Andrew Bogut slams NBL over coronavirus response; Perth Wildcats crowned champions

Andrew Bogut has delivered a scathing assessment of the NBL’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic following the league’s decision to cancel the best-of-five grand final series.

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Andrew Bogut has delivered a scathing assessment of the NBL’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic following the league’s decision to cancel the best-of-five series and award the championship to the Perth Wildcats 48 hours later.

NBL owner Larry Kestelman and commissioner Jeremy Loeliger cited the rules set out in the league’s operations manual as their reason for controversially awarding Perth their 10th title after the Kings withdrew from the series due to the increasing threat of coronavirus.

Bogut took to social media to firstly congratulate Perth, who led the series 2-1 when Sydney officially pulled out on Tuesday, before unleashing on the NBL.

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Andrew Bogut cut loose on the NBL over its handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Picture: Getty Images

“I want to go on the record to say I am beyond embarrassed and disappointed in regards to how this was handled by our league from the week leading up to the grand final series,” Bogut tweeted.

“More to come at a later date re: that. This has nothing to do with the result announced today and I wish to congratulate the Perth Wildcats on being crowned champions.”

The Kings accused the NBL of backflipping on an agreement between all three parties that if all five games couldn’t be completed no winner would be declared.

The NBL has denied an agreement was in place.

Congrats to the @PerthWildcats 👍

— Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) March 19, 2020

Quick note about the season that was @NBL 20 and the past few weeks.
I will be chatting to the press tomorrow morning here in Sydney to wrap up our season.
Be safe out there and be a human being when out and about. pic.twitter.com/hAHMzpyGKR

— Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) March 19, 2020

The Kings were just two wins away from breaking a 15-year championship drought, but ultimately the club chose to put player welfare ahead of basketball during the pandemic.

Kings chief executive Paul Smith congratulated the Wildcats and revealed that the NBL notified him of the outcome just three minutes before holding an official press conference.

“I expressed no disappointment to @KestelmanLarry when he advised me at 2:57pm of the NBL decision,” Smith tweeted. “The decision is the decision. My only emotion is Pride in what we did to support our players and the players dignity they have shown themselves, in contrast with others” Smith posted.

Perth star Bryce Cotton was awarded the finals MVP. Picture: Getty Images

As COVID-19 shut down sport around Australia, the NBL closed the doors to the general public for games two and three of the final series.

But in the lead up to game four, the Kings who felt it necessary to withdraw from the series to slow the outbreak and allow their imports to return home overseas.

After two days of deliberation, the NBL were satisfied that rules set out in the NBL Operations Manual clearly pointed to Perth being awarded the title.

“Games four and five were cancelled by the league due to unforeseen circumstances pursuant to rule 34 of the NBL operations manual,” NBL commissioner Jeremy Loeliger said.

“Consequently, the champions of the Hungry Jack’s 2019-20 NBL season are the Perth Wildcats.”

🚨🎙️🚨

Hear from the NBL's Executive Director Larry Kestelman and Commissioner Jeremy Loeliger as the @PerthWildcats are named the #NBL20 Champions 🏆#NBLFinals pic.twitter.com/o3BL1ctpAH

— NBL (@NBL) March 19, 2020

However, NBL owner Larry Kestelman conceded that an asterisk will likely be attached to the Wildcats’ 10th championship title.

“I think there’s always going to be an asterisk next to this season for all sorts of different reasons I don’t think this is a normal season,” Kestelman said. “Whether it’s a physical asterisk or an asterisk in our heads, I think we’re all going to remember this one,

“Rules are rules, unless we decided to change the rules, that was the only decision we could have made.”

Kestelman spoke to the Kings before the official announcement and admitted that he felt for the regular season winners.

“Obviously (the Kings were) disappointed, but very graceful and accepting it, we didn’t get a chance to have a proper long conversation, which we will do after this,” Kestelman said.

Andrew Bogut said he was embarrassed at how the NBL responded to the COVID-19 drama heading into the NBL grand final series. Picture: Getty Images

“I will again want to say it’s an extraordinarily harsh position for them to be in, I think their fans and players and everyone would have loved to see through the five-game series and I’m sure they’re confident it’s something they could win.”

Kestelman spoke to the Kings before the official announcement and admitted that he felt for the regular season winners.

“Obviously (the Kings were) disappointed, but very graceful and accepting it, we didn’t get a chance to have a proper long conversation, which we will do after this” Kestelman said

But Smith said Kestelman hadn’t reached out 2.5 hours after the press conference.

“Somewhere along the line, in written form or orally, Mr Kestelman expressed that I was disappointed by the decision, I was not disappointed … my only emotion is that I’m proud of our players and the way they’ve handled it.” Smith said.

Smith said that since March 12, he received no written information regarding how finals may be impacted by COVID-19 despite the club’s request for guidance on the matter.

“I would hope that, as the owner of the league, Kestelman might take the time to consider taking time to adopt procedures and processes that provide clarity to organisations and people that make significant investments in the sport of basketball” Smith said.

While Sydney’s decision to withdraw cost them the championship, Smith is confident that it was the right one.

“I will wake up tomorrow morning and feel damn good about what we did,” Smith said.

“When I get a text from our coach who scrambled his way back and actually got back inside Germany before their borders close … where his partner and daughter are … you can bet I’m going to sleep well tonight.”

Originally published as Andrew Bogut slams NBL over coronavirus response; Perth Wildcats crowned champions