As news broke on Thursday evening, following the Sydney Kings home victory over the Adelaide 36ers, that Julian Khazzouh would be trialling with the NBA's Golden State Warriors, a mixture of pride and trepidation filtered through his home fans. The star centre, who has as strong a hold on the 2011/12 NBL MVP award as anyone, would be a tremendous loss to the Kings and their Finals hopes. However, the obvious counterpoint lies in the immense stamp of approval his progression gives to the standard of Australian basketball.
Khazzouh, who showed exactly the type of world-class talent he is during the final stages of the Kings' overtime trumping of the 36ers, is not the first Aussie big man to make the leap to what is regarded to be the best basketball league in the world. Far from it, in fact.
Whilst many NBL fans will know the obvious names of Australian post players who have made it big on the world stage, there are many more who have dipped their toes into the big pond of NBA competition, or come mightily close to doing so.
Despite never having played in our local league, the most renowned name in Australian basketball right now is Milwaukee Bucks centre, Andrew Bogut. The Australian Boomers pivot committed to playing alongside Khazzouh with the Sydney Kings recently, until insurance issues precluded that 'twin towers' duo from forming. Bogut is right on the cusp of NBA All-Star level and sets the standard to which other Aussie bigs aspire.
The other huge name in Aussie NBA folklore is the former Chicago Bulls centre with three championship rings, Luc Longley. Currently seen court side at Perth Wildcats games, big Luc did play two games with the Cats before going onto a collegiate career with New Mexico and becoming an NBA Lottery Pick with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1991.
Perhaps our most successful centre locally, Mark "Hogey" Bradtke converted his dominant years with the Adelaide 36ers and Melbourne Tigers into 36 games with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1996-97. His best game came against the Charlotte Hornets, where he put up eight points and 10 rebounds in 23 minutes.
Chris Anstey left the NBL as a boy, was drafted in the first round of the 1997 NBA Draft and returned to the NBL in 2001 as a man. Following very successful seasons in Russia, he again returned to the NBL as "the man". Anstey played two seasons for the Dallas Mavericks and one with the Chicago Bulls, putting up some impressive performances including individual highs of 26 points and 16 rebounds and this game-winning shot.
One of many Australian players who spent time at Gonzaga University, Adelaide native Paul Rogers enjoyed a very successful NBL career. Many fans would be unaware that Rogers in fact was drafted in the second round of the 1997 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, before being traded to the Toronto Raptors. He never played an NBA game, but joined a 1997 draft class that included Anstey, one-time Sydney Kings import Stephen Jackson, CJ Bruton and Aussie big man Ben Pepper. Pepper, like Anstey, relied entirely on his NBL career to get him drafted, having not attended a US college.
The late 1990s were indeed one of a series of golden eras for Australian basketballers getting attention from the NBA. In addition to the above-mentioned draftees, the 1998-99 season saw the Charlotte Hornets reportedly offer the then-Canberra Cannons star a free agent contract. Dwight turned the contract down, later saying that the situation just wouldn't have suited he and his wife. Dwight went on to be the NBL's all-time leader in blocks.
NBL legend Andrew Vlahov, fellow Wildcats sideline-pacer to Longley, was trialled by the Los Angeles Lakers back in 1991. Whilst his Stanford University credentials and NBA-type body would have served him well in the States, things didn't pan out for the versatile strong man on that occasion.
Similarly, 2001 saw Khazzouh's Star Wars III wookiee acting partner Axel Dench of the Wollongong Hawks trial with the Houston Rockets, albeit unsuccessfully. Dench, another Gonzaga alum, made his mark winning NBL Rookie of the Year that season, displaying outstanding three-point shooting for a big man.
Another big man who got his start with the Wollongong Hawks, in David Andersen, attracted NBA attention for his similar skill set. Selected in the second round of the 2002 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks, Andersen forged an extremely successful and lucrative career in Italy, Russia and Spain before finally agreeing to NBA overtures in signing with the Houston Rockets in 2009. He has since played for the Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Hornets, in addition to the Rockets (who were reeling with injuries to Yao Ming and other big men at the time). He is currently back with Montepaschi Siena in Italy -- a team with whom he has previously seen success.
Around the same time as Andersen hit the NBA, Cairns Taipans 2008 NBL Rookie of the Year Nathan Jawai was drafted by the Indiana Pacers. Ultimately, he went on to play for the Toronto Raptors and Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA, interspersed with some D-League time, before making his way to KK Partizan (Serbia) and UNICS Kazan (Russia). There is still time for 25 year-old Jawai to return to the NBA.
Of all of the Australians to play in the NBA, perhaps the one with the biggest cult following was Georgia Tech graduate and current Townsville Crocodile, Luke Schenscher. "Big Red" or "Big Bird" as he is known by some rabid Yellow Jackets fans, attracted a fan base who loved his 216cm frame and blazing red hair. Schensch played on a couple of Summer League rosters and in the D-League before becoming following in Longley and Anstey's footsteps by signing with the Chicago Bulls to a 10-day contract, before signing for the rest of the 2006-07 season. The following season, the same scenario unfolded for the big man from South Australia, as the injury-ravaged Portland Trail Blazers came knocking, signing him to 10-day contracts before tying him up for the remainder of the season.
The most recent Australian to hit the NBA scene -- quite unexpectedly to many -- is Ater Majok. A former Perth Wildcats and Gold Coast Blaze player with experience in Turkey and Slovakia, Majok was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 58th pick of the 2011 NBA Draft. With the recent lockout delaying the NBA season, Majok now has the opportunity to prove his worth to the Lakers at training camp.
With Khazzouh currently in training camp with the Warriors himself, the time is now for the Kings big man to prove that he belongs in the world of NBA centres. His unique ability to handle the ball, coupled with his decent range for a 209cm player, gives him a fair shot at a Golden State roster which is not stacked with bigs. As you can see, he has a strong heritage of Australian power players who have made the leap to the States and now it is up to him to prove that he is next.
To read more of my thoughts on the 2011/12 iiNet Championship, keep on reading here weekly at NBL.com.au, or check out the new section on Australians in the NBA at A Stern Warning. You can also follow me on twitter @ASternWarning.
*The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect those of the National Basketball League.
