Australia’s number one international team sport: basketball

While the NBA’s head Adam Silver shot down the notion that the Next Stars program forced the NBA’s hand, there was indeed a fear that future top high school prospects could also take their talents to Australia’s NBL.

Nevertheless, the NBL can remain attractive to foreign players who do not quite make the NBA.

As of the 2020-21 season, of the 117 rostered players (13 players each form the 9 teams), 18 were from the US, 3 had Sudanese backgrounds, 2 came from Brazil, and 1 each came from Japan, China and Denmark.  

In terms of domestic television exposure, Australians are able to watch all matches for free with  2020-21 NBL season games played via SBS On Demand and select games each week televised live on SBS VICELAND.

In the global world of sport, with elite players too experiencing our way of living (including Ball and Hampton), one can only expect more Americans and foreigners to play here, just as Dave Simmons (father of Ben) did many years ago when starring for Melbourne Tigers from 1989 before becoming an Australian citizen.

One can also safely predict that Australian players will continue to feature at the international level, including the NBA, as the seeds for sporting success continue to be evident at the domestic level through high levels of participation and an attractive national league.