New Zealand Breakers guard Daryl Corletto has accused the NBL of tinkering with the refereeing to prevent his team winning a fourth consecutive title.
The Breakers have dominated the NBL in recent seasons but near at the bottom of the table at the moment after two wins from seven games.
Part of their problem has been a high foul count, which Corletto says is largely due to the referees being much stricter on physical contact.
Corletto, who plays his 350th NBL game against the Adelaide 36ers on Friday, didn't hold back when asked about the new refereeing style, saying it was a deliberate ploy to stop the Breakers' physical game.
"That's not complaining or whingeing or anything, I'm just trying to be honest. That's how I feel, that Basketball Australia's (the NBL) brought this in because they don't want the New Zealand Breakers to win the championship again.
"They're going to make it as hard as possible to do that. Having said that, we're going to do it."
Corletto said the new interpretations were not producing pretty basketball and could "wreck the league", saying it was a shame teammates like Mika Vukona and Tom Abercrombie seem to be in foul trouble every week.
"Fans come to watch these guys play, they don't come to watch people shoot foul shots and the game being stopped every 20 seconds."
Corletto, who spent most of his NBL career in Melbourne, says the Breakers' family spirit would get it off the foot of the table.
"We kind of feel that we haven't been playing with end-to-end energy for 40 minutes and that's really us losing games. Having said that, we feel we're right there - a couple of points here and there and we could be 5-2."
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