tells you not to have too many expectations and to let your kids enjoy the game rather than thinking they are the next big thing and they can have a pro career, I remember one of the fathers at my sons club begging the coach at a Montana College for a basketball scholarship after the game.....and having to accept being told your son isnt good enough and its not like Montana was any pinnacle for basketball in the USA. It was a fun trip but some parents just got carried away and wanted to come back to Aus and say my son had a basketball scholarship in the USA.
Do you really want your kid attending a school where they carry weapons in a cowboy state of America.....? the NBA is a bit like WWF...its all about one on one highlight reel stuff and its creeping into Aus basketball where dunks and three pointers from the cheap seats are more important than running plays and good defense....it breeds players like Chris Goulding from Melb United but doesnt do much for club level basketball and keeping average kids in the game..