Newcastle Basketball has made the decision to prioritise the health and wellbeing of its 3500 members and the greater community by withdrawing the Newcastle Hunters teams from the Spalding Waratah League.
Basketball NSW released a statement yesterday saying their competitions would continue despite updated recommendations from NSW Health but Newcastle Basketball has decided travel into Sydney posed too much risk.
"We want to try our best to keep domestic basketball going for all junior and senior players and we are putting that at risk by sending 20 elite athletes to Sydney," Newcastle Basketball general manager Neil Goffet said.
"We've seen a few cases in Newcastle over the last couple of months that have involved people from Sydney or someone travelling into Sydney, and the government obviously wants this to stop as outlined in their latest recommendations.
"It is a very small price for a few of our best players to pay in order to help stop community transmissions of this disease."
Newcastle has withdrawn the Hunters Men's and Hunters Women's teams, along with Youth League Men (Div 1) and Youth League Women.
