When AEG Ogden announced its takeover of the Sydney Kings before the beginning of last season, I was so happy. We fans hadn’t had a team for a few years and then endured tight purse strings (the concept of ‘you have to spend money to make money’ seemed lost on the previous ownership group), poor recruiting decisions, awful coaching and just a general sense that no one involved with the club really wanted to be there, least of all the players. Jeff van Groningen said all the right things as the new general manager, declaring that the owners were prepared to spend whatever was necessary and that anything short of a top-four finish for the team would be unacceptable.
And the recruiting – especially with the short turnaround between takeover and the start of season – was amazing: poaching Kevin Lisch from Illawarra, luring Brad Newley back from Europe and, perhaps most impressive of all, securing the services of undisputed Australian G.O.A.T. Andrew Gaze as coach, with multiple championship-winning Dean Vickerman as one of the assistant coaches. We fans thought that our prayers had finally been answered for our beloved club.
Well…we all know how last season ended for the Kings. An ignominious freefall from a seemingly certain minor premiership to missing the finals entirely. And for the most part, while I was disappointed, I also understood. Most of us fans did. There was some bad luck involved with untimely injuries and imports not living up to their promise, and Andrew Gaze was a first-season NBL coach still finding his feet who perhaps hadn’t realised quite the undue pressure he’d put on his starters by playing them the number of minutes per game that he did. We’d do better next year, everyone said, and I believed it.
But this season, something isn’t adding up. Starting the season without a third import and with a 6’8” ‘centre’, even after getting comprehensively outrebounded during the NBL Blitz? Burning our third import spot on Jeremy Kendle, an import who couldn’t get a job at the beginning of the season, when we were apparently determined to sign ‘the best player’ as a replacement for Kevin Lisch – and could have gotten one from literally anywhere in the world? Firing the man behind the Lion after 22 years’ loyal service? And what on earth is going on with Tommy Garlepp?
Now I’m the first to admit that I’m in no way a basketball professional; just an enthusiastic fan, and normally I wouldn’t comment on the decisions of the coaching and management staff. I assume they know better than some random keyboard warrior – after all, it is their job.
And as one of the so-called ‘happy clappers’ on the Sydney Kings Fans Facebook group, I’m usually one of the first to shout down the naysayers and tell them to give our boys a chance and trust in our coaching and management staff. But after this weekend’s performances, I can’t shake the feeling that the fans are being taken for a ride.
It’s not the losing that bothers me so much – after all, I was introduced to Kings games as a very little girl by my mother, who’s been a fan since the team’s inception; I think it’s fair to say we’re somewhat used to that in my family. I’m angry because I don’t think the fans are being told the truth about why we’re losing.
I may not be a basketball professional, but I’m also not stupid, and I honestly don’t buy that some of the decisions that have been made this season have been made because those in charge genuinely thought they were the best decisions for the team’s performance, regardless of what spin the Kings management want to put on it. So, on behalf of all of Kings fans, I’d like to ask the ownership and management team some questions. And for once, I’d like truthful answers:
- Why did we start the season without a more experienced centre (i.e. a guy who’s over 6’10”, and has played at least one professional season)?
- Why did we start the season with only two imports?
- Why did we sign Jeremy Kendle? Was it due to time pressure or (as I think we all suspect) financial pressure?
I think that it’s quite possible that AEG are rethinking last season’s generosity. That’s OK – if you can’t afford to spend what you were spending, you can’t afford it. It does seem somewhat ridiculous in light of your comments at the beginning of last season, but I suppose that’s water under the bridge now. If you’re crying poor, for God’s sake come clean with the fans about it; don’t pretend that you genuinely think Jeremy Kendle is the best replacement for Kevin Lisch out there.
We don’t believe it and, worse, it shows us that you think we’re idiots, or that you’re idiots, and I’m not sure which is worse. Do it in whatever euphemistic language you must, but tell us the truth.
- Did we really sign Singh because of his talent, or was it another attempt (see: Bo Liu) to lure the Sydney Asian diaspora to games?
