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Today I was on the transfer market and saw this player, an Aussie by the name of Donald Gatt. He had Legendary Rebounding along with Marvelous Inside Shot and Inside Defence. He didn't have too much else though, a pure center in that regard. He was a free agent with a pricetag of 1 million. It seemed like a bit much for a player who only had inside skills and a high wage, but I thought somebody might buy him anyway, perhaps to get their center for next seasons campaign. Alas, the Awful game shape seemed to turn people off buying him with the playoffs only a week away, and at only 25 years old, Gatt was forced to retire.

He was drafted 12th overall to a division 4 team that still exists today as Noidya, and transferred many times from lower league club to lower league club throughout his career, but in Season 16 he was given a chance to play at a high level by BSC Bern West in the Schweiz Nationalliga A. He played mostly Power Forward in this season, playing 19 regular season games, averaging 29.7 minutes and 15.2 rebounds (#3 in the league), and he also did his bit scoring wise with 52.5% from the field and 7.8 points a game. His average match rating was 14.2. BSC Bern West would finish the season with a record of 15-7 (#1 in conference) and go on to become conference champions. Alas, Croatian Sensation beat them 2 games to 1, with Gatt being relegated to bench player in games 2 and 3. He'd play only one more game for BSC Bern West before being transferred in Season 17 to a division 3 estonian team. He'd spend the next 3 seasons as a lower-league version of a rental center, being passed from team to team and never staying long in one. Finally, he was bought by a mystery team for 3 million, but never played for this team. 6 weeks later, likely due to the manager of said team going inactive or bankrupt, he entered the transfer marked for a third of this price, but nobody wanted him.

If you read through all that, thank you. I'm thinking of starting a semi-regular series actually. Every week, I'll write up about a player, or club if i can't find a player worth writing up on, connected to Australia in some way (either being Australian or playing in the ABBL at some point). Let me know if you think it's a good idea and if you enjoyed this write up.

Last edited by Jay (OTT) at 4/25/2012 9:23:06 AM

I read it and enjoyed a great deal. He was an U21 star and a possible NT player so it is sad that at age 25 he is retired. Even more odd that just a month ago someone paid $3,000,000 for him and now no-one would pay $1,000,000. here have been a couple of other Aussie legends go the same way recently as prices for players have come down so much that the $1,000,000 free agents rarely seem to attract a buyer.

Dee Bana (4725967) is another legend recently retired.

Last edited by yodabig at 4/25/2012 6:39:50 AM

I saw Donald Gatt and just scrolled right past him. I wouldn't even spend half a mil on him if he had proficient gameshape let alone one full million... and he was on awful gameshape which made it worst.

Good read though, I enjoyed it. Hope you do a few write ups like this one. +1 ball for you.

Cool writeup mate

Good to see such a new player to be so involved in the game.

Quality write up mate, keep up the good work.

yup, keep it up! :)

nice one, awesome read! I like your team name too! :D

Yes, that was we would always yell at the TV when Luke Longley would put up a little flipper from two feet and miss or get blocked instead of exploding towards the ring and slamming it down hard like Ewing or Kemp would.

"Luuuuuuuuuuuuke, why didn't you dunk it? You should have dunked!"

instead of exploding towards the ring and slamming it down hard like Ewing or Kemp would.

One crucial difference here. Ewing and Kemp were black.

Then how do you explain Chase Budinger and his 38 1/2" vertical? Air Bud as he is known can really fly.