In The Post – Giants denied early exit

Catch up on all the latest headlines from around the basketball world in today’s edition of In the Post.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBL, its Clubs or partners.

Chinese stars mean business … class

The Brisbane Bullets and South East Melbourne Phoenix may have to fork out extra for business class tickets for their respective Chinese stars.

Newscorp revealed both Bullets’ 7’5 giant Chuanxing Liu and Phoenix’s 7’1 star Zhou Qi have been told they can’t sit in exit rows with extra leg room because of a language barrier. Qantas requires exit row passengers to “be able to understand and carry out instructions”.

It was also reported South East Melbourne had to order a bigger bed with extensions for Qi during his hotel quarantine.

Scott Morrison’s travel nightmare

If you thought one stop-over was bad during international travel, imagine three stop-overs and two-week’s hard quarantine to top it off, all with a two-year-old and two-month-old. That’s what new Perth coach, Scott Morrison and his family had to endure just to get into the country.

After leaving Canada on Wednesday morning at 4.20am (WST), Morrison, his wife and two children had to board four flights and change planes in Montreal, Paris and Singapore before getting into Western Australia at 5pm on Friday.

“It was a whirlwind … what we did was pretty hard with the kids and all of our luggage. The travel agent told us it was the toughest trip he’s ever done,” Morrison told The West Australian.

Training with Kobe

Perth Wildcats import Michael Frazier II has explained how he adopted Kobe Bryant’s ‘Mamba Mentality’ during the Lakers training camp in 2015.

“I’d be up at six o’clock in the morning and practice didn’t start until 9am. I wanted to either be the first or second person in the door. We were always the first people in the gym. We’d get there way earlier than everyone else. I think I gained his respect for doing that,” Frazier II told The West Australian.

36ers’ new power couple

Adelaide 36ers basketball GM Jeff Van Groningen believes the club’s new point guard Mitch McCarron mirrors the qualities of new coach and NBL legend, CJ Bruton.

“The impact Mitch has from a leadership standout takes me back to the impact CJ had on Brisbane as a player. Like CJ was for that Bullets team in the mid-2000s, Mitch is that coach on the floor and someone who has an undisputed knowledge of the game,” Van Groningen told Newscorp.

Delly’s warning to NBL

Matthew Dellavedova has sent a strong message to the rest of the league declaring he will be operating at his peak when the season begins.

“By the time the season comes I’m going to be sharp and ready to go,” Dellavedova told The Age.

Shades of Doncic, Magic

Josh Giddey belongs in NBA according to Jeff Van Groningen.

“He doesn’t look like a kid who we hope will be good in a year or two. Josh just looks like he belongs from the onset and that is quite incredible," Van Groningen told Newscorp.

“(Luka) Doncic looked that way as a rookie, Magic Johnson looked that way, (Andrew) Bogut looked that way. There are guys where you say, ‘well, he just belongs and that is Josh'.

“He is immediately in the right league and there is no equivocation about that. He belongs in the NBA, and it is wonderful to watch.”