Basketball in Australia
Encyclopedia
Basketball is a sport
played both indoors and outdoors in Australia. Basketball remains one of the most popular participation sports in Australia, having a larger participation base than Cricket
, Australian Rules Football
, Rugby League
and Rugby Union
. In Victoria
, it is experiencing a large participation boom and is the largest participation sport in that state.
It was briefly one of the most popular spectator sports in the early to mid 1990s, however its popularity has declined since then.
Australia has produced several professional basketballers for major overseas leagues.
The sport does retain a notable presence and international matches attract some media attention.
in 1900. It took two decades for the first association to be established in Victoria, Australia in the 1920s.
Basketball grew steadily throughout the 20th century.
The National Basketball League
(NBL) is the top-level men's basketball
competition, which began in 1979.
The Women's National Basketball League
(WNBL) is the top women's basketball league, having begun in 1981.
The sport experienced rapid growth in the late 1980s as young people became more interested in American culture. Wearing basketball guernseys became a fashion statement for many teenagers and basketball hoops proliferated in the backyards and basketball courts were, and still are, common at schools.
Capitalising on growing interest in the sport, the national competition became a huge hit in the major cities, providing a full entertainment package. Participation boomed and key people in the football codes, particularly Australian rules football
began to express concern that it present a drain on talent in the Australian Football League
due to players looking for bigger money playing basketball in the United States
. A few players including Luc Longley
, Andrew Gaze
, Shane Heal
, Chris Anstey
, Andrew Bogut
and Lauren Jackson
did actually make it big internationally, becoming poster figures for the sport in Australia.
Between the mid and late 1990s, however, the popularity went into sharp decline, particularly in the major cities.
The decline was such that the 1998-99 NBL Season season shifted to the current summer season format (October–April) in an attempt to avoid competing directly against Australia's various football codes
which were rapidly rising in popularity.
As the barrier to entry to the national competition lowered, basketball found a niche in smaller towns and cities. Australians continue to support international basketball, particularly Olympic basketball and paralympic wheelchair basketball
. During the Sydney 2000 Olympics a record crowd of 16000 watched Australia versus the United States of America in the men's wheelchair basketball in the SuperDome.
After 2001, the AFL began to reverse the trend and target basketball talent, luring several promising young players including Dean Brogan
and Kurt Tippett
.
A number of well publicised injuries occurred with backyard basketball hoops also resulting in stricter council regulations in many cities.
In 2007, the sport went into crisis, with several of the major clubs defaulting and political finger pointing tore the sport apart before in 2009 threatening to send the sport into complete chaos.
A new interest in basketball happened during the 2008 finals due to the closeness of the series. Melbourne
and Sydney
fought out 5 close game with Melbourne winning in the deciding game at Sydney Entertainment Centre
in front of a sell-out crowd of 10,244 . It was the first time it hosted a sell-out game since the 2003 grand final game against Perth
. It was called one of the best series ever.
The 2010–11 NBL season
will return to free-to-air television with 2 games per week shown on Channel Ten
and One HD. This deal runs up until the end of the 2014/15 season, with 5 games a week to be shown in the last season of the deal.
are the men's basketball team which represents Australia in international competitions. The women's national team is the Opals
, which has won silver in the 2000
, 2004
and 2008
Olympics, and gold at the FIBA World Championship in 2006
.
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
played both indoors and outdoors in Australia. Basketball remains one of the most popular participation sports in Australia, having a larger participation base than Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, Australian Rules Football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
, Rugby League
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
and Rugby Union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
. In Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, it is experiencing a large participation boom and is the largest participation sport in that state.
It was briefly one of the most popular spectator sports in the early to mid 1990s, however its popularity has declined since then.
Australia has produced several professional basketballers for major overseas leagues.
The sport does retain a notable presence and international matches attract some media attention.
History
The first basketball match was played in Adelaide, South AustraliaSouth Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
in 1900. It took two decades for the first association to be established in Victoria, Australia in the 1920s.
Basketball grew steadily throughout the 20th century.
The National Basketball League
National Basketball League (Australia)
The National Basketball League, also known as the iiNet NBL Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in Australasia....
(NBL) is the top-level men's basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
competition, which began in 1979.
The Women's National Basketball League
Women's National Basketball League
The Women's National Basketball League is the pre-eminent women's professional basketball league in Australia. It currently is composed of ten teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Basketball League...
(WNBL) is the top women's basketball league, having begun in 1981.
The sport experienced rapid growth in the late 1980s as young people became more interested in American culture. Wearing basketball guernseys became a fashion statement for many teenagers and basketball hoops proliferated in the backyards and basketball courts were, and still are, common at schools.
Capitalising on growing interest in the sport, the national competition became a huge hit in the major cities, providing a full entertainment package. Participation boomed and key people in the football codes, particularly Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
began to express concern that it present a drain on talent in the Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
due to players looking for bigger money playing basketball in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A few players including Luc Longley
Luc Longley
Lucien James "Luc" Longley is a retired Australian professional basketball player, who was the first Australian to play in the NBA, where he played for eleven seasons...
, Andrew Gaze
Andrew Gaze
Andrew Barry Casson Gaze is Australia's best known basketball player, and one of its most successful. He is considered as the greatest player in the history of the NBL....
, Shane Heal
Shane Heal
Shane Douglas Heal is a retired Australia professional basketball player who last played with the Gold Coast Blaze of the National Basketball League, retiring at the end of the 2008/09 season. During his early years as a player, Heal played for the Brisbane Bullets and the Geelong Supercats...
