Famous fans of the NBL

IT'S a common sight in the NBA: America’s biggest celebrities flexing their star power with courtside seats. The front row is the place to be if you want to be seen in the home of the great game.

SYdney Kings

But basketball has its star fans in Australia too, doing their bit to bring that touch of glamour to the local game.

It’s probably no surprise that Fox Sports presenter Abbey Gelmi is an NBL fanatic – it helps to be a fan of the game you’re commentating on, after all. For anyone looking for a quick education in the local basketball scene, Gelmi is a must to follow on Twitter. Even when she’s not working, she can be found cheering herself hoarse at Qudos Bank Arena as part of the Sydney Kings’ purple and gold army. In fact, any given night at Qudos you’re likely to see an array of famous Kings fans, from former Miss World Australia Erin Holland to newsreader Mark Ferguson. Plus of course radio and TV presenter Mike Goldman, perhaps best known for his work on Big Brother, but nowadays the MC for Kings games and one of the side’s true superfans. Get down to an NBL game and you could also very well see Collingwood AFL superstar Scott Pendlebury in the crowd. Pendlebury is the proud owner of a premiership medal, a Norm Smith medal, and four club best-and-fairest awards, testaments to the silken ball skills and footwork that were honed, not just on the footy oval, but on the court too. In his youth, the Magpie skipper was a star junior basketballer, and his passion for the game remains undimmed. Pendlebury’s fellow AFL star Todd Goldstein is another of the many young basketballers who made the transition to football. Goldstein was focused on the American game through most of his teens, before the lanky frame that served him so well under the hoop was put to use winning ruck hitouts, a move that ended up winning him an All-Australian selection in 2015. Although his long limbs took up the pursuit of a different-shaped ball, there’s a place in his heart that is forever spherical: to this day he follows his first love closely and waxes lyrical on the greatest moments he’s witnessed in his life as a fan. Pendlebury and Goldstein found a new sporting passion, but for Australian tennis enfant terrible Nick Kyrgios, it’s debatable whether his professional career ever overtook his love for b-ball. After representing Australia at youth level in basketball, Kyrgios became the next big thing in tennis, but he never completely left the hoops behind – his passion came through most strongly last year, when he pulled out of a tournament in Rotterdam so he could play in a charity basketball game. Whether he’ll ever become tired enough with tennis to make a full-time switch, who can tell – but his love of the game seems to at least give him a great diversion from the rigours of the tour. Less athletic in his occupation but every bit as passionate in his love of the game, comedian Scott Dooley’s love of basketball has no doubt been intensified by his time spent performing in the US. The star of stand-up, TV and radio splits his time between Australia and New York and must be one of basketball’s highest-profile fans in this country. Elsewhere in the entertainment world, Perth radio personality Tyrone Thwaites combines his career presenting afternoons on hit92.9 with his commentary work for Fox Sports’ NBL coverage. It’s natural that he’s a Perth Wildcats supporter, but one of his greatest moments as a commentator was getting to call Cedric Jackson’s buzzer beater for the Breakers to down the Wildcats in double overtime. Mike Goldman isn’t the only Big Brother alumnus to wear his love for basketball on his sleeve. Blair McDonough was the runner-up of the reality hit’s first season in 2001 and parlayed that into success in acting and hosting. Throughout he’s maintained his devotion to the game, breaking the mould of the knockabout Aussie bloke by keeping the fire burning for the hoops. Perhaps one of the Oz media’s less well-known basketball converts is Peter Fitzsimons. The international rugby union star turned writer on sport, politics and history took to the round-ball game in a big way in his post-rugby years, becoming an enthusiastic senior league player, and acting as President of Sydney’s Northern Suburbs Basketball Association. He may not have quite the presence he brought to the field in the days when he was sent off for punching an All Black, but no doubt Fitz can still cut an intimidating figure on the court – and he’s long been an enthusiastic advocate for the game off-court, spruiking his adopted sport as one of the finest, to play and watch.

Originally published as Famous fans of the NBL