Tasmanian basketball may be seeking national inclusion, but when it comes to shooting itself in the foot, it's already in a league of its own.
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There's never a shortage of competition for the title of Tasmania's most self-destructive sport, but basketball would have to be leading this year's charge.
At a time when the sport should have so much to celebrate, it continues to find new ways to implode.
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There are so many roses in the BTas garden at the moment, there appears little need for manure.
In the past week, Chris Goulding made the Boomers' world cup squad when even NBA stars missed out, Sejr Deans, Lauren Wise and Zoe Crawford all made the national under-16 squad and NBL owner Larry Kestelman confirmed Tasmania will be the home of the competition's 10th club.
In addition to Goulding and Lucas Walker - who roomed together en route to Commonwealth Games gold because they had both attended West Launceston Primary School - the state has also produced such NBL quality as Anthony Stewart, Adam Gibson, Matt Knight, Mason Bragg and AFL ship jumper Hugh Greenwood.
Launceston Tornadoes have had such a dream run on recruitment in recent years that Lauren Mansfield, Lauren Nicholson and Ally Wilson all find themselves in the Opals squad alongside former Torn Liz Cambage.
US colleges love Tasmanians with the likes of Kai Woodfall, Callum Barker, Gabe Hadley, Taylor Mole, Olivia West and Tanner Krebs all receiving well-funded educations merely by being rather good at handling a basketball.
Meanwhile Mark Radford - widely considered one of the best coaches in Australia and in charge of the nation's under-17s - is responsible for ensuring that production line keeps on delivering.
But while player development and participation rates appear to be in good health, the state of the state's professional clubs is anything but.
Friday's Huskies bombshell had been ticking for some time. And nobody completely escaped the fallout.
A press release citing an "untenable" relationship with Basketball Tasmania but concluding "no further comment will be provided" is a bit like saying: "You're it, no tag-backs."
Announcing the club's immediate withdrawal from both the NZ NBL and NBL1, the club talked up its investment of $1.7 million in the Tasmanian basketball market.
But it soon emerged that the Huskies have not been paying the bills.
Venues, leagues and even players appear to be owed and the club's debts are believed to be around $200,000.
Faced with costs of $20,000 every time a New Zealand club visited Tasmania, the crowds at the Silverdome and Derwent Entertainment Centre were not enough to square the ledger.
The club was happy to point a finger at Basketball Tasmania but it seems the state body was merely trying to deliver due diligence by requesting information about their financial situation.
Furthermore, it had become increasingly obvious that while Kestelman was likely to get a Tasmanian team into NBL, that team wasn't going to be the Huskies.
As a result they could have found themselves trying to maintain interest in a New Zealand national league while competing for audience with a team in the Australian national league. Good luck with that.
Speaking to The Examiner last week, Kestelman admitted he had some concerns about giving the nod to the Huskies saying he had heard "mixed results from the locals" about the team. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
The Huskies pledged to repay "all remaining creditors" and hoped an exit report to be presented to the Premier "will have a positive impact on change for the betterment of basketball in Tasmania".
It's a shame to see the Huskies go. They had an excellent product and successfully generated interest, but needed to work on community engagement. A study of the Hawthorn model would not have gone amiss.
Launceston's senior women's side also seems to be navigating through turbulent waters.
Given the departures of Mansfield, Nicholson and Wilson, combined with the absence, through injury and national selection respectively, of replacements Brittany Hodges and Stella Beck, the Tornadoes' train crash of a season was about as predictable as Darren Winter blaming a Lauderdale loss on umpires.
It was harsh to make Derrick Washington a scapegoat for an under-performing team as the eccentric but enthusiastic American, who took the club to a SEABL grand final in his first season, joined Reece Potter, Ben Rush and Richard Dickel as the latest victims of Elphin Sports Centre's ruthless revolving door.
Press releases in which the Torns "thank him sincerely for his efforts" and enable him "to pursue other opportunities" have become all too frequent and the club needs to start putting more faith in its appointments.
It seems there's rarely a dull day for Basketball Tasmania.
Just a few years after its own turmoils when falling out with the Tasmanian Institute of Sport over elite athlete development pathways, the state body oversees a sport racked with infighting but on the verge of long-awaited national inclusion.
Mawson the husky may have gone the same way as our other iconic state sporting mascot, the Tasmanian Tiger, but Tasmanian basketball has plenty of evolving to do.
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