Written by Bret Harris on the Foxsports website:


BASKETBALL in Australia has reached its lowest ebb since the advent of the national league in 1979.

The once booming NBL is on the verge of extinction and international competition is virtually non-existent for our national teams outside of the world championship and Olympic Games.

But basketball has an opportunity to revive its fortunes.

The catch is, the sport would need to sacrifice what it would regard as one of its most valuable assets - direct qualification for the Olympic Games and world championship through the Oceania zone.

The Boomers and the Opals effectively only need to beat New Zealand in the Oceania qualifying series to gain entry to the two major tournaments because the standard of the Pacific Island countries is so poor.

The fact that the Boomers have lost only one trans-Tasman series against New Zealand, in 2001, means they are almost guaranteed a place in those events.

On the surface it looks great to have virtual automatic entry to events such as the Olympics and world championship.

The Boomers and the Opals get to perform on the world stage once every two years and there is important federal Government funding attached to qualifying for the tournaments.

But what has Australian basketball really gained from its easy passage to the main events? And more importantly at what cost?

Administrators have been waiting for decades for the Boomers to win a medal at either the Olympic Games or world championship to help popularise the sport in this country.

Although they have finished fourth a few times, the Boomers have never won a medal.

And even if they had, the impact would have been marginal at best.

The Opals have been regular medallists at both the Olympics and world championship for 20 years, but they have almost no profile at home.

The reason is the lack of top-class international competition involving the Boomers and the Opals in their own country.

In between the Olympics and the world championship, the Boomers and Opals are the invisible teams of world basketball.

In the 1980s, Basketball Australia attempted to organise 'Test' matches along similar lines to rugby union and cricket. But the only quality national team to tour Australia was the USSR in 1988, which went on to win gold at the Seoul Games.

International basketball is run along similar lines to soccer; dominated by rich and powerful clubs.

The most meaningful 'Test' matches are played in Olympic and world championship qualifying series.

There is no room in the calendar or financial incentive for leading national teams from Europe or the Americas to tour Australia.

The way forward for Australian basketball is to join an expanded Asia-Pacific qualifying zone.

Australian football used to dream about the prospect of direct entry to the World Cup for the Oceania winner, which meant the Socceroos would not have to play against fifth-placed South American teams to claim a spot in the finals.

But former FFA chief executive (and now ARU CEO) John O'Neill never saw this as an answer to improving football's status in this country.

Instead, O'Neill regarded Oceania as a "glass ceiling", which "held back" Australian soccer.

O'Neill formed this view after watching the Socceroos play in the Oceania Football Cup in Adelaide against New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

The lopsided games, played over a week, drew a total crowd of fewer than 50,000.

In his book, It's Only A Game, O'Neill wrote: "Even if we did have the chance to grab direct qualification to the World Cup, what about the glass ceiling we had to live under during the four years between each tournament?

"There was no quality competition at either the club or, more particularly, international level to sustain us on any kind of regular basis.

"What sort of preparation was that going to be in the countdown to each World Cup?

"Was it enough to just be at the finals every four years, or did we want to become more competitive by stretching our wings and moving into a more highly charged environment?"

O'Neill pushed for Australian soccer to move out of Oceania into Asia - regardless of promises of direct entry to the World Cup.

The Socceroos now play in the Asian qualifying zone, which provides Australia with improved competition, greater spectator appeal and more valuable broadcasting rights.

Like football, Oceania basketball is a non-event. I covered an Oceania qualifying tournament in New Zealand in 1987.

When the Boomers, who included great players such as Phil Smyth, Andrew Gaze, Mark Bradtke and Andrew Vlahov, arrived at a tin-shed in Timaru for their match with French Polynesia, they found their opponents sitting under the basket, strumming ukuleles and singing songs.

The Boomers won by more than 100 points. It was a joke!

Basketball Australia should lobby the game's world governing body, FIBA, to join Asia.

The chance to play regularly against China, Japan and South Korea - as well as New Zealand - in meaningful, international competition would provide Australian basketball with the rejuvenation it so badly needs.

Imagine, the Boomers playing China with their NBA star Yao Ming? Basketball fans would fill the Sydney Entertainment Centre and Melbourne Tennis Centre like they did at the height of the NBL boom.

Only this time, basketball might just be able to sustain the growth.

Very good idea.
I can't help but notice the NBL/Australian basketballs tendency recently to copy the FFA.
Hopefully they can be just as successful as they were.

This is a very good article and makes an excellent point....

In summary- Australian sports fans are less of bandwagoners than they appear. Beating a team like French Polynesia impresses no one and will never draw crowds. As pointed out- a better, high quality, high profile, game against a China or Japan would get Sponsors, Fans and Media on board.

I hope that the NBL Advisory committee have taken heed of the message within this article. Some 10 team rubbish comp won't save the NBL- quality basketball will!!!!

I reckon Patty Mills can definitely be a major drawcard when marketing the Boomers in the future.. Imagine some of the promotions for games in oz:

"Patty Mills, the heart, the tenacity, the true Aussie spirit. Watch Patty Mills, Andrew Bogut & the Australian Boomers take on Yao Ming & China for this years greatest sporting battle on Australian soil... Get behind your team Australia!"

Copying football (soccers) reformation is an ideal way to structure our new league & to approach international basketball. Thing is with basketball our level of competition will be (in theory) much higher than the A-Leagues, if you look at it from a global point view. So hopefully the quality will be higher, better skill, more attractive games, basketball wins, less whinging from us!!

i like your post.

the answer to all our problems is to get yao at the entertainment centre.brilliant.