Yesterday it was announced that three NBL teams would be travelling to the US to take part in the 2017 NBA pre-season.

NBL vs NBA

It is the first time ever that anything like this has happened and is a massive result for the NBL.

The NBL has had some much publicised problems over the years but this is a brilliant moment for the league.

Perth Wildcats miss out

But the exclusion of the Perth Wildcats from the tour has certainly raised some eyebrows.

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With three championships in the past four years, the Wildcats have been by far the most dominant of the NBL clubs in recent years.

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Yet they missed out. Instead it’s the Sydney Kings, Brisbane Bullets and Melbourne United who will be flying the flag for Australia.

It’s great but no @PerthWildcats though. Most successful team in the league getting snubbed — Adam Hunt (@tweet_adam_hunt) August 2, 2017

Nice shafting of @PerthWildcats. I guess success didn’t matter and not included in “largest followings” is insulting AF… — Andrew Smith (@AndrewSmith_AU) August 1, 2017

Typical nbl. East coast teams that haven’t won the national competition in 8 years. — Lisa Martin (@lisam1317) August 1, 2017

After more than 24 hours of silence the Perth Wildcats have finally broken their silence to shed some light on the matter.

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Official statement

In a media statement released today the club says:

“The opportunity for the Perth Wildcats to play an NBA pre-season game in the United States was informally raised by the NBL earlier this year.”

“However given the timing of the games and the unknown financial cost, the decision was made that it wasn’t in the best interests of the organisation.”

“The Wildcats are firmly focused on the 2017/18 NBL campaign and preparation for every regular season game is of the upmost importance.”

Opportunity lost

This statement raises more questions than it actually answers. “Unknown financial cost” Really? I would have thought that the benefits of having your brand exposed to the world’s biggest basketball market would far outweigh any “unknown costs”.

How many people in the US right now know who Melbourne United are? Bugger all. Yet after these pre-season matches there will be hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, talking about Melbourne United.

The other people who have missed out here are the Perth Wildcats players. It would mean the world to these guys to be able to play against some of the best players in the world. Even if it is only in a practice match. You cannot put a price tag on the experience and confidence the Wildcats players would have gained by being out on court mixing it with a bloke like Russell Westbrook.

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They may have plenty of championship trophies in their cabinet but I think the Wildcats have been the big losers on this occasion.

by Michael T. Lynch – contributor