Aussie Invasion!

Wolverine is gonna gut you

 

Its weird because basketball in Australia is dying, the NBL competition just lost its highest profile club in the Sydney Kings and the League is bleeding money.

At the same time, Australian basketball is producing its best group of talent ever (Not that thats hard!).


There is actually a point guard who is now in the U.S. college system who is getting huge wraps by everypone that see's him player. He came out of no where and was selected in the Australian team before even playing in the NBL.

I think in a few years time he'll be a really handy player for what ever team selects him.




By the way....I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for Nicole Kidman. On behalf of Australia, I'm very, very sorry!

 

oh man

hooroo I have to applaud your efforts.

I have hopes for Jawai but Anderson's not NBA material.

 

The more aussies the better coverage we may get.

 

I got illusion of being in the WNBA Dish Forum as reading the title.

"Aussie Invasion" - Mais oui!

As I know, at least 4 aussie girls currently play in the WNBA, such splendid players as Penny Taylor, Lozza, Erin. The WNBA nurtured them a lot, and definitely got the invasion.

btw, Australia women's national basketball team has won a gold medal at the 2006 FIBA, and will certainly become more competitive in Beijing Olympic Games.
"basketball in Australia is dying"? what a joke...

 

The Aussie Womans League is pretty much gone and the mens League is cutting some of the few clubs it has left and is in massive financial trouble.

In saying basketball in Australia is dying....I'm being very generous.

 

WNBL pretty much gone..? New team added last year, another this year as well.

As far as I'm aware, all things considered, it's going great guns.

Can't comment on the NBL. Since they don't show on free-to-air I don't watch it or follow it.

Syndey Kings are gone from the league??? Wow. Multiple championship team in recent years and all...

 

Considering the Sydney Kings went back-to-back-to-back only two years ago - and they are now out of the league. Considering the Brisbane Bullets who won it a couple of years ago - and were one of the founder clubs of the league are now facing extinction - i don't think it is a 'joke' that basketball in australia is dying.

Entwine that fact with the barrage the AFL is planning on making in Sydney and you can guarantee more young kids are going to grow up kicking a ball in the park than pounding the hardwood.

Australia has produced some great female basketballers - and what a surprise they are all overseas. I don't tune into the female basketball so i can't give a definate comment on that. But men's professional basketball? Definately.

 

Are you talking about Aaron Bruce? If so there's a thread about him on the rockets forum.

Why the apologies for Nicole Kidman? Shouldnt it be for Russell Crowe and his boorishness at times.

Australia rules dude!

 

Cool.

 

He looks very exciting indeed. His speed is a major asset and his ability to get to the rim will certainly make sure his name is mentioned in the coming years come draft time.

 

1)to the dude that said we should apoligise for Russell Crowe - he is actually a New Zealander.

2)Patty Mills is going to be much > A Bruce. Probably is already. He is just getting started.

3)also hurting Bball's popularity in Australia is the interest in dumb arse soccer since the socceroos (what a lame nickname for a lame team playing a lame "sport") world cup campaign. (for my part, I refused to watch a single game of that crap and kept hoping we'd get knocked out with each game!)

4) the guy that said "the more Aussies in the NBA the more games we get to see" - I like your enthusiasm, but realistically, its not helping much. Bogut's rookie season we saw a few more Bucks games, but that only served to annoy me as they weren't additional games, but instead games that were shown when they could of been showing more "blockbuster" type games!

NBL back on WIN (even though its a 3 day old game and mostly just highlights) was nice to see. But the only positive really in a boatload of negatives.

I am personally trying to do all I can, joining groups, signing petitions, attending local games, writing the TV stations etc etc in order to help get Australian basketball's pulse back.

get on board guys. this is bigger than all of us. we must do all we can.

 

I dont think a hundfull of kids forced to play AFL by Melbourne born parents in Western Sydney wont be having any impact on any sport in Sydney.

I dont know about local competitions where people basically play for the love of the game, but in Sydney basketballs profile in the last ten years has pretty much dissapeared.

They dont show the scores during the news any more, even on Channel 10 where they have 10 minutes to kill during their sport segment.


Even when the Kings won the title finally, it was like the horse had bolted. The reaction what "Meh".

Now the Kings are dead and the other Sydney team, the amazingly marketable Razorbacks, if they stopped playing no one would even know.


As for the reason, I think peoples tastes in sport just changed.

Basketball in Australia in the early 90's was something new, and with the NBA's growing profile in Australia people gave basketball a go.

However in Australia your competing so many other sports, and couple that with people wanting to see the best of the best in any given sport, basketball suffered because people knew they were not watching the best.


Take a look at the WNBL as an example. It started to grow in profile and was probably the highest profile sport in Australia for female athletes at one point. Then came the WNBA....and the best players headed to the U.S.......and the WNBL now is nothing.....I havent heard a thing about it for years!


It would be a huge shock for U.S. fans to find out the Sydney Kings are dead. As for its hit on the already struggling NBL.....it would be like the NBA losing New York, LA and Chicago in one go. Its just devastating.


Unless there is some major turn around, and anything short of the NBA buying the League and proping it up is what Im thinking of, then Basketball in Australia will basically end up like Baseball.

A national competition that basically dies.....and the only time you hear about it is when a player here or there ends up playing in the US leagues.

 

^^^^^

agreed and so, so sad.

however I dont like the sense of "what can we do about it-ism" in your post.

read my above post for ideas. We can do our part.

I live in Tassie and am doing all i can to support getting a Tas team back in the NBL.

if you live in a place where there is a team based - and you are not supporting them and attending all their home games - then you are part of the problem!

should point out im not singling you out Christopher, im talking generally.

 

You are personally attacking me and I will not stand for it!


I personally just follow the Rockets when it comes to basketball. I'll catch the occasional NBA game on TV but thats where my interest ends.


To be totally honest, I dont really care about what happened to the Kings. I could pretend that I do care, but I'm like most people, I'll say its unfortunant but I've not lost any sleep over it.


The market for the sport in Australia just isn't big enough, and thats the real problem at the end of the day. For what they are worth commercially, players in the NBL are massivly over paid in a sport that just can not afford it.


I honestly don't beleive there is anything that can be done.

Even if the NBA came in, bought up the League, paid big dollars to at the very least get the best non NBA player in it and marketed the crap out of it, I just think the market isnt there for professional basketball in Australia on any large scale.


Rugby League and AFL dominate in winter and in summer, Cricket is king.

Soccer has found a place in Summer, but they have a similar problem to basketball themselves. A small market, players being over paid what they are commercially worth to the competition and not being an elite comp.....and because of it Soccer is bleeding so much red ink its amazing....and that can not go on forever.


I guess living in Tasmania, all this is (Terribly) very familar for you. A small market, not deemed to be able to support a national team in just about any comp.

Yeah, it sucks, but its just the way the world works. I'm lucky living in Sydney that we are the biggest market in Australia, but even that couldnt save the Kings.

 

if the Devils (or whatever incarnate of them) re-establishes in Hobart, Tassie would get right behind it!

SEABL games down here play to packed houses - both in the South and with the North West Thunder.

Hoping Tas doesnt get this bloody AFL team ( I am a staunch Cats supporter btw - how bloody good are we ) and then it will give even more incentive for the punters to support a national bball side.