Talks underway to lure stars Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels home via Chicago and Atlanta
After securing the New Orleans Pelicans to play down under, the NBL are planning for more NBA star power. MATT LOGUE exclusively reveals that talks are underway to bring Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels home.
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Boomers NBA stars Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels could be headed to Australia if the NBL is successful in its bid to bring Chicago and Atlanta Down Under to play pre-season games.
On the back of securing the New Orleans Pelicans to play against United and the Phoenix this September – the first NBA game on Aussie soil - moves are already being made to ensure the historic fixture isn’t a one off.
Code Sports can reveal, preliminary discussions are underway with half a dozen NBA clubs, including the Bulls and the Hawks.
Chicago and Atlanta would attract enormous interest given the presence of Australian stars Giddey and Daniels - who are both experiencing career-best NBA seasons.
It’s understood there is also intent from the NBA to play more pre-season games in Australia following the Pelicans’ coup.
Code Sports understands the NBA want to build a long-term and exclusive partnership with the NBL – a competition that is booming following another record-breaking season.
Australia’s domestic basketball competition is experiencing rapid growth in attendance, broadcast, digital, fan growth and fan engagement.
The NBL’s broadcast partnership with ESPN and Network 10 continued to drive strong growth results across the Finals, building on another historic regular season.
Average broadcast audience across all platforms increased by 33 per cent in the Finals, with average reach also growing by 41 per cent.
Sunday’s Championship Series decider between the Illawarra Hawks and Melbourne United reached more than 630,000 viewers across all broadcast platforms.
A total of 1,135,135 people attended games throughout the regular season and finals, which surpassed the previous record that stood for 31 years. Incredibly, it was achieved in 40 less games, highlighting the incredible demand. There were also 55 sellouts throughout the campaign with clubs attracting more and more people through the gates.
Digital engagement also saw a significant uplift with app downloads up 34 per cent, website and app views up 25 per cent and social media followers up 22 per cent off the back of incredible growth the previous year.
More than 1.5 million fans are also signed up to the league’s database, a 24 per cent increase from last season.
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The NBL is Australia’s fastest growing sporting organisation, but boss Larry Kestelman believes the competition is set to become bigger and better.
“We can keep growing – that is what we can do,” Kestelman said.
“We can get more people into venues, we can get new teams up and running and we can get more fans watching the broadcast.
“I feel like we are absolutely hitting our stride. Records are being broken every year, so we have to continue to keep pushing forward.”
NBL CEO David Stevenson is singing from the same hymn sheet as Kestelman when it comes to taking the competition to another level.
“We’re far from satisfied and have an unsatiable appetite and ambition to establish an even stronger and much larger impact on the Australian sporting landscape,” Stevenson said.
“No sports league is growing at the rate we are, and we intend to continue the incredible upwards momentum well into the future.
“Already we are looking ahead to the first ever NBA team playing on Australian soil, Ice Cube’s BIG3 tournament coming down under and two of the biggest EuroLeague teams heading to our shores for a special tournament, historic moments for our sport which will help engage and attract a whole new legion of fans. Plus, we have some more exciting announcements to come, which will be just as big.”
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Originally published as Talks underway to lure stars Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels home via Chicago and Atlanta
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