Squeaky shoes.
Donald Trump.
Endless notifications.
The bloke who sneezes too loudly.
For the Otago Nuggets, the external noise has been deafening.
Their owners — SEN Teams — announced they will walk away from the team at the end of the season.
The Nuggets could be destined for another long stint on the sidelines unless someone emerges to put together a rescue package.
That is a flashing neon sign you cannot ignore.
And experienced Nuggets guard Darcy Knox acknowledged it had been a distraction.
"A little bit. But there is nothing that we can really do about it as players," he said.
"We have to control what we can control for the season.
"I am pretty confident that with the way that basketball's going in New Zealand, and especially how the league's grown lately, that something good will happen for us."
Knox is closing in on 100 games for the franchise this season. All going well, Josh Aitcheson and Matthew Bardsley should reach the milestone as well.
The trio were all emerging players when the Nuggets spent five seasons out of the league from 2015 to 2019.
Knox spent a year training with the Canterbury Rams then headed over to the United States before returning to Dunedin to study.
He is a software engineer when he is not running the point for the Nuggets.
"During that period, yeah, it was tough going for the guys that were good enough down here.
"So, we're pretty grateful for the opportunities that we had through club [basketball].
"But with the amount of good players that we have down here, the region definitely needs an NBL team."
The other obstacle the Nuggets have had to negotiate during the off-season has been the late appointment of coach Mike Kelly.
The delay set the Nuggets back in other areas, particularly recruitment.
Their roster is almost fully loaded now. They still have one import slot to fill.
But Don Carey jun arrived yesterday and Jose Perez played in the pre-season tournament and dropped 35 points against the Hawke’s Bay Hawks.
The team has not had a lot of time together, though.
Despite that, Knox is optimistic about the side’s playoff prospects, but stressed they would need time together to find their rhythm.
They open their National Basketball League campaign with a home game against the Southland Sharks in Dunedin tomorrow night.
"[The preseason has] not been ideal. It's kind of a result of how the organisational stuff has unfolded this past year with the coaching change.
"It took us quite a while to lock in a new coach.
"For a period the player group was kind of running ourselves.
"But as the season develops, I think we're going to look like a very different group. I think how we're going to look in game one is going to look very different to how we look game game seven, eight, nine, 10.
"That's where we're going to really start hitting our stride."
"I think we've got a really good group in terms of effort, attitude and togetherness, and coach has done a really good job of putting things in and driving us.
''So, you know, the buy-ins there, regardless of the roster.
"I think we can still make a lot of noise."
And by noise, he means capturing the attention of the league by stringing together some good results.
That would be a distraction to embrace.
