{"id":344429,"date":"2023-11-06T06:51:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T07:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=344429"},"modified":"2023-11-06T09:00:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T09:00:57","slug":"basketball-legends-banner-missing-after-messy-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=344429","title":{"rendered":"Basketball legend's banner missing after messy exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sydney Kings<\/a> appear to have removed Australian basketball great Shane Heal's retired jersey banner from their Wall of Legends.<\/p>\n

The apparent removal of Heal's banner comes after the 53-year-old's messy exit from his position as coach of the Kings' affiliated WNBL<\/a> team, the Sydney Flames, earlier this year over bullying allegations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Heal's banner has been absent from the rafters at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena, with eagle-eyed fans noticing its omission during game five of the Kings' 3-2 grand final series over New Zealand Breakers in March.<\/p>\n

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It is customary for the banners to be raised inside the stadium for the Kings' home games, with the Wall of Legends honouring 13 club greats including six-time NBL champion CJ Bruton and fabled coach Brian Goorjian.<\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

But during the Kings' 87-85 win over the New Zealand Breakers on Sunday, fans again noticed that Heal's banner was missing.<\/p>\n

With \ufeffthe Kings having played four preceding matches at Qudos Bank Arena this season, it is unclear whether the banner was hanging for those games.<\/p>\n

Wide World of Sports has contacted the Sydney Kings for comment.<\/p>\n

Heal played six seasons with the Kings across three stints and was part of the team that won the 2003 NBL championship.<\/p>\n

\"Shyla<\/p>\n

He also coached the Kings from 2012 to 2014 before taking on the top job at the Flames in 2021, with his daughter, Shyla, signing on as a player.<\/p>\n

Shyla suddenly quit \ufeffthe Flames in January<\/a>, immediately signing an end-of-season deal with the Townsville Fire.<\/p>\n

She went on to win the WNBL championship with the Fire and is now playing in Europe.<\/p>\n

In the lead-up to her release, Shyla was not featured for the Flames, with the club citing "personal reasons" for her absence.<\/p>\n

During this time, Heal was also stood down from his duties as he was subjected to an undisclosed internal investigation.<\/p>\n

\"Sydney<\/p>\n

Two weeks after Shyla walked out, \ufeffthe Flames confirmed "multiple Sydney Flames players separately approached club officials with allegations of bullying" early in January.<\/p>\n

Heal denied any wrongdoing and filed an injunction in the federal court against the Flames which was heard in court earlier this year.<\/p>\n

A distinguished point guard, Heal went undrafted in the 1992 NBA draft but subsequently played two stints in America's top league with the Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n

Also enjoying a decorated career in Australia, Heal went to four Olympics with the Boomers, was the 1988 NBL rookie of the year, and is a two-time winner of the Gaze Medal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sydney Kings appear to have removed Australian basketball great Shane Heal's retired jersey banner from their Wall of Legends. The apparent removal of Heal's […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=344429"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344434,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344429\/revisions\/344434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/344431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=344429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=344429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=344429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}