Charlotte (Steve Goldberg's Wheel World) - Imagine that the best team in your country's domestic league - be it the ACB or LNB, the Erste League or Ligat HaAl, the NBL or NBA - the defending champions, a team rich with players who have led their country to success in the major global tournaments, announced that they would not participate in the current season.

That would be big news, right? One would think so but that's not been the case in Australia where the Be Active Perth Wheelcats, the two-time defending champions of the National Wheelchair Basketball League (NWBL) have issued a statement that they would "boycott" the 2015 season which started a few weeks ago.

However, the major Aussie media have barely touched on it. I learned of the situation through an article on the local Perth based Community News website. That was on June 9th.

The biggest piece I've discovered was broadcaster ABC's report a couple weeks earlier on how the Wheelcats did not show for their first scheduled game in Melbourne in protest of a schedule change by Basketball Australia (BA) that added another team in May, just a few weeks before the season was supposed to start.

The Wheelcats through their sponsor organization, Wheelchair Sports WA Association, argue that the changes created situations on dates that would have precluded certain players or coaches from being able to participate.

Established in 1988, the NWBL has been dominated since 2002 by the Wheelcats who followed that first title with five straight from 2006 to 2010 and most recently, the 2013 and 2014 championships. The inclusion of the Gliders and the Red Dust Heelers, which would be a second team in Perth, would grow the NWBL to seven teams for 2015.

On a continent where the Wheelcats' closest NWBL competitors, the Kilsyth Cobras just outside of Melbourne, are over 2,750 kilometers (1,710 miles) away on a straight line and a far longer (3,459 kilometers/2,144 miles) 36-hour drive by road, one would think that another team across town would be welcomed.

Coincidentally or not, the Heelers are co-founded by Rollers veteran Brad Ness, who had played previously with the Wheelcats.

I reached out to the Wheelcats national team players Shaun Norris, Justin Eveson and Amber Merritt as well as Wheelchair Sport WA CEO Raymond Yong, Basketball Australia CEO Anthony Moore and men's national team head coach Ben Ettridge to gain insight on how this impasse came to be.

Shaun Norris looks to pass  for the Perth Wheelcats against the Wollongong Roller Hawks in Australia’s NWBL play. (Photo courtesy of Wheelchair Sports WA)

Both Norris and Merritt referred me back to Mr Yong who answered my questions by email. My main one was that, while it did add some chaos to the schedule for the season, why was this considered an issue worth such a dramatic response.

Yong told me that the "Wheelcats players planned their year around the final fixtures issued by BA (Basketball Australia) in March" and that the "changes meant for some games we couldn't even field a team; one of the players wouldn't qualify to play finals and our coaches were going to be away for some of the re-fixtured games."

"We told BA we could not accommodate fixture changes at such a ridiculously late stage but suggested a solution to BA to bring in the late seventh men's team in place of the Gliders, who weren't even playing for points."

That was never going to be a suitable option as it's all about the medals.

Even before I spoke by phone with Moore, who preferred that to answering by email, I knew that NWBL points were never the reason for including the Gliders in the schedule. Wins were far secondary as well. The only motivation was to give the London 2012 silver medalists a full season of play together against tougher, high quality competition on the road to Rio. Competition that might help lead them to their first Paralympic gold.

In no small part, Australia's wheelchair teams have captured the highest honors for the green and gold to date with the men who are currently two-time IWBF world champions and have taken two gold and two silver medals in the last five Paralympics, while the women have three silver and one bronze in the last four Paralympics and have three bronze medals from the world championships from 1994 to 2002.

In the standing game, only the women, called the Opals, have medaled, winning the FIBA Women's World Championship in 2006 and three bronze finishes including last year in Turkey.

BA took over the operation of the men's and women's national wheelchair basketball leagues at the beginning of 2014 and by his own account, Moore noted that "It's clear that our ambitions in running the league hasn't [been] met [by] our actions."

Keen on using the domestic leagues to increase medal potential for all of Australia's national teams, be they standing or sitting, Moore seems earnest in his stated desire to deliver more stability to the NWBL, especially in light of the current problem the late schedule change has caused.

Until proven otherwise, I have to believe him when he says creating a more professional and stable environment for the NWBL is a priority. I can see no incentive to the contrary.

Moore, who took the reins of Basketball Australia only last October, admits that the decision to add the Heelers wasn't handled well but that by the time it came to his desk, he felt the best decision, "based on all the information that was available to me", was to include them and that concessions on the difficulties it would cause to other teams were put forward.

He told me that in the discussions with all teams, "the addition of the two new teams was seen as largely positive because of the additional competition angle. We were able to develop a cost mitigation strategy so it wouldn't cost any more. There were venue issues and our office worked through those with the clubs."

"All of the hurdles that were [created] by doing this late, we were able to work through to the satisfaction of all the clubs with the exception of the Perth Wheelcats."

"The Australian Sports Commission, through its high performance team, the Australian Institute for Sport, the Australian Paralympic Committee, Disability Sports Australia, and all of the other clubs believe this is a good result."

For clarity, it should be noted that the above statement refers to the additional teams, not the loss of Perth. For the sake of transparency, I did not communicate with any other NWBL teams to confirm that satisfaction and will ask now that if there is any information that contradicts that to please contact me.

Moore also wanted to clarify that Basketball Australia has not removed the Wheelcats from the league. The decision not to play is purely their own.

Justin Eveson carries the ball forward for the Perth Wheelcats against the Wollongong Roller Hawks in Australia’s NWBL play. (Photo courtesy of Wheelchair Sports WA)

Another key question to Yong was the strong assertion in his statement and that of the team that players such as Norris, Eveson, and Michael Hartnett - usually 60 percent of the Rollers starting lineup - might be jeopardizing their placement with the national team.

A written statement from the Wheelcats players, dated June 4th, dramatically implied that the decision not to play this season might affect the standing of the squad's national team members. It reads: "We take these actions reluctantly and knowing full well that, for some of us, it may impact our chances to represent Australia at the Rio de Janiero Paralympic Games in 2016."

That is certainly not the case according to the Rollers head coach Ben Ettridge who said, "None whatsoever" in an email response to my question about that and which reiterated what Basketball Australia told ABC for their report.

"All three are available and have nominated themselves for selection for our AOZ (Asia Oceana Zone) Qualifier in Chiba Japan later this year," said Ettridge, "So for the Rollers programs, it's full steam ahead for China, and then we turn our focus towards Rio."

From the point of view out of Basketball Australia, it's all about the podium and I would have been stunned if this situation ruled out any players responsible for Australia's current status as world champions.

It doesn't appear to be affecting the Glider side as Merritt has already suited up for the women's team in league play.

Looking at the current standings of the NWBL, the RSL Queensland Spinning Bullets are on top with 14 points from four wins in six games. The defending champions are last with zero points from no games. Until this gets resolved, that’s where they will remain.

Steve Goldberg

FIBA

FIBA's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

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