MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy's View from Downunder) - It's been an interesting week for Basketball Australia (BA) with a vision of the future, some planning for the present and controversy about actions from the past as a coach and referee come into public conflict.

If there is an area BA CEO Anthony Moore has been excelling in it's relationship building around the globe, particularly with our newest zone neighbours in Asia.

This week he was in Beirut preparing for September's FIBA Asia Cup 2017, the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers in the Asian zone which start in November and continuing to plan Australia's bid for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.

Moore's sorties into Asia are very important because, as the new World Cup qualifying system plays out over time, the better the cooperation between competing governing bodies, the smoother this new format will work. Asia is also the region with the greatest potential for hoops growth.

A chair in there
BA also has lots of work to do at home, but it was heartening to get a note from new Chair of the BA Board Ned Coten today outlining progress, challenges and visions for the future.

Coten is an excellent choice given his long history in both the recreational and professional side of the sport in Australia, with his extensive corporate knowledge evident in his first of many promised updates.

Here is a quick wrap of some of his notes, but I promise I will investigate more in coming weeks:

Australia has catching up to do in the growing area of 3x3

• A new contract for the continuance of the CoE development program is close to being signed;
• Growing participation rates in Australia continue to put pressure on local venues;
• BA's finances are in a 'solid' position;
• The relationship with the NBL is strong;
• BA is developing a 10-year events strategy, which includes the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023;
• Australia's strong representation in FIBA is making the relationship with BA productive;
• And BA is "very focused" on improving the WNBL's financial and broadcast situation.

 

"ADELAIDE 36ers coach Joey Wright believes referee Brett Hogan should not be appointed to his NBL games following a racist slur the official made against him six years ago."

Needless to say this came as a bolt out of the blue and sent the NBL and BA, who were in charge of the competition at the time, scrambling. The prompt for the story was coach Wright being ejected by referee Hogan in that night’s defeat to the visiting New Zealand Breakers.

The article and incident has generated quite a bit of public disdain for BA and the NBL in social media chatter, with oft-repeated comments of assumed incompetency about the way the issue was handled back in 2011 and again upon resurfacing a week ago.

While it's easy to make comment about BA or the NBL being incompetent or lacking transparency, these are probably the two most important basketball institutions in our country, and as such deserve proper analysis of their actions.

So here, to the best my investigations could uncover, is what took place:

After a Gold Coast Blaze game in 2011 in which there had been on-court tension between Wright and Hogan, the referee vented his frustration in the referees room;

• Someone in the adjacent media room believed the comments were of a racist nature and informed Wright;
• Wright raised the issue with the referees' supervisor at the venue, then the Blaze formally made a complaint to BA;
• BA investigated the claim, with Hogan denying using a racist slur but admitting to using expletives about Wright;
• Witnesses who were inside the same room as Hogan provided a similar version of events, contradicting the witness from the adjoining room;
• Notably, my understanding is one of those witnesses inside the room was a police officer and the other was not a close associate of Hogan's;
• On the basis of that evidence, BA found Hogan guilty of abusive language but not of making a racist slur;
• Hogan was suspended for two games, Wright was reportedly reprimanded for his conduct that night, and to my knowledge nothing has been mentioned publicly since
• One thing I could not ascertain, was to how much detail the above information was communicated at the time to those involved.

Re-examination
In response to the News Limited article last Saturday, six years later, I am told the new NBL ownership tasked referees manager Scott Butler with re-examining the events of 2011, and he reaffirmed the original finding of abuse but not racial abuse.

Now comments have already been made that the NBL's stance is just towing the BA party line and keeping what actually happened under the proverbial carpet, but those comments are naïve.

What many people may not know is that Scott Butler is an Aboriginal Australian, who understandably treats racism very seriously.

Given multiple refs have been removed from the panel since he took over the job, and a number of others have been removed temporarily for poor performances during the year, if there was clear evidence of a racist slur then I'm certain Brett Hogan would no longer be refereeing NBL games under Butler's watch.

My final word is labelling someone racist is one of the most serious accusations you can make in Australia. From my investigations, it appears both BA and NBL have handled this appropriately.

That doesn't necessarily mean their conclusion on what happened is 100 per cent correct, but they appear to have acted on what's in front of them.

It is unfortunate, given this is obviously still an issue, that it hadn't been raised again before last Saturday, and that it wasn't raised privately so mediation could take place well away from the media.

Sadly, if the reports I'm hearing are correct, it could now be played out in the court room under the title of defamation, and that would be a real shame because from my dealings with them Wright and Hogan are both quality people.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA

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