3 March, 2009 / NBL / By / 2 minutes of reading

Passionate journalism is fantastic. I’m never upset to see an article about basketball — all news is good news.

So it was with much delight that I read this little piece from GMA News in the Philippines. They wrote a similarly enthusiastic, yet non-factual article a week back. John Rillie has picked up on these little gems too, it appears.

Now, let’s get into a game. Who can count the most errors in the article? I count the following:

  1. “Australian champs Sydney Spirit” — sorry, try more the other end of the table and you’ll be getting there.
  2. “The Sydney Spirit, formerly the Sydney Kings” — sound the buzzer once again, the Spirit were actually the West Sydney Razorbacks, not the Kings, before changing their name.
  3. “…former National Basketball League Most Valuable Player Jason Smith” — unfortunately the former Kings captain never won the league’s MVP title. If you don’t believe me you can read here.
  4. “Three other members of the Spirit, who were part of the three-time champion squad, are Graeme Dann, Clint Reed and Bruce Bolden.” — well if they’re referring to the Kings, both Dann and Bolden have been members, Reed was never a King. If they’re referring to the Razorbacks… well. that’s a different story!

You can not fault them for trying though and like all good journos, following the motto of not letting the facts get in the way of a good story!! Outside of these stretchings of the truth, it is good news to hear that the Spirit will be getting more match practice overseas, with the hope that many of those players will be active in a new NBL competition in October. It’s also great to hear (if it’s true) that Big Bruce will be showing off his famous glare in South East Asia. The fact that the organisers have covered the team’s expenses makes it a no-brainer to put a team out there against the Powerade-RP hosts I guess.

Meanwhile, back in the land of Oz, the NBL Grand Final series is about to tip off in an all-Victorian rivalry, between the league’s top two teams, the Melbourne Tigers and the South Dragons. More to come on this.