NBL boss Jeremy Loeliger says league will do all it can to get Ben Simmons, 76ers, NBA to Australia

PHILADELPHIA 76ers coach Brett Brown says it’s a “no-brainer” to bring the NBA club and its Aussie star Ben Simmons Down Under — and the NBL wants it to happen, too.

Philadelphia coach Brett Brown wants to bring the 76ers and Ben Simmons to Australia.

PHILADELPHIA 76ers coach Brett Brown says it’s a “no-brainer” to bring the NBA club and its Aussie star Ben Simmons Down Under.

And the NBL’s chief executive Jeremy Loeliger says the league will do all it can to make it happen.

Brown told the Herald Sun yesterday he’d be “elated” to bring the 76ers to Australia and Loeliger says the NBL is working with the NBA to bring the sport to our shores.

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Philadelphia coach Brett Brown wants to bring the 76ers and Ben Simmons to Australia.

“It was positive for me to see Brett Brown’s comments about wanting to see the Philadelphia 76ers come here and about wanting to see Ben playing on his home soil,” Loeliger said.

“We very much want to see those things happen as well and we’ll do everything we can to ensure that Australians get to see their guys playing here on local courts at some point.

“Seeing them on TV is one thing, seeing them in the flesh and what that will do for the growth of our sport just cannot be underestimated.”

Simmons has taken the NBA by storm in his debut season and his success is already building a new generation of basketball fans in Australia.

“To be able to deliver Ben to the Australian marketplace from a domestic standpoint and bring him back home would just do great things for the sport in Australia,’’ Brown said.

“It would further promote the NBA which is yet to visit … and I think when you talk about timing, I don’t think you’re ever going to get better timing than now.

“We should really aggressively be exploring that opportunity.’’

Simmons and Aussie-mania is gripping the world.

Loeliger hopes says there is potential for an exhibition game on Australia’s shores in the near future.

“We’re working with the NBA and our Australian NBA players to try to find novel, out-of-the-box ideas as to how to get some NBA content here in Australia,” he said.

“(There’s the) prospect of it not being any two specific NBA teams, but getting talent here to play in some other format.

“The hardest part is to get two NBA teams to play one and other, because that is a preseason game and there’s a limited supply of them, therefore you start looking at exhibition games where you might get composite teams of players from all different NBA teams together to play against one and other, which is a pretty exciting possibility because there are guys that you might not see play together ever again.”

Three NBL clubs played preseason games against NBA teams earlier this year and Loeliger said there are hopes that happens again.

“We’re having those conversations now, but there’s certainly been a number of NBA clubs who have been in contact and said, ‘hey, we’d be willing to play an NBL team next preseason, keep us in mind’,” he said.

- with Peter Rolfe