Outgoing HBS Bank Hawks general manager Paul Trass made the comparison as his players were congratulated after ending their season with this victory in Taradale's Pettigrew-Green Arena on Saturday night.
"There was a team worth quarter of a million dollars [his Hawks] playing against a team worth $40,000."
Trass wasn't quite correct to be fair as the Hawks star import and player-of-the-season, small forward Brian Greene, was sidelined resting an injury before catching a flight back to Las Vegas yesterday. However the Hawks didn't play like a side worth $210,000 more than their opponents as they gave Trass a winning farewell.
Their performance which resulted in their fifth win of the season in the Bartercard National Basketball League reflected their patchy season. While there were some spectacular patches of dominance there were also lengthy periods of mediocrity to make it easy for one to understand why a side which promised so much on paper at the start of the season finished among the bottom four teams in the nine-team league.
Trass is stepping down from his role with the Hawks to focus more on his "grassroots" role with Basketball Hawke's Bay.
"When you look back on the first half of the season it could have been a disaster.
"While we lost to some of the lesser teams we played well against some of the big teams and beat some of them.
"A positive is the fact three or four of our sponsors have come up to me tonight and said they are ready to re-sign for next year," Trass said.
"We had the players but there was still something missing on court," Trass said as he reflected on the disappointment of the Hawks not making the top four playoffs which will be hosted by the Arena this weekend.
Trass is looking forward to Hawke's Bay again fielding a second division men's side and a women's national league team in addition to the Hawks as was the case back in the mid 1990s.
He coached the Napier Boys High School team to national title honours in 1992 and several members of the side went on to play for the Hawks.
"There's enough young talent in the Bay coming through the grades capable of becoming bench players for the Hawks in the next few seasons and that's what I want to see," Trass added.
In his best performance of the season Serbian import Darko Cohadrevic scored a game high 23 points for the Hawks.
He succeeded with 11 of his 19 field goal attempts and his only free throw attempt.
Waikato, who had upset the Hawks in Hamilton last month, gave the Hawks fans a fright when they managed to close within six points with a minute to go. But Hawks captain and guard Paora Winitana closed out the game with four consecutive free throws.
Waikato forward Zack Atkinson top scored for the visitors with 20 points.
Eighteen-year-old guard Tai Webster again enhanced his chances of capturing the league's rookie-of-the-year award with a 17 point haul.
Pistons coach Doug Courtney agreed his team's performance also reflected their season.
They made a slow start, trailing 28-14 after the first quarter and 46-28 at halftime, but won the third quarter 26-25 and the fourth 29-22.
"You can't start slow like that against a team like the Hawks. At halftime I told the boys to go back out and show some heart and guts and they did that."
"We achieved what we wanted to in our first season back in the league by getting a couple of wins.
"With all these youngsters we've built a good base for next year and I'll be back again," Courtney said.