Boomtime in NBL

JULY25, 2017 will go down in Australian sporting annals as a red-letter day for the National Basketball League.

Sydney Kings

That was the day Joe Ingles signed a 68 million Australian Dollars contract extension with the Utah Jazz, proving that the NBL has become a solid stepping stone for players dreaming of a career in America’s National Basketball Association - the world’s best and most lucrative basketball league.

Ingles is one of 10 Australians (an all-time high) playing in the NBA. The big difference is that unlike his countrymen, Ingles is the only one who first made a name for himself in the NBL, winning a championship with the South Dragons in 2009. San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills played nine games in a highly publicised cameo for the Melbourne Tigers in 2011-12, but Mills had two NBA seasons under his belt by then. And while Australian basketball luminaries Andrew Gaze and Shane Heal were the first NBL players to jump from the NBL to the NBA back in the 90s, neither was a key ingredient in their respective NBA teams. Ditto for Chris Anstey and David Andersen.

That’s certainly not the case with Ingles. After losing a couple of key players in the off-season, the Jazz realised they had a special talent in the 30-year-old Adelaide native and happily stitched him to a new deal. A popular cult figure with Jazz fans, Ingles finished third in the NBA in three-point shooting (44.1 percent) last season and has become a permanent starter this season. He is the quintessential “glue” player - someone who does a bit of everything on the court and makes his teammates better. With Ingles and Mills continuing to excel and phenomenal Aussie rookie Ben Simmons being compared to Lebron James, it’s hardly surprising the NBL’s profile and credibility are on the rise. And it’s not just the locals using the NBL as a springboard to the NBA.

Last year Terrance Ferguson, a highly rated high school basketball star from Dallas, decided to skip college to spend a season with the Adelaide 36ers. Ferguson didn’t set the world on fire with the Sixers, but he obviously did enough for the Oklahoma City Thunder to select the 19-year-old as the 21st pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Former Cairns and Brisbane import Torrey Craig signed a contract with the Denver Nuggets this season, while James Ennis and Jordan McRae spent time with the Perth Wildcats and Melbourne United respectively before earning their NBA stripes. The NBL has experienced boom periods in the past, most memorably in the early 90s. But this latest honeymoon doesn’t look like ending any time soon. On the court, the talent level and quality of games has never been better. Off the court, attendance, sponsorship and TV ratings are all up. Perhaps the most compelling evidence of the NBL’s rapid growth over the past two years were the three unprecedented exhibition games between NBL and NBA teams in October. “There's absolutely no question this right now is the glory days of basketball in our country," says Tommy Greer, the NBL's general manager of major events and programs. "It's firing on all cylinders. There's no reason why basketball can't be the number one sport in Australia."

Ironically, the NBL was in financial trouble and close to folding a few short years ago. That was before Melbourne businessman Larry Kestelman saved the day, paying $7 million to buy the NBL and quickly securing committed sponsors who shared his vision for the future. Kestelman also shook hands on a slam dunk of a programming deal with FOX Sports, locking up an unprecedented arrangement for live coverage of every single game of the season. The NBL hasn't looked back an is now thriving rather than surviving. "Larry [Kestelman] and [NBL CEO] Jeremy [Loegliger] have been smart and because the sponsorship is something that comes after they've laid the foundation," four-time Olympian Heal said.

"They've invested in making sure they got their head office right and got the stabiltiy of the teams right." Seven-time NBL MVP Gaze played 22 seasons for the Melbounre Tigers and represented Australia at five Olympics. After spending time at the TV commentary table on and off for several years following his 2005 retirement, he re-entered the NBL as coach of the Sydney Kings at the start of the 2016-17 season and is convinced the high standard on the court is the real reason why basketball is booming again. "The marketing and presentation is absolutely vital, but if the product is not great, there's only so much the sizzle can do," Gaze said.

Originally published as Boomtime in NBL