LaMelo Ball proof of the rise and rise of the rebounding NBL
Proof the NBL is stronger than ever lies with a teenager who plays computer games all day and halts the basketball world by night.
Unbelievable it still seems for LaMelo Ball, a future luminary of the NBA, to be living in Wollongong while playing for the good old Illawarra Hawks, driving up the M1 for a game against the Sydney Kings tomorrow afternoon that looms as a landmark occasion for hoops in this country.
What a thing it would be to bump into the Ball in Crown Street Mall. A bloke like you, a place like this? He’s the next big thing in the US, the next Kobe or LeBron, the Hollywood kid trying to keep up with the Kardashians on the reality TV ratings, the likely No 1 pick in next year’s NBA draft. He’s not exactly hanging out with the locals in the ’Gong, of course. No sightings of him surfing Boneyards or getting out to the Dapto dogs. He doesn’t know what he’s missing.
NBL owner Larry Kestelman, whose Next Stars program has sprinkled the competition with magic dust and future superstars like 18-year-old Ball, and who’s masterminding a resurrection of the domestic competition that can no longer be denied, paints the picture of a young fella who has his head down in this gap year of his — his head down in the pursuit of a basketball education, his head down in the teenage predilection for video games.
“He’s got an apartment,” Kestelman says. “He’s got a personal manager with him. He’s got a lot of physio and trainers around him. He has all the help around him he needs to concentrate full-time on his craft. He’s doing his own one-on-one training. He’s doing a lot with the team. He’s learning to be a full-time professional.
“He’s a little bit out of the limelight in Wollongong. I think it’s better for him to be there instead of a Sydney or Melbourne, where he might be followed around all day long. He’s a really good kid. Well-mannered. Understands what he’s here to do.”
The NBA draft will be held in June. ESPN has nominated Ball, younger brother of 2017 No 2 draft pick Lonzo, from the good old Illawarra Hawks as the top pick. He’s seven months from a multimillion-dollar contract and non-stop appearances in America’s most famous halls. While the ’Gong is glorious in its own right, WIN Sports and Entertainment Centre doesn’t quite match Madison Square Garden as a venue of renown. He’s used to Hollywood-scale hype, the glitz of his Ball In The Family reality TV show, bigger cities and brighter lights than this.
Asked what he’s doing in his downtime, Kestelman has a chuckle and says: “I’ll say that a lot of young players, including him, are big on their Esports. He’s a pretty quiet kid who does a lot of training work. He’s being kept pretty well under wraps. There’s not a lot of partying, put it that way. He’s not down at the pub. The season is busy, they’re travelling a lot, they’re on the road a lot. It’s a busy lifestyle for him. And then in his downtime I think he probably likes his video games.”
I keep hearing anecdotal, word-of-mouth claims of the NBL booming. Families going to a Kings match and saying bloody hell, that was great! Electrifying atmosphere, great standard. I can’t vouch for that. I haven’t been to a game yet. But there’s been so many good stories, from so many good people, that I’m going to end the resistance and get to the Kings versus Hawks clash on Sunday. A gathering is expected of 16,000-plus, a record for the Kings.
“It will be special,” Kestelman says. “There’s crowd growth throughout the league. It’s not just the Kings. But we’re proud. We’ve been working at this for more than 10 years. Nothing revolves around just one game, but it feels like a milestone game. To have a sellout or close — it’s phenomenal.”
NBL crowds have increased by 32 per cent in the past four years. Broadcasts to the US, Europe and Asia have a reach of 130 million. The Hawks’ game against the New Zealand Breakers, who have another young American prodigy, RJ Hampton, doing his gap year here, attracted two million viewers via a live stream on Facebook. A ninth team, South East Melbourne Phoenix, are in the competition — and coming second. A 10th team is slated for Tasmania. Participation levels in Australia have more than doubled in the past three years, making it the second-highest participation sport in the country. There has been an 86 per cent increase in free-to-air coverage. Australia’s two exhibition games against the US in Melbourne drew 103,000 fans. Once ignored, there has been 250,000 mentions of Ball and the NBA since his signing in July. More than half of them in America.
While the A-League football in Australia is losing its audience, the NBA is rising like no other sport on these shores. Kestelman says: “Their challenge is the standard of play,” Kestelman says. “We’ve had to find different ways, like the Next Star program, to attract top talent. We’re the second-strongest competition in the world, which enables us to get guys on the verge of playing in the best competition, the NBA. You have to have the quality of matches to be successful and grow. World sport is accessible now. You can turn on one channel and watch Liverpool. If you switch on the A-League, it’s hard to watch by comparison. You switch on the NBL, we’re good. I’m not saying we’re the NBA, but we’re good.”
Asked where to from here, Kestelman says: “I want us to be the most-watched sport across all the different devices. I want everyone to feel like it’s their sport. I want them to be able to watch it how and when they want. We’re on that journey now. We’re on SBS, ESPN, SBS on Demand, Twitch, Facebook.
“We want to be the sport that redefines how audiences watch it. The days of forcing people to watch on one channel are behind us. You’ll see more innovation from us. We want people to watch their sport where they want, when they want and in what format they want. It’s all about the fan. If I can boil it down to one thing, it’s this: what the fan wants.”
If Ball goes from the good old Hawks to the global superstardom in the NBA, if he proves Australia is an ideal gap year for high school players awaiting their elevation to the most famous boards in the world, there may be a steady stream of superstars-in-waiting spending a summer in Australia.
They’ll learn how to live without their parents, boil their own eggs, embark on the daily grind of professionalism, providing the sort of global exposure that is both priceless and prestigious for Australia’s domestic scene.
The Kings have their own Next Star marquee in Didi Louzada. The Brazilian 20-year-old has been lighting it up for the first-placed Kings ahead of their appointment with the last-placed Hawks. He was picked up by the New Orleans Pelicans in this year’s NBA draft, going at number 35, but he’s playing the NBL and receiving English tutoring until the Pelicans want him. But Ball is the real money man. He’s coming off a season-high 24 points against Cairns Taipans. Asked if expects to be the top draft pick next year, he replies: “I believe so.”
Kestelman adds: “He’s getting life experience. He’s out of the bubble he’d be in at an American college. He’s learning how to deal with the media. He’s in a different country, he’s away from his parents, he’s in a completely different environment, he’s in the second-best league in the world. His job is to get better as a basketballer and I think we’ve seen in the first third of the season, the improvements he’s made are tremendous.
“He’s still got a long way to go but we’re looking at an incredible talent. He’s playing against grown men. He’s playing against Andrew Bogut on Sunday. You can’t beat that as a playing or viewing experience.”
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