The NBL is happening. And say what you will about how it’s happening but you have to admire the sheer determination of GM Justin Nelson and company to make it happen. The back and forth of the progress towards where we are now has made it tricky to comprehend the whole thing. There’ll be a funky draft and an overseas broadcast package. There are also three missing teams and numerous top players not making themselves available. It’s a lot to get your head around but once you do there’s still plenty to get excited about.

The facts: the NBL will begin on 23 June and run for six weeks. Seven teams are involved. There’ll be two games a night, five nights a week over those six weeks with 56 games being played all up including playoff series. All those games will be broadcast of Sky Sport with a few on free to air as well. The whole thing will take part in Auckland at Trusts Arena. No crowds, obvs.

Then there’s the draft. Because three teams aren’t involved, and three new teams are, player distribution was always gonna be weird. So they picked what at the very least should be a fun compromise. The seven 12-man rosters (10 mains + 2 cover players) will be picked player by player in a draft format that’ll hopefully disperse the talent evenly. And it’s not as ruthless as it sounds either because there’s a pre-draft process where if a player had an existing contract with a team, has spent a majority of their NBL career with a team, or has lived for at least a decade or attended high school in a team’s region then they’re eligible for pre-drafting. Players have to sign off on that arrangement which should give the top available players control over their destinations – although it will count as a draft pick. Pre-picks won’t be announced ahead of time because they’re hoping for a televised spectacular and wanna keep the drama of the selections up their sleeve. The draft will take place on 11 June, player registrations are ongoing as you read this.

The teams involved: Taranaki Airs, Nelson Giants, Canterbury Rams, Auckland Huskies, Otago Nuggets, Manawatu Jets, and Franklin Bulls. The Auckland Huskies are the relocated Southern Huskies who had last year played out of Tasmania, Australia which itself is a story with plenty of confusing elements but so it goes. The Franklin Bulls are another new side, seeking to fill the void in Auckland after it looked like they might have zero teams and now suddenly they have two. As for the Otago Nuggets, they were scheduled to return to the league next season but have gotten a jump on that with this sneaky one-off shortened season format... remember that all the changes, especially the draft, are unique measures only intended for this one compromised season before going back to regularity in the future.

Three teams that won’t be involved: Wellington Saints, Hawke’s Bay Hawks, and Southland Sharks.

That has been the most contentious part of this journey. Those aren’t just any three teams, they’re three of the very best teams, all semi-finalists last season, including both finalists. The Saints have come out swinging in fact, their GM savaging the cramped nature of the competition and the pressure that it puts on players and their welfare. Which, yeah, understandable. It’s not going to be an easy task for any of the players and the lack of preparation time (there are four days between finalised rosters and the first game) feels pretty messy to be honest.

But there is also another aspect to this for the Saints, who traditionally spend way more cash than anyone else in putting their roster together. Coz with a draft they’d be unable to retain all those dudes, they’d be forced to pick and choose and watch some of their previously contracted players play against them for other teams. It’s a conflict that’s unique to the Saints and their typically stacked rosters, at least to that degree of impact. The Hawks were close to participating but for whatever reason chose not to. The Sharks it sounds like there were also geographical reservations, having the furthest to relocate and all that.

Dealing with the three teams out/three teams in thing is do-able. The player workload is tricky but the potential exposure – with globally accessible streams for a global sport which isn’t really being played anywhere in the world at the moment - helps balance that especially for up and coming players. It’s sceptical whether there’ll actually be enough worldwide interest for that League Pass NZ thing to make much money but at least they’re trying, setting a precedent that plenty other kiwi sports orgs could take notice of. But the key to this thing is whether they can get player buy-in and that’s been tough so far.

To be fair, some of the talent is playing. Just not the top tier talent. None of the five contracted Breakers (including the only import who’d likely be available in Jarrad Weeks) are taking place, that’s been confirmed by the club... although their Director of Player Development, Rashid Al-Kaleem, has apparently registered (he’s been at the club two seasons, a former college teammate of Matt Walsh). Other notable Tall Blacks like Isaac Fotu and Tai Webster are nowhere to be seen in the early days of draft nominations either. Guys like that, they’ve got legit pro deals/prospects elsewhere to protect themselves for, deals which actually pay the bills. Especially the Aussie NBL dudes because that league should actually go ahead considering the precedents set by other sports in Australia (the latest is that they’re aiming to start soon after the NRL and AFL conclude, keeping the calendar nice and spread out for da fanz). The pay-cheques for playing kiwi NBL this truncated season... they won’t be up to much. When basketball is your entire livelihood then that’s something you have to think seriously about.

But all the same there some excellent players are popping up. We just gotta accept that this is going to look a bit more like a development league this season, so it goes. Jarrod Kenny’s name is in the hat. So is Jack Salt’s. Tohi Smith-Milner is on the bandwagon. As are the likes of Tom Vodanovich, Everard Bartlett, Tai Wynyard, Sam Timmins, Derone Raukawa, Hyrum Harris, Taylor Britt, Dom Kelman-Poto, and Taine Murray. Also, part of the draft process is the top 14 players, as decided by an independent panel of experts, will be flagged and teams can only take two players each from that group. Just to spread the love around some more. Player nominations continue until 5 June so there’s still time for others to be convinced. Over 400 players have already registered for what are 84 available roster spots but a few more of the international calibre dudes wouldn’t go astray.

We shall see... but don’t hold your breath. The nature of this style of competition automatically makes it something that the top players don’t really need or have the motivation for. Which is a bummer because I kinda think that some of the problems with this 2020 NBL season are being overblown but okay, everybody’s got different and reasonable priorities. Certainly can’t hold that against anyone.

The way to look at it is like with the NRL at the moment. When fans were barred at the start of the season, when the league stubbornly continued even as we were clearly facing a global pandemic... it was completely irresponsible for them to keep going like they did under those circumstances. Now that we’re on the other side of that pandemic in this part of the world, not out of the woods by any means but enough that we can start picking up the pieces, the NRL is back and playing with no crowds again but the conversation isn’t about crowds vs no crowds, it’s about sport vs no sport. The lack of crowds is an accepted sacrifice. The NBL is not going to be able to count upon its top stars, not only the best Tall Blacks but basically all of the imports, they’ll be missing too. The quality is going to be considerably lower. But it’s either that or not have a season at all which makes it a pretty simple equation for us as fans.

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