National Basketball League side Melbourne Tigers is "set to shed their skin and become a new entity which could be called Melbourne United," according to Russell Gould of the HERALD SUN. The club's owners have "decided to abandon the most inconic brand in Australian basketball and adopt a new name and new colours." A "failure to convert basketball fans who supported long-defunct NBL teams like the Magic, Titans and South Dragons is thought to be one of the reasons for the change" (HERALD SUN, 5/19). In Melbourne, Roy Ward reported the Tigers entered the NBL as an "extension of the Melbourne Basketball Association playing out of its home court at the old Albert Park stadium, but in past years the NBL franchise entered into private ownership and separated from its control." Former Tigers coach Lindsay Gaze, who "continues to be involved with the Melbourne Basketball Association, said the Tigers mantra would live on." Gaze: "Melbourne Tigers will still be doing what we have done for 60 years or more. But will be no longer connected with the NBL Melbourne Tigers." Gaze said he believed that the NBL would be "best served by working towards having four NBL clubs in Melbourne" (THE AGE, 5/19).
