Coming off its closest season in the competition’s 31-year history, the National Basketball League is poised to be even stronger in 2010/11 due to a flood of returning Australian international stars, says Basketball Australia Chief Executive Officer Larry Sengstock.
Already seven Australian players who have featured heavily on the Australian Boomers’ radar have returned from playing internationally to take up contracts in the revitalised NBL, including hulking 218cm centre Luke Nevill who signed with the Melbourne Tigers last week and recently acquired Perth Wildcats’ forward Matthew Knight.
Sengstock says the NBL’s already deep talent pool is undergoing significant growth as a result of the stabilisation of the league over the past 12 months.
“It’s really exciting to see players that feature heavily in national team consideration showing confidence in the NBL and making the move back home from Europe and the United States,” said Sengstock. “The likes of Luke Nevill, Matt Knight, Julian Khazzouh, Alex Loughton, Blagoj Janev, Luke Cooper and Ben Allen all have had successful careers either at collegiate level or professionally. They’re now making the choice to come back home to play in the NBL while they are in the prime of their careers. That is just a tremendous boost to our playing stocks and also a vote of confidence in what we have achieved with the growth of the NBL over the past 12 months.
“There is no doubt that the addition of a ninth team in Sydney, far from spreading our talent more thinly, has created additional opportunities at home for talented Australians who might otherwise have taken their games overseas,” Sengstock continued. “Instead of seeing the standard of the competition drop in 2010/11, fans will be treated to an even higher level of basketball that will reinforce the NBL’s status as one of the world’s top leagues.”
Sengstock said that the off-court work done by the NBL in recent months was also helping convince talented Australian players to play in Australia.
“I think players are starting to see that the league is making big strides in the right direction off the court,” Sengstock added. “The addition of a Sydney team as well as our new broadcast agreement with Network Ten and its digital sports channel ONE, and the recent signing of a long-term apparel deal with And 1 are all key milestones for us as we grow the NBL. We’re also moving forward with the search for a naming rights sponsor. The players are starting to get a sense of gathering momentum behind the NBL and, as a result, our league is now a far more attractive choice for them as opposed to Europe or the US. Young stars like Jason Cadee, who signed with the Gold Coast Blaze out of the AIS, are also choosing the NBL over college. That’s good for the NBL and great for Australian basketball fans.”
The 2010/11 NBL Season will tip-off in mid-October, with the official schedule due to be released shortly.
