Rantings of an Insane Platypus - 31st March 2004
Thursday 01 April 2004
The politics of BA
The Opals captain saga gets ever more interesting by the day. When rumours of Harrower's demise as Opals captain first broke, someone from BA denied a decision had been made. However Kristi Harrower says otherwise...
I know people are wondering why I have been dropped all together, but firstly I would like to set the story straight. I was told by Basketball Australia in February of 2003 that I will no longer be the Captain of the Australian Opals due to personal differences, which I am unable to get into... But I think you all know... And yes it has been kept quiet since.
Considering the sources, I'm more inclined to trust Kristi's account of events. Jan Stirling and BA's credibility was already shaky due to the appearance of some mythical selection criteria that Jan pulled out of some orifice so that she could wave it as a stick to "threaten" WNBA-bound senior Opals squad members who also played in Europe. As for the mentioned "personal differences", I don't think it's anything too exotic. A lot of players on the Opals squad do not respect Jan and Jan probably feels that Kristi is a part of this group.
And BA is spouting out more rubbish yet again (scroll down a bit)
Trish Fallon was announced yesterday as captain for the Opals program for 2004.
The naming of a captain and vice captain was a neccessity considering we play a series of friendlies against NZ in Canberra following this week's camps (which Kristi unfortunately won't be attending).
You may also remember that Trish was previously the captain of our team on a tour of Europe prior to the 2002 World Champs.
That does not mean Trish is guaranteed an Olympic berth however as the Olympic team has not yet been selected. It would therefore be inaccurate to say that Trish is the Olympic captain.
Funnily enough, Trish Fallon is not attending this training camp either. So the captain named for this series against NZ is not present at all!
And as if the "captain of the Opals program" WON'T make the Olympics team - if that happened, it'd be even more farcical than it already is!
Wake up and smell the roses, Basketball Australia. You have a divisive figure heading the national team program who isn't really that good a coach (watched the WNBL recently? Or the Aus/US game at the 2002 World Champs?). A coach who doesn't have the respect of the players is a coach not worth having. Jan Stirling is only there because she has "tenure". And this is indicative of how BA is run.
Kristi to the WNBA?
She still hasn't decided according to that article on her personal page (linked above). Please come to Phoenix, Kristi! It'll be better preparaton than playing second rate countries and stagnating in Jan's "training camps" (what on earth happens in these camps? Jan doesn't have any plays to teach!)
Draft stocks index
BULL: Nicole Powell, Lindsay Whalen
BEAR: Stacy Stephens, Nicole Ohlde, Kelly Mazzante (big time!)
DT doesn't count because she is assured to go #1 barring any freaky injuries...
Comments
Hey, keegan, I sat next to one of the officials of the Opals the other night. Don't know her name but have a photo of her. Will confirm later.
I asked her about Trish and she confirmed that trish is the captain for the Olympics??
So BA's answer is BS
Posted by: auspost58 | Thursday 01 April 2004