Roth Opens Up on Missing out on Kay and Norton

Tasmania JackJumpers coach Scott Roth has expressed the “emotional times” he faced after he failed to sign Nick Kay and Mitch Norton.

The JackJumpers were deep in negotiations with both players before Kay decided to sign in Japan and Norton remained with the Perth Wildcats.

Roth has history with both players during his time as an assistant coach with the Wildcats and speaking on The Huddle, he explained how much it hurt being snubbed at the last minute.

“One thing with me, my history has been in the NBA, and I'm pretty well connected with players, I get along with them. I have a good connection with players,” Roth said.

“It's been written about Nick Kay and Mitch Norton and going down the path with them and I love those guys, I love the Perth culture and everything about it over there, so it was very sentimental for me to go and try to recruit some of those guys to leave. Clint Steindl left, we got (Will) Magnay out of there, Jarred Bairstow.

“To try to get a Nick Kay at that level to come here and even consider us and get down to the final with him and in the last minute, he decides to go to Japan. Then there's a whole process with the Mitch Norton story but at the end of the day, we were very, very close to having him here and he chose to go a different route.

“Those were emotional times for me. I'm an emotional guy in general, I love players, I love that environment. That's what I am, at the end of the day, I'm the player first and a coach second, and to have those connections with them…it was a very emotional process for me when they finally said they're not coming.

“There was a lot of roller coasters during the time of we have him, we don’t have him, he is in, he might be in…it was difficult.”

<iframe src="https://ott.nbl.com.au/en-int/embed/992061?autoplay=false" width="800px" height="450px" id="spott_player" name="spott_player" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe>

Tasmania enters their inaugural season with a roster including Steindl, Magnay, Bairstow, Fabijan Krslovic, Jack McVeigh, Jarrad Weeks, Jock Perry, Josh Magette, Josh Adams, Matt Kenyon, MiKyle McIntosh, Nikita Mikhailovskii, Sam McDaniel, Sean Macdonald and Sejr Deans.