Absurd, theatrical and comical, the curiously-named team Not Bad Thanks, born of London seed in 1980, takes 70 seasons to crawl from lowest F Grade in the open-age Victorian Business Houses Basketball Association in Melbourne to play at the A level. The Club grapples with tragedy, authority, an outing, generational challenges, equal opportunity, skill shortage, globalisation, an aging workforce, dysfunctional patrons, media scrutiny … and, premiership droughts. Premierships are won, though, but in weird circumstances. Dubious links with notorious Great Train Robber, Ronald Biggs, triple Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva, NBA superstar Magic Johnson and The Harlem Globetrotters emerge, alongside songs and poetry, season dinners, crazy awards, impromptu late-night excursions, rules and rituals, facts and figures, and the organisation’s enduring creativity, intellect and non-conformity. Still, there’s unfinished business for the Club’s current eclectic crop of on-court ambassadors.
