Donald Trump’s billionaire ambassador Jared Novelly reignites Australian basketball feud with NBL owner Larry Kestelman
The conflict between Australia’s billionaire basketball barons is heating up.
Illawarra Hawks majority owner Jared Novelly and Donald Trump’s ambassador to New Zealand and National Basketball League owner Larry Kestelman have been at odds for some time.
Novelly owns Crest Sports and Entertainment, which has accused the telecommunications and business mogul of a conflict of interest in his running of the league and questioned the distribution of revenue to the tournament’s 10 clubs. But in early April, a seven-month-long independent investigation from Basketball Australia rejected Novelly’s formal complaint.
The investigation, led by former SC attorney general Justin Gleeson, found there was no “credible” evidence that Kestelman violated the NBL’s code of conduct. Gleeson interviewed 10 NBL clubs and found no evidence they were disadvantaged by Kestelman’s management of the league.
However, although Kestelman was acquitted as a result of the investigation on Monday, the fight flared up again.
A strongly worded statement issued by Basketball Australia, which is also the Hawks’ parent company, and the NBL’s public statements on the matter were described as “deeply troubling”.
The report and its recommendations have not been made public, and the statement said it was very important to do so. Crest also threatened to take the case back to FIBA, the sport’s world governing body.
The complaint was initially filed with FIBA, which referred the conflict of interest allegations back to Basketball Australia, claiming the case was outside its jurisdiction.
“The public statements made by Basketball Australia and the NBL regarding the findings of Mr Gleeson’s report into the code of conduct complaints against Larry Kestelman are extremely troubling as they may have misled the public and the basketball community by creating the false impression that ‘Mr Kestelman did nothing wrong’,” the statement said.
“But the reality, as BA and the NBL are well aware, is that the Gleeson report highlighted the need to ensure that governance standards and procedures are in line with international best practice at all levels of the sport.”
Crest also claimed that Basketball Australia and the NBL “chose to exclude” their public statements that “Mr Gleeson’s report was limited in scope”.
“Had this information been disclosed, many aspects of Crest’s complaint would have been found to have merit, particularly given that it led to a BA investigation and that the decision to appoint an external expert to lead BA’s governance reforms amounted to a tacit admission of past irregularities that needed to be corrected.”
When the BA finding was published on April 13, the NBL said it was continuing to fix its management problems and elected renowned management and leadership expert professor Graeme Samuel to the NBL board.
“Mr Gleeson’s report also highlighted the need to ensure governance standards and procedures are in line with international best practice at all levels of the sport,” Basketball Australia said in a statement at the time.
“Basketball Australia will now lead a project in collaboration with the NBL to ensure these best practice standards are met across the board.
“This project will be independently audited 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 want to comment on Monday other than to add that this was a matter for Basketball Australia. BA, which has a commercial agreement with the NBL, has been contacted for comment.
Novelly isn’t the only one voicing his issues with Kestelman and the NBL. Outspoken South East Melbourne Phoenix majority owner Romie Chaudhari and Perth Wildcats owner Mark Arena joined him to raise management 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 rejected Novelly’s bid to access NBL financial documents, but an appeal has been lodged.
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Jon Pierik is a sports reporter for The Age. He covers the AFL and has won awards for his cricket and basketball writing.Connect with: X or email.
