Melbourne United's Lucas Walker ready to roll in game 1 against the Cairns Taipans. Picture: Michael Klein Source: News Corp Australia
AFTER a tumultuous and emotional off season, the dawn of a new era for Victorian basketball has arrived.
The NBL world was stunned in July when the Melbourne Tigers decided to ditch its famous moniker and become known as Melbourne United.
There have been many strong views on the subject, but the day of action has arrived for a reborn club attempting to bring together the entire Victorian basketball community.
“It is the first game of the season and the inaugural game for our club,” United coach Chris Anstey said.
“There has been a lot of talk over the off-season but the fun starts now.
“This is what we’ve worked towards as a team and to a large extent we remove ourselves from the noise outside the group.”
The noise has been loud.
Club greats such as Lanard Copeland passionately condemned the decision.
Legend Andrew Gaze has been diplomatic on the subject, but also expressed his disappointment when the decision was made.
It remains to be seen whether this bold move will work or not.
Although the early signs have been encouraging with over 10,000 signed up members and a string of big sponsorship announcements.
Anstey — who played in two titles with the Tigers — said he could understand the strong reaction to the decision.
But he has seen first hand why it was made.
For two years Anstey has appealed to Victorian hoops fans to get behind the Tigers.
A big spruiker of the game in Melbourne, he often visits different basketball associations across the state.
US import Jordan McrRae. Picture: Jason Sammon Source: News Corp Australia
Again and again he found people refused to support the Tigers because of old grudges, despite the club being the only NBL team in Victoria.
“There has been a lot of feedback and people ask me all the time how I feel about the Melbourne Tigers supporters,” he said.
“I absolutely emphasise with them and it is sad that they don’t have their club to barrack for.
“But at the same time there is this huge degree of excitement for the basketball families of Victoria that haven’t been to a game in so many years because they couldn’t bring themselves to support the Tigers.
“This is a brand new start and we’re excited about that.”
On the new club’s side is it has assembled a very strong team.
It is a much deeper squad than last year’s team that went within one win of reaching the grand final series.
It will be headlined by NBA second round draft pick Jordan McRae, who in soccer terms is on loan from the Philadelphia 76ers.
Anstey has also brought in former Boomers captain David Barlow, star big man Daniel Kickert, former Tiger Daryl Corletto and silky guard Stephen Dennis.
Big man Mark Worthington, point guard Nate Tomlinson, forward Lucas Walker, Auryn Macmillan and Owen Odigie have all returned.
Anstey’s recruiting has caught the eye of some of his rivals.
Adelaide coach Joey Wright has already declared Kickert is a strong contender for the MVP award and also believes Melbourne is the team to beat this season.
The United coach is not getting caught up in the hype.
“All I know is it is Perth that has made the past four grand finals and the last 26 semi-finals,” Anstey said.
“They won the championship last year and until someone beats them, Perth has the absolute best team in the league and Adelaide has the second best team.
“Everyone else is chasing them.
“We understand we haven’t won a game yet.
“There are a lot of teams that have done a lot in this league and we’re going to try and catch them.”
Anstey is happy with the squad he is assembled, but stressed that “games of basketball aren’t played on paper.”
“We have a new group, we’ve turned over half the team and we haven’t played a real game together,” he said.
“We need to gel and play instinctively together and we have a bunch of players that do that.
“But we’re chasing the rest of the league because this is our first ever game.”
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