January start date for new NBL season
THE Cairns Taipans’ upcoming NBL season has again been delayed, with the 2020-21 campaign not set to start until at least mid-January.
The NBL season was originally scheduled to start on December 3, but announced Monday it will now start at least a month later.
NBL Owner and Executive Chairman Larry Kestelman said after consulting with the nine clubs and the Australian Basketball Players’ Association and acting on the advice of the NBL Return to Competition Taskforce, the league decided the start of the season will be delayed.
Kestelman, right, also confirmed the league may start in “hub” formats, similar to that used by the AFL to complete their season.
It has been reported New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria are the lead candidates to host a hub.
“The main reason for pushing the start of the season back to the new year is to give the clubs the best opportunity to play in front of as many fans as possible,” Kestelman said.
“We will remain flexible about the exact start date and this will depend on a number of factors including travel and border restrictions, community transmission numbers and availability at venues across Australia and New Zealand.
“We intend to play a full season and, if needed, we will play in one or more hubs to achieve this.”
Cairns Taipans lead assistant coach and Marlins coach Jamie O’Loughlin says the start date of the NBL season will impact how much the QBL squad play in the coming months and how the Taipans’ pre-season will be managed.
O’Loughlin says his Marlins squad, made up of key NBL rotation players or Snakes training and development players, are keen to play more in the off-season and have had enough of just training.
“At this stage, there is nothing else planned,” O’Loughlin said late last week. “As more information comes to hand about how seasons are going to play out, I think those things can be re-evaluated, I do not think there is necessarily a mindset that nothing could or would happen.
“I think it's a ‘lets have a look’, see where the NBL sits, obviously they have a group right now that is discussing and managing the current situation.
“When is the season going to kick off? How is it going to kick off? Where is it going to kick off? We are all waiting on those things and there is a knock-on effect to that, if the NBL is starting sooner, maybe there is no other state league level basketball.”
Cairns have Mojave King, Majok Deng, Mirko Djeric, George Blagojevic, Fabijan Krslovic, Kouat Noi, Nate Jawai and Jarrod Kenny under contract for next season, alongside newcomer Jordan Ngatai. They are yet to land any American imports.