‘Deeply troubling’: Basketball’s battle of the billionaires reignites

The feud between Australia’s billionaire basketball barons is escalating.

Jared Novelly – the majority owner of the Illawarra Hawks and Donald Trump’s ambassador to New Zealand – and Larry Kestelman – owner of the National Basketball League – have been at loggerheads for some time.

Novelly owns Crest Sports and Entertainment, which has accused the telco and business mogul of conflicts of interest in his running of the league and queried the distribution of revenue to the competition’s 10 clubs. But earlier in April, a seven-month Basketball Australia independent investigation dismissed Novelly’s formal complaint.

The investigation, led by former solicitor-general Justin Gleeson, SC, found there was no “credible” evidence Kestelman had breached the NBL’s code of conduct. Gleeson dealt with the 10 NBL clubs and found no evidence they had been disadvantaged by Kestelman’s management of the league.

But on Monday, despite Kestelman having been cleared by the investigation, the feud was reignited.

In a strongly worded statement released by Crest, which is also the Hawks’ parent company, Basketball Australia and the NBL’s public statements on the matter were described as “deeply troubling”.

The report and its recommendations were not made public, and the statement said doing so was paramount. Crest also threatened to again take the case to FIBA, the sport’s world governing body.

The complaint was initiallty made to FIBA, which referred the conflict of interest allegations back to Basketball Australia, claiming the case was outside its jurisdiction.

“Basketball Australia and the NBL’s public statements regarding the findings in Mr Gleeson’s report on code of conduct complaints against Larry Kestelman are deeply troubling as they may have misled the public and basketball community by creating the false impression that ‘Mr Kestelman has done nothing wrong’,” the statement said.

“However, as BA and the NBL are well aware, the truth is that the Gleeson report did highlight the need to ensure governance standards and procedures were at international best practice across all levels of the sport.”

Crest also alleged that Basketball Australia and the NBL “chose to leave out” of their public statements that “the report by Mr Gleeson was limited in scope.

“Had this information been disclosed, it would have demonstrated that many aspects of Crest’s complaint had merit – particularly given that it had prompted a BA investigation and that BA’s decision to appoint an external expert to lead governance reforms amounts to an implicit acknowledgment of past irregularities requiring correction.”

When the BA finding was released on April 13, the NBL said it was continuing to rectify any governance issues, and had drafted professor Graeme Samuel, the renowned governance and leadership expert, to the NBL board.

“The report by Mr Gleeson also highlighted the need to ensure governance standards and procedures were at international best practice across all levels of the sport,” Basketball Australia’s statement said at the time.

“Basketball Australia will now lead a project in collaboration with the NBL to ensure these best-practice standards are met in all areas.

“This project will be independently overseen by global risk and financial advisory consultant Kroll. A project plan will be developed which is expected to take approximately nine months to fully implement.”

The NBL did not wish to comment on Monday, other than adding it was a matter for Basketball Australia. BA, which has a commercial agreement with the NBL, was contacted for comment.

Novelly hasn’t been alone in airing his issues with Kestelman and the NBL. Outspoken South East Melbourne Phoenix majority owner Romie Chaudhari and Perth Wildcats owner Mark Arena have joined him in raising governance issues.

In a letter to club owners in March last year, Novelly proposed a $9 million takeover of the NBL, and the removal of Kestelman as chairman.

The NSW Supreme Court last year dismissed Novelly’s bid to access NBL financial documents, though an appeal has been lodged.

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