Crosscourt: NBL25 news ahead of the semi finals, league registers name for potential expansion
The NBL has been deep in conversations over where and when it’s next franchise will be, but a combination of a league bullish about its future direction — and governments dragging the chain, has meant there is still no certainty.
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A second Sydney NBL team is being held back by the NSW government as the NBL maintains a hard-line stance on the minimum conditions that must be met for it to green light any expansion franchise.
Sydney, Gold Coast, Darwin and Canberra have all been at the forefront of expansion discussions in recent months, but none have been able to reach the standard of the Tasmania JackJumpers, which hit the ground running and only last week sold for $35 million, flooding the coffers of NBL clubs to the tune of $800,000 each.
In laying the groundwork for a second team in Sydney, Crosscourt can reveal the NBL and International Convention Centre venue operator AEG Ogden have been in discussions for some time about hosting games and have formulated a plan to reconfigure the Darling Harbour-based arena for basketball.
But, in order to make the ICC move a reality, a basketball insider believes NSW premier Chris Minns is the man with the power to approve extra funding.
The ICC – which hosts concerts and work conferences – can vary in capacity from 3000-8000.
As revealed by Crosscourt earlier this month, Sydney has emerged as the league’s leading expansion option, a move supported by Sydney Kings part-owner Andrew Bogut. That prospect has been strengthened by the news the NBL has registered a trademark for a team name.
Code Sports has learned the NBL, in February last year, officially registered the trademarks ‘Harbour City Stars’ and ‘Sydney Stars’.
The application is currently under review by IP Australia, with an acceptance due on May 14.
It’s understood the Sydney Suns have also been floated by a potential bidder.
Any new Sydney side can’t enter the league until 2026 due to lockout rules implemented under previous Kings management, but Bogut said he would love to see a second team introduced in the Harbour City.
“If it is a genuine team, we welcome it,” Bogut said on NBL Now.
“We want another team in Sydney, we want a rivalry and we want to bring it back to the Sydney versus West Sydney days.
“Those interstate rivalries. The closest thing we get is the rivalry with Illawarra, which is a big one, but if we could get another one of those across town that would be sensational.”
Crosscourt revealed during last year’s NBL Blitz, the window on a new Gold Coast team for 2026 had shut and now, four months later, there is still no agreement.
“We would have loved to have reached agreement with the Gold Coast at this point but we haven’t,” NBL chief executive David Stevenson said.
“But they’re still engaged and we’re still engaged
“Ultimately, it’s got to be something that’s a win-win.”
The Gold Coast has at least two venue options under consideration — a new 10,000-seat arena at Southport and a proposal that is currently before government for an upgrade to the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre at Broadbeach that would cater to 10,000-12,000 seats.
A year ago, the prospect of a new team in Darwin that would be a 50-50 partnership between the NBL and territory government looked close. But that has drifted with last election’s change of government and the financial pain of the Darwin Salties, while Canberra continues to be floated as an option.
Stevenson said expansion options had yet to meet the league’s requirements.
“The number one issue in almost all of our expansion conversations is venues,” Stevenson said.
“So we’re now at a size and point that we can’t and don’t want to play in 3000-4000 seat venues.
“We want to look at bigger venues.
“So Gold Coast is looking at venues and they’ve had some great conversations with us, Canberra is another one that is publicly exploring. Sydney’s a challenge for us in venues down town.
“So that’s our biggest challenge and that’s what takes the time.”
Stevenson said the success of the JackJumpers had made the league bullish about compromising on its next expansion franchise.
“This league has had a history of teams coming in and leaving but the last 10 years under Larry’s (Kestelman) ownership, we’re really proud of the fact that no teams have left,” he said.
“So what we can’t afford to do is take the expectations lower that it’s going to be OK for someone to come in and play two seasons and then leave, because we don’t want to let the fans down.
“We’re really keen to expand.
“But now, with what you’ve had happen in Tassie with the JackJumpers, that’s our new standard.
“So if we can’t get a great venue with strong corporate support, with fans who are interested and a good chance of on-court success, then we challenge ourselves to say ‘do we really want to expand there if we can’t have confidence that it can come out of the out of the blocks really strongly?”
NBAxNBL: IS IT STILL HOT OR NOT?
The NBL privately concedes its highly-successful NBAxNBL concept where clubs head to the states for exhibition games early in the season has “lost a bit of the lustre” it once had.
But the concept isn’t dead in the water.
