Could two administrators who were involved in one of Tasmanian sport’s most bitter public fallouts unite for an NBL team?

The prospect of a Tasmanian team in the NBL could help two of the state’s basketball administrators to bury the hatchet after a very bitter and pubic falling out.

Basketball Australia CEO Jerril Rechter says having 20,000 Tasmanians playing the sport by the end of 2022 is “definitely achievable”. Picture: Zak Simmonds

SIX months after his involvement in one of the most extraordinary clashes in Tasmanian sporting history, Basketball Tasmania chief Chris McCoy has declared “his door is open” to work with David Bartlett if it enhanced chances of an NBL team.

McCoy and Hobart Chargers president Bartlett had a sensational falling out last December, with Bartlett withdrawing the SEABL champions’ application to join the new NBL1 competition as the club went into recess for 12 months.

It led to a bitter public slanging match between the two.

Basketball Tasmania chief executive Chris McCoy. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

However with the prospect of a Tasmanian team in the NBL closer to reality than ever with league owner Larry Kestelman in negotiations with the Glenorchy City Council and meeting the State Government next week, McCoy has extended an olive branch to Bartlett.

“Our role as a sport is to embrace everyone, we’re not always going to agree on areas but our door is certainly open there,” he said as Basketball Australia’s new CEO Jerril Rechter visited Hobart on Friday.

In his interview with the Mercury on Tuesday, Kestelman said he hopes the state’s push to rejoin the league for the first time since 1996 can unite the administrators who have helped increase the rise of basketball.

“I’d like to see all of the people that have contributed to the sport of basketball over the years be united under this in the NBL umbrella,” Kestelman said.

“There have been a lot of people that have given up a lot for basketball, and I’ve met with a number of other corporates and very influential people that are all contributing to that ecosystem and I would love to see if we can all unite.

Hobart Chargers president David Bartlett. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

“I understand there was some falling out, let’s say, between different parties. What I would love to see is under this NBL umbrella is for them to come back and unite for the good of the sport and all contribute to it. So I’d love to see David contributing for sure.”

Rechter, who lived in Launceston in the 1980s and ’90s, was in the state to assist the launch of the new Basketball in Tasmania Strategic Plan 2019-22.

A lack of adequate facilities — especially in the south — is at the forefront of the plan.

“Obviously in Tasmania at the moment it’s a really exciting time, with discussions about professional teams, the need for new facilities and more infrastructure across the state but also particularly in the south as well,” Rechter said.

“It needs courts, it needs facilities in order to be able to grow and the aspiration for 20,000 people to be playing the sport by the end of 2022 is definitely achievable.”