NBL tip-off next month has imports, rule adjustments and talent to turn a 'make or break' year into a winner NBL CEO Stephen Dunn speaks at the season launch. THROWING down a slam dunk is a pipe dream for the average punter and on par for degree of difficulty with what the NBL aims to achieve this season. Australia's elite men's basketball competition wants to lure you back, "you" being fans - past, present and future - sponsors, corporate partners, media. It's right up there for the NBL's interim chief executive Steve Dunn - not exactly a physical giant - with throwing down a dunk of his own. But de-merging from the constraints of Basketball Australia's leadership, opening league ownership to investors, retaining the free-to-air television deal on Network 10 and revamping the way the game is played all are moves poised to ensure the NBL once again is an attractive option and, more importantly, sustainable in the long term. It already has an impressive 34 years as a national competition under its belt but as it heads into 2013-14 and its 35th season, the journey is equally impressively tainted with defunct clubs, bankrupt benefactors and errors of decision-making and judgment. The NBL, as its many detractors will happily tell you, has been a "basket case." The key words in that sentence though are "has been." The question now is can NBL Pty Ltd lift its profile back out of "has been" territory and show it "has been" prepared to listen and make the changes necessary to go forward once more? At last week's media launch, Dunn told his committed assembled teams, tentative sponsors and a jaded media the lessons had been learnt. "Yes, the NBL has lost ground in recent years - we know that," he said. And indeed, that lost ground is most of the continent. Our challenge is to bring it back to the lofty heights we enjoyed. A lot of you are thinking 'NBL? The jury is out - I'm not too sure.' That's our challenge, to tip the scales and either recruit you or bring the game back to you. Of course, it is easier said than done but the moves are positive. On the floor, two important boxes already have been ticked. The first was a return to the quality of import who first drew the non-committed sports fan through the doors to watch basketball. Sydney King Jesse Sanders runs into the Taipans' defence. Champion New Zealand replaced its reigning league MVP Cedric Jackson with Kerron Johnson and its back-up power forward Will Hudson with Darnell Lazare. Perth's new faces include spectacular NBA-bound James Ennis - already the Ray Borner Medallist at last week's pre-season Blitz tournament - and one day a future Miami Heat teammate of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. His offsider Jermaine Beal is efficient and tidy, as is Sydney's quicksilver point guard Jesse "The Colonel" Sanders, contrasted by scoring maestro Charles Carmouche. Adelaide added a league MVP in Gary Ervin to its revitalised team and an aerialist athlete in Jarrid Skye to bring the "wow" factor. Steve Dennis, like Ennis, is MVP material and showed wicked skills for Melbourne, and Canadian centre Scott Morrison is a perfect big-man fit for the Tigers. Rotnei Clarke's three-pointer to beat Melbourne at the end of overtime at the Blitz showed he does not only create but finish, and his import running mate at Wollongong, Durrell Summers, already is on highlights packages for his dunking alone. In Queensland, Cairns has a twin US backcourt of Jamar Wilson and Demetri McCamey to thrill Taipans fans and Townsville has a strong inside target in Brian Conklin and the showcase skills of Josh Pace. Returning Australian stars in Europe, AJ Ogilvy (Sydney), Mark Worthington (Melbourne) and Steve Markovic (Townsville), along with US college grads such as Mitch Young (Cairns), SEABL players receiving their shot and talents such as Cam Gliddon (Cairns) and Daniel Johnson (Adelaide) continuing to emerge, means there will be no shortage on on-court talent. The second tick for "on the floor" has been the league's decision to embrace its own set of rules and break from the direction international basketball. The NBL wants to provide a cleaner, quicker game with less rules up for interpretation. "Hands off" defensively took considerable adjustment for teams at the Blitz, as did the initial decision by officials to call everything. Unquestionably, many took the instruction to follow the rule book and call everything way too literally. It led to 75 free throws in the Adelaide-Townsville game which took more than two hours to complete. James Ennis of the Wildctas launches for the basket. The complaints were long and loud. "This isn't the NBL anymore, it's the NNBL - the National Netball Basketball League," dual-Olympian Worthington loudly (and justifiably) retorted after Melbourne's 84-86 loss to Townsville had seen 55 fouls called and players' initial bemusement crossing deeply into frustration. Tigers coach Chris Anstey bailed up new NBL referees manager Mal Cooper post-game on Saturday, but he wasn't the first coach to do so. A day later, with the officials - who also were learning on-the-fly precisely what to call - the Sydney-Cairns and Wollongong-Melbourne games were immaculate. It had taken most of the Blitz - and the teething issues were big - but the formula was finally right. "My opinion on Sunday, taking into it the frustrations players, coaches and referees all had, was that if Sunday reflects how the games will go, then fans can look forward to a high-scoring, exciting season," Anstey said. I made a point of speaking with Mal and Billy (refs advisor Bill Mildenhall) to tell them the refereeing was great. Saturday was something of a false economy, so to speak, and credit to the league, Mal and Billy for taking our feedback and making adjustments overnight. The emphasis is to play good defence. Cooper had arguably the toughest coaching job of the Blitz, bringing referees from all over Australia and trying to have them satisfy - and pacify - coaches and players with the more stringent regime. "We went from where the season finished last year to a complete turnaround at the Blitz and big adjustments were needed by all players, coaches and referees," Cooper said. After speaking with Bill and the NBL, we believe we are now pretty close to what the game should look like, with the games on Sunday very good examples of what we want. Unfortunately a lot of coaches had already left to return home but with a few more exhibition and pre-season games before the season tips off on October 10, the signs are good. "In the first few games, we had a lot of hands-on fouls and averaged between 55 and 60," Cooper said. That created a lot of free throws as the officials carried out the instructions to the letter. Players had to quickly adjust and there was basically no advantage/disadvantage applied at all - just if there was contact, call it. By the time we got to the last three games and using the video we took, we were able to show the officials what is a foul and what we do not want blown. Coaches, referees and their evaluators all will receive DVDs of the new direction and few will be unhappy. Off court, NBL Pty Ltd is selling half of the shares in its new entity to private investors, with 50 per cent of the league to be owned by its eight clubs, the other 50 per cent offered to private interests. Some of the existing owners will take up a few extra shares which should mean they will have a greater stake in the health of the entire league, rather than just focusing on the best interests of their own team. Among the club owners are BRW Rich 200 member Jack Bendat (Perth Wildcats), former Dodo owner Larry Kestelman (Melbourne Tigers) and TV presenter and Port Adelaide AFL chairman David Koch, plus Dick Smith investor Bill Wavish (Sydney Kings). Pacific Equity Partners founder John Rickard Gardell is tipped to invest. "We have a long way to go but we are united on the journey," Dunn said. Clearly, Dunn has a springboard en route to that slam dunk.