If I’m brutally honest, if you’re buying a basketball team in Australia to try to turn a profit, especially quickly, you’re you-know-what out of luck. Basketball may be one of the biggest grassroots participation sports in Australia, but it’s not got anything like the name-recognition of other sports, or of basketball overseas. I’ve played, refereed and coached basketball for sixteen years at multiple associations around Sydney, and I promise you that the vast majority of people I’ve come into contact with through the sport had no idea who Josh Powell or Steve Blake were before they came to Sydney. I’m not even sure they know them now.
People play the game here for fun and fitness. Can you turn that into a following for the NBL? Possibly, but it’s going to take time, patience and grassroots engagement (see: Perth Wildcats) rather than signing players primarily for marketing reasons. A small number may follow the NBA, but until you sign Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, you’re not going to get many more bums on seats by hiring former NBA players towards the end of their careers. Not enough to justify the expense, anyway.
And remember my comment about not being stupid? The same goes for the Asian diaspora. People hate feeling that you’re playing them for a fool, and Singh’s signing was transparent at best. A token Indian player does not an Indian supporter base make, just as signing Bo Liu last year didn’t magically induce every person of Chinese heritage in Sydney to come to Kings games. And for God’s sake stop playing that Bollywood music every time Singh scores; the poor man is Punjabi, not Hindi, and you’re embarrassing yourselves.
You know what is proven to put bums on seats in the NBL, more than anything else, and especially in Sydney? Winning. And for that, you need to keep the nucleus of a team together for a few years, not swap out perfectly adequate, if not superstar level, bench players for unknown quantities straight out of college every year (see: Cody Ellis, Jeromie Hill, Dane Pineau…). You can’t buy a championship, especially if you’re feeling the pinch – but what you can do is spend money wisely and create a sense of camaraderie and self-belief in your players, coach and support team. Which brings me to my final and toughest questions:
- Why is Tommy Garlepp, our former captain with 16 ppg and much-needed leadership qualities, not to mention an all-around nice guy and fan favourite, lucky to get any minutes at all this season?
- Why did you fire the man behind the Lion after 22 years? From the Lion’s Facebook page, I see he had a 350 game milestone coming soon. Why wouldn’t you give him that? How does it benefit the Kings not to show him the respect and love that he has dedicated to them? And to be honest, the new guy (and costume; the Lion has clearly had some work done in his old age) isn’t nearly as good; he waves to a few kids and that’s about it, so why would you replace the original energetic Lion with someone who either can’t or chooses not to dance and perform?
- Does Andrew Gaze have much say in recruiting, or is someone else pulling the strings? If someone else, who, and why?
If we’re poor and can’t afford good players, or are making opportunistic but miscalculated marketing-based decisions, that’s one thing. But I think there’s something else going on here. I fear we’ve gone back to the bad old days of players being signed, or not signed (or played, or not played) for political rather than gameplay-based reasons. Why else do we have a stacked team in arguably one of the nicest cities in the world who frankly look like they’d rather be doing anything else but playing for the Kings, and who lose convincingly to far less talented line-ups?
Why do we have a coach who, from all the games I’ve seen him play and heard him commentate over the years, has a great basketball brain, but yet started the season without a legitimate centre when even school-aged fans were saying what a horrible idea that was? And most importantly, why are people like the original Lion and Garlepp being shunned for no apparent reason?
Why aren’t we, the fans, being told anything??
I’m not asking for a blow-by-blow account of every little decision that is made. I’m not quite as entitled as that, and for the most part, I trust you to do your jobs and do them well. But when you’re doing things that make no sense to anyone else, and our beloved team is getting repeatedly thrashed as a result and it’s only Round 2, I do feel we fans have the right to request an explanation for some of the crazier choices you’ve made, if only for transparency’s sake. I assure you we’ve had enough Violet Crumbles to last a lifetime.
I look forward to your reply. Preferably in a public forum like this; I have no desire to become one of the cognoscenti at the expense of other Kings fans. I’ll be surprised if I get honest answers – if I get a reply at all. I suspect this laundry is just too dirty to be aired in public. But hey, I’m just a fan – what do I know?
Yours sincerely,
Olivia Oliver-Hopkins.
Olivia is a long-suffering Sydney Kings fan as well as playing and refereeing basketball in local competitions for over a decade. In her real life, she's trying to get into academia, having just completed her PhD in film studies, and runs her own high school tutoring business. Her hobbies include trying to get love from unfriendly cats, drinking tea, and being jealous of fans of teams that actually win.