, Chris Anstey
Chris Anstey
Christopher John Anstey is a former Australian professional basketball player. At 7'0" his career included stints in the NBA, Russia and Spain. Anstey was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 1997 NBA Draft. He played for the Melbourne Tigers in the Australian NBL...
, Andrew Bogut
Andrew Bogut
Andrew Michael Bogut is an Australian professional basketball player. He plays for the Milwaukee Bucks of the United States' National Basketball Association....
and Lauren Jackson
Lauren Jackson
Lauren Elizabeth Jackson is an Australian professional basketball player. Jackson began her professional career at the Australian Institute of Sport in the WNBL before moving on to the Canberra Capitals. She is currently a forward/centre with the Seattle Storm of the WNBA and the Australian...
did actually make it big internationally, becoming poster figures for the sport in Australia.
Between the mid and late 1990s, however, the popularity went into sharp decline, particularly in the major cities.
The decline was such that the 1998-99 NBL Season season shifted to the current summer season format (October–April) in an attempt to avoid competing directly against Australia's various football codes
Football in Australia
Football in Australia can refer to several different variations of football as there are regional variations of the use of the word "Football" in Australia....
which were rapidly rising in popularity.
As the barrier to entry to the national competition lowered, basketball found a niche in smaller towns and cities. Australians continue to support international basketball, particularly Olympic basketball and paralympic wheelchair basketball
Wheelchair basketball
Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people in wheelchairs and is considered one of the major disabled sports practiced. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation is the governing body for this sport. It is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee as the sole...
. During the Sydney 2000 Olympics a record crowd of 16000 watched Australia versus the United States of America in the men's wheelchair basketball in the SuperDome.
After 2001, the AFL began to reverse the trend and target basketball talent, luring several promising young players including Dean Brogan
Dean Brogan
Dean Scott Brogan is a ruckman in the Australian Football League . He was also a former basketballer with the Adelaide 36ers.-Adelaide 36ers career :...
and Kurt Tippett
Kurt Tippett
Kurt Tippett is an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League. He currently plays for the Adelaide Crows and wears the number 4 on the back of his jumper. He has represented his state at under 18 level in basketball before converting to Australian rules football and playing for...
.
A number of well publicised injuries occurred with backyard basketball hoops also resulting in stricter council regulations in many cities.
In 2007, the sport went into crisis, with several of the major clubs defaulting and political finger pointing tore the sport apart before in 2009 threatening to send the sport into complete chaos.
A new interest in basketball happened during the 2008 finals due to the closeness of the series. Melbourne
Melbourne Tigers
The Melbourne Tigers are Australia's oldest and most respected basketball team, established circa 1931 in a local church hall League. Entering the National Basketball League in 1984, they are now the only Melbourne team, after the South Dragons withdrew from the league.The Melbourne Tigers are the...
and Sydney
Sydney Kings
The Sydney Kings are a professional basketball team competing in the Australasian National Basketball League. They are the only team to date to win three consecutive championships in the NBL and currently sit third behind the Adelaide 36ers and Melbourne Tigers two away from the record five wins...
fought out 5 close game with Melbourne winning in the deciding game at Sydney Entertainment Centre
Sydney Entertainment Centre
The Sydney Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose venue, located in Haymarket, Sydney, Australia. It opened in May 1983, to replace Sydney Stadium, which had been demolished to make way for a new railway. The centre is currently owned by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, which administers...
in front of a sell-out crowd of 10,244 . It was the first time it hosted a sell-out game since the 2003 grand final game against Perth
Perth Wildcats
The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League. The Wildcats are the only team in the league representing the state of Western Australia and are based in the state capital, Perth...
. It was called one of the best series ever.
The 2010–11 NBL season
2010–11 NBL season
The 2010–11 National Basketball League is the thirty-third season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of 9 teams will contest the league. The regular season will be played between October 2010 and April 2011, followed by a post-season involving the top four. The schedule was...
will return to free-to-air television with 2 games per week shown on Channel Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
and One HD. This deal runs up until the end of the 2014/15 season, with 5 games a week to be shown in the last season of the deal.
National Teams
The BoomersAustralia national basketball team
The Australian national basketball team is the men's basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions. The team is known in Australia as the Boomers, an Australian slang term for Kangaroo. Australia is ranked 9th in the world and finished 7th at the 2008 Beijing Olympic...
are the men's basketball team which represents Australia in international competitions. The women's national team is the Opals
Australia women's national basketball team
The Australia Women's National Basketball Team is the women's National Basketball team for Australia. They won Gold at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006 defeating New Zealand's Tall Ferns in the final match with a score of 77–39. They then followed it up with a gold medal at the 2006 FIBA...
, which has won silver in the 2000
2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
, 2004
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...
and 2008
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
Olympics, and gold at the FIBA World Championship in 2006
2006 FIBA World Championship for Women
The 2006 FIBA World Championship for Women took place in Brazil from September 12 to September 23, 2006. It was co-organised by the International Basketball Federation and Confederação Brasileira de Basketball, the Brazilian national federation....
.
Competitions and Associations
National- National Basketball LeagueNational Basketball League (Australia)The National Basketball League, also known as the iiNet NBL Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in Australasia....
- Women's National Basketball LeagueWomen's National Basketball LeagueThe Women's National Basketball League is the pre-eminent women's professional basketball league in Australia. It currently is composed of ten teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Basketball League...
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