Melbourne to make history again with NBA team set to play on Australian soil for the first time
Melbourne is set to make sporting history yet again, with a team of NBA superstars to play on Australian soil for the first time.
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Melbourne is set to make sporting history again, with a team from America’s NBA – the world’s biggest basketball league – to play on Australian soil for the first time.
In an events coup for Victoria that has been years in the making, an NBA team – or possibly more than one – will this year take on teams of Aussie stars at Melbourne Park.
The Herald Sun can reveal a contract is set to be inked to bring at least one NBA side to Melbourne in October for a series against NBL teams, likely at Rod Laver Arena.
Victoria will be the only Australian state to snare the NBA series, in a move expected to attract huge numbers of tourists from interstate and overseas.
It comes days after the Herald Sun revealed regular season NFL matches featuring the LA Rams would be staged at the MCG from next year.
The NBA exhibition series will feature some of the world’s best basketballers, with the Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers and Houston Rockets on the shortlist to travel here.
Sources close to the deal said there was a desire to bring an NBA team with an Aussie on its roster, for the first of what is hoped will be a multi-year deal with the NBA.
Victorian fans will be particularly keen to see local heroes in action – Melbourne-born star Josh Giddey is at the Bulls, Bendigo-born Dyson Daniels is with Atlanta, and Melbourne’s Jock Landale is at the Rockets. The Mavericks – featuring Victorian Dante Exum, Melbourne-born superstar Kyrie Irving and 10-time NBA All-Star Anthony Davis – are also potential starters.
The Clippers, meanwhile, have recently traded Aussie icon Patty Mills on to their roster.
The New Orleans Pelicans, featuring No. 1 draft pick Zion Williamson, and the Indiana Pacers – with Melbourne’s Johnny Furphy on the roster – are also in the mix for the matches to be announced soon.
Melbourne born-and-bred NBA champion Andrew Bogut said confirmation of the historic series was “bloody sensational’’.
“It will be sold out regardless of who comes,’’ he said. “It is going to be NBA versus NBL … it is exciting. It will probably be Chicago or Atlanta, one of those squads, which will be awesome. There is no doubt, if you had one of those play against even the cricket team, it would sell out.”
The news – which will thrill Aussie fans who hold the biggest number of NBA League Pass streaming subscriptions outside the US – has sparked hopes Melbourne could host NBA matches every year.
The NBA has played regular-season matches in Tokyo, Mexico and London.
The state government refused to comment on the deal, with Sports and Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos in New Orleans ahead of Monday’s NFL Super Bowl.
A contract for Melbourne to host an NBA side in an Australian-first has already been “locked in’’, according to multiple sources, but final details have been “slightly delayed’’ while the US opponents were confirmed.
A decision is also yet to be made on whether NBL powerhouses Melbourne United or Sydney Kings – or a squad of NBL all-stars – takes on the visitors.
Melbourne’s NBA coup will rub further salt into the wounds of Sydneysiders, who railed against NSW Premier Chris Minns after missing out on the NFL blockbusters.
NSW opposition leader Mark Speakman lashed “a government that always turns up late and empty-handed”.
NSW Tourism Association chief executive Natalie Godward described Melbourne’s NFL gain as an “epic failure” for Sydney. “We are seeing a missed opportunity while Victoria secures world-class events that should be coming here,” she said.
The NBL and its Melbourne-based owner Larry Kestleman have been central to the basketball deal, after sending Aussie clubs to the US for an NBLxNBA series since 2017.
More than 50,000 fans packed Marvel Stadium for a Boomers-Team USA clash in 2019.
Originally published as Melbourne to make history again with NBA team set to play on Australian soil for the first time
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