Clubs who once leapt at the chance to face NBA teams under the partnership, which began in 2017, are now prioritising games that mean something in the scheme of their season and the impact being away from their fans for over a week has on crowd numbers.
This season, only New Zealand ended up made the trek to the US for a trio of games against Philadelphia, Utah and Oklahoma City, the Breakers smoked by 55, 28 and 29.
But NBL chief executive David Stevenson said the Breakers were among five clubs who expressed interest in playing games against NBA clubs.
“Last year, we had good interest from clubs wanting to pursue it and I still think there’s interest there,” Stevenson said.
“We’ve just got to make sure that everyone goes in, eyes wide open about, ‘hey, what are the great benefits?’ — And there are many — but there’s also a whole stack of challenges with it,
too.
Talks on an NBA team making a trip to Australia to play exhibitions games have added another layer.
“We have a really great partnership with the NBA from the top down and (NBA commissioner) Adam Silver has really sent a strong message — he likes what we’re doing,” Stevenson said.
“We’re in a good partnership, we work a lot with NBA Asia and we’re excited about some of the things we’re in talks about at the moment.”
KINGS TO ADDRESS “CULTURAL ISSUES” AS CHANGE LOOMS
Sydney Kings part-owner Andrew Bogut says the club will address reported “cultural issues” to ensure the franchise has the right players in the locker room.
A frank Bogut didn’t hide his disappointment when discussing the Kings’ sixth-placed finish in NBL25, conceding imports Jaylen Adams and Cam Oliver underachieved throughout the season.
“Our imports battled for the most part,” Bogut said via NBL Now.
“Jaylen (Adams) was a little bit up and down and it was the same with Cam (Oliver).
“Paul Smith always calls it the import lottery. If you get that right, you are halfway there to being successful.
“Most of the teams that are good, have good imports, so we’ve got to get that right.”
Crosscourt understands Adams and Oliver are both unlikely to return next season.
The Kings have held exit meetings in recent days as the club works through potential roster changes.
Backup guard Izayah Le’afa has a mutual option for NBL26, but he indicated he could leave Sydney in a recent social media post.
“Thank you, Sydney. I’ll always carry the memories of the energy you brought to every game. It’s always love and I’ll be forever grateful. Until next time Sydney.”
HEARTBREAK AT LOSS OF NBL CHAMP
The NBL has been rocked by the death of former New Zealand Breakers NBL champion Kevin Braswell, who died this week aged just 46.
Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman was part of the Breakers’ coaching staff that recruited Braswell and he paid an emotional tribute to the feisty former NBL Sixth Man of the Year, who suffered a heart attack in January.
“It was emotional for me to get a call from (NZ basketball great) Paul Henare to say he’d passed away,” Vickerman said, fighting back tears.
“He’s been struggling for the last month in a coma. I reached out to guys from the 2011 championship and shared some stories about the person and the elite basketballer that he was and also how he engaged in the community in New Zealand.
“We tried to get him on the national team there for a while, we loved him so much and so it’s a really sad day.”
The Baltimore native was coaching Japan club Utsunomiya Brex, and led the Breakers in 2018-19.
CATS’ IN RILLIE GOOD SPACE, PAYING NO MIND TO UNITED’S RECENT DOMINANCE
The raiders from the west are coming for Melbourne United.
But Perth’s struggles against United over the past five years mean nothing for coach John Rillie, who believes if his team performs at its best it will be enough to book a place in the NBL grand final.
“The Perth Wildcats have been the focus through this,” Rillie said, when asked about United’s record, which extends to 17-5 over the Wildcats since December 2019.
“You guys can beat up all of those statistics until I’m blue in the face but it’s about how we approach the series and then how we ultimately perform.”
Much has been said and written of the battle between Perth’s newly-crowned five-time MVP Bryce Cotton and United’s two-time Defensive Player of the Year Shea Ili, with both teams putting plans in place to win that contest.
Rillie insists the Wildcats will have a few surprises up their sleeve.
“How they plan to combat his offensive brilliance, we do the same thing about how can we best put our pieces of the puzzle in situations for them to be successful?,” Rillie said.
“And that’s not just Bryce. That’s getting our other guys involved in being able to manipulate the defence the way they load up on Bryce.”
Rillie believes the Wildcats early taste of postseason play — a winning play-in over South East Melbourne last Tuesday week — shortened their break between games, which could give them an early advantage in the best-of-three semi final series, which begins Thursday night.
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