Originally posted by I Ron Butterfly:
I remember hearing a few years back that basketball Ireland packed in senior international basketball, did they ever reverse that decision? Its a relatively popular sport in the country, a good bit played in around Limerick anyway, Cork and Dublin as well.

This message has been edited - 12-may-2012 @ 13:31

Originally posted by dubliner 2:
It's a great game and could be hugely popular but organisationally it is a total shambles.Kieran Shannon's book Hanging From The Rafters will give you a good idea of just how badly the sport has been run since the 1980's.At schools level, where lads and girls actually want to play, it's a total joke. For a start affiliations are twice that of the G.A.A. while a squad is only about half the size of a football or hurling one so in essence it's costs four times as much to enter each player as it does for G.A.A.But the one that gets me is the grading. They don't grade teams they grade schools. They have First Year, Second Year, U/16 and U/19 competitions and if you win a Dublin B competition the whole school, irrespective of how good your other teams are, go up to A the following year.Even worse is when you win at U19. We won a B competition some years ago and they put us up to the A division the next year (the whole schools that is) even though all those lads were leaving that year and our other teams had won nothing.We pulled out after that year as we were getting beaten by 80 points and the lads just refused to play any more. We have gotten back in again but the organisation is still as bad. Instead of being run for the players it's run to make things as easy as possible for the administrators and that's why it will never take off.I don't know much about the club game but I have heard that smaller clubs will almost always lose their best players to the bigger ones hence there's no real development going on at all.
The former coach in our school won a Dublin U/15 Division 1 title once with a team a few years back. Great plans were made for the following year but the players were all poached and the team didn't even field as U/16's.They haven't gone back into the international arena as far as I know. At underage international level players are expected to fund raise and pay their own way. Compare that to being on a county development squad.They have had huge financial issues in the last couple of years and their answer was to hire Bernard O'Byrne as their CEO.I don't see much changing to be honest.

Originally posted by yankeelad:
Ha Irish basketball.Why does that sound funny

Originally posted by cowpat:
what's so funny about it? No reason why we couldn't have a decent international team.I recall it being very very popular in Spain/Italy/Greece. When I was in Italy, the atmosphere was like a football match sometime. Seemed to be big in Calabria.


Didn't the former Yugoslavia have a good team in the Olympics years back?

Originally posted by yankeelad:
Ha Irish basketball.Why does that sound funny

Originally posted by dubliner 2:
Hanging From teh Rafters is a seriously good read.Bit harsh Yankeelad. Basketball is very popular here but is very badly served by its national organisation.I don't think we could ever be competitive on the international stage but certainly they could double or even triple participation if they just got their bloody act together.

Originally posted by yankeelad:
No disrespect D2 but the last two words made it even more funny.The Irish playing basketball while at the same time getting their act together.I just might submit this line to Saturday Night Live as I have no doubt but it would bring down the house.Damn thats a good one D2

Originally posted by batter burger:
Whats with the attitude? You clearly don't know the first thing about Irish basketball so why do you insult the many great players we have produced. If you are trying to be funny it isn't working.
Hanging from the rafters is one of the best Irish sports books ever d2, perhaps you should have a read of it Yankeelad.

Originally posted by yankeelad:
Relax batter I was just doing a one two with D2 and nothing for you to be getting excited about.

Originally posted by yankeelad:
Relax batter I was just doing a one two with D2 and nothing for you to be getting excited about.

Originally posted by irishmagic:
However in their wisdom the national organisation got rid of the yanks and thus got rid of the crowds. Never the same since.

Originally posted by irishmagic:
Irish basketball was brilliant in the 80s. I went to many a game in cork between neptune and demons and st vincents.Nail biting stuff and only hurling could compare. That was when each team had 2 americans playing with them. Ray Smith, Jasper Mcelroy, terry strickland. ..
Documentary coming out in the summer about that era

Originally posted by Bannerboy7:
A question for you D2 even though slightly off the topic. What are your opinions about the grading of Gaelic football in Dublin colleges. I for one think it is an absolute disgrace. Our school competed in the C level for years and were beaten 6 years in a row by the same school who would have a strong feeder club but yet they refused to move up to B. A glance at the book which is sent out every year show the same teams winning and back at the same grade again the next year. Our school are now playing in the D grade and got beaten by an all boys school of 800 boys who were beaten the year before in the Leinster D final. As far as i know, about 5 teams compete in the A grade..

Originally posted by batter burger:
Grand so, i guess i'm not welcome at your party.
Just say whatever you want, tisn't often someone gets excited around here

Originally posted by yankeelad:
I love basketball and am very fortunate to live in a country where year after year I am in awe of how the next group of athletes coming in take it to a whole nother level.NBA playoffs are about as it gets.In my view they are the best athletes in the world as those big men play a very physical game as well.Getting hit by one of those guys would be like getting hit by a runaway train.

Originally posted by dubliner 2:
That was the killer. They thought that people would come and see mediocre players. They were wrong. An awful shame. If they'd kept it at two Americans per club basketball would be massively popular still.

Originally posted by c:
I guess that is what is happening with the rugby provinces now. They realise they won't be winning European cups without the imports and prioritise the crowds and brand at the expense of having Irish qualified players playing for them.

This message has been edited - 13-may-2012 @ 12:35