National Basketball League (Australia)

  • Thread starter JohnBM01
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JohnBM01

JohnBM01

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Being around GTPlanet and making friends with GTPlaneteers allows you to learn of certain cultures. Inspired by the likes of Paulie and Spacegoat among others, I decided to start a thread to discuss Australia's premier professional basketball league- the National Basketball League (or NBL). Just like the NBA, there is also a WNBL (Women's National Basketball League). I just wanted to offer this thread perhaps to gain some insight on Australian basketball. I figured I'd offer some discussion of basketball outside of the NBA just to keep things buzzing here in the Sports forums.

The NBL features eight teams: the Adelaide 36ers, the Brisbane Bullets, the Cairns Taipins, the Illawarra Hawks, Melbourne United, the New Zealand Breakers, the Perth Wildcats, and the Sydney Kings. I do remember a few years ago when the New Zealand Breakers were league champions. I know of the Adelaide 36ers when I saw a video of a hard foul a player named Brad Hill suffered that had him with a broken arm by former NBL team, the Townsville Crocodiles. So I am somewhat familiar with some of the teams.

To learn more about the NBL, visit http://www.nbl.com.au . If the WNBL interests you, visit http://wnbl.com.au/ for your women's hoops fix. GTPlanet now has an Australian basketball thread with NBL (and maybe WNBL) discussion. An American offering some Australian basketball discussion. You're welcome.


[UPDATE] Accidentally misspelled "Spacegoat." I'm sorry, mate! Also misspelled "Illawarra."
 
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Cheers @JohnBM01. The NBL is gearing up to be a very exciting season this year and has been on the rise recently. The Brisbane Bullets are my hometown team and this is their first season back in the league after the previous owner went bankrupt nearly 10yrs ago. Surprisingly they've built a pretty good team for their first season back, including bringing in Cam Bairstow after the NBA dropped him.
The NBL has been attracting much more talented players of late, including the occasional ex-NBA player like Josh Childress and Hakim Warrick. Top-flight local talent is also returning from Europe to play in Australia which is great to see, guys like David Andersen and Brad Newley are back with Melbourne and Sydney respectively. I personally plan on attending as many Brisbane home games as I can, including the pre-season tournament which will be held here this year again. I'm not sure if @Spacegoat and @Stavingo follow the NBL at all, it'd be good to hear from you guys if you do.
 
Paulie
I'm not sure if @Spacegoat and @Stavingo follow the NBL at all, it'd be good to hear from you guys if you do.
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Yeah, on and off. Definitely going to try to keep more of an eye on it this year, with guys Bairstow and Anderson in the league. (I assume the deal with Fox Sports is still in place?)

Oh and Sydney Kings btw.
JohnBM01
Accidentally misspelled "Spacegoat." I'm sorry, mate!
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Don't worry about it. It happens quite often. :lol:
 
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Yeah. I realized initially I spelled "Scapegoat" and not "Spacegoat." I still apologize for that.

But I started this thread to maybe get some Australian basketball perspective. Our own Paulie will gladly give you what I jokingly call his "Aussie Report" whenever it comes to Australians playing here in the United States whether in college or the NBA. I made sure even to see if I didn't start a similar thread previously. Something I always like to do is to try to offer as much content as possible because I love to try to offer more content and threads because if there is a place I love with people whom I equally love being around, I want to do everything possible to keep things buzzing. I want to try to contribute as a functioning member. I am therefore pleased to try to offer this discussion of NBL basketball. I had to note the NBL of Australia as opposed to the former National Basketball League here in America WAY back in the 1940s or so.

Besides that bit of thoughtful preaching, I learned the 2016-2017 season begins October 6 with a game between the Brisbane Bullets and the Perth Wildcats. The final scheduled game of the regular season (I'm assuming) is on February 5, 2017 with a match between the Cairns Taipans vs. the Perth Wildcats. The NBL's website has schedules for the season as well as for the individual teams.
 
Stavingo
Hey I try and keep tabs on NBL every now and then but I'm sorta stuck between choosing a team to follow :lol:
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Would've thought you'd go for Sydney, come and be a Bullets fan.:P

Spacegoat
Yeah, on and off. Definitely going to try to keep more of an eye on it this year, with guys Bairstow and Anderson in the league. (I assume the deal with Fox Sports is still in place?)

Oh and Sydney Kings btw.


Don't worry about it. It happens quite often. :lol:
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Yeah the Fox deal is still on, all games are broadcast on Fox. I don't have it though, I'll likely be making do with what ever comes to free to air.
 
Paulie
Would've thought you'd go for Sydney, come and be a Bullets fan.:P
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Haha maybe, like I'd go for Sydney but not keen on the name or colour scheme :lol:

To be honest I'm leaning towards going for the Hawks since I go towards Wollongong more than Sydney CBD.
 
It isn't much, but let me offer a little sample of NBL basketball with some videos. This is to give people a little insight on the NBL for people who maybe have no idea what the league is about.

This game here involves the 2008 match between the Brisbane Bullets at the Gold Coast Blaze. I looked up the Brisbane Bullets in support of my good mate Paulie. The video is only provided for educational purposes...


Now for something more recent. This is a game between the Illawarra Hawks at the Sydney Kings:


I found out I misspelled "Illawarra." So I edited the opening post to reflect this change. Now you all have a little video insight on the NBL.
 
I've been at the NBL preseason tournament in Brisbane this weekend, today had a really good game between the Bullets and the Sydney Kings. Sydney were up early 27-10 but Brisbane fought back in to it with a lot of help from Tom Jervis and took the W. It was a great test for the team, who were missing star platers Bairstow and Craig. I believe there is a way to watch it for free online somehow, through the NBL site or something? I'll be heading down again Monday to see the last Bullets game before the regular season opener on Oct. 6th.
 
So in the NBL, is it more a mix of young talent and some ex-NBA players? Do you have people who go from High School to play in the NBL? What is the depth of talent like in the NBL?
 
JohnBM01
So in the NBL, is it more a mix of young talent and some ex-NBA players? Do you have people who go from High School to play in the NBL? What is the depth of talent like in the NBL?
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The talent is there for sure. Aside from a couple of the Aussie players (David Andersen, Cameron Bairstow, Nathan Jawai), I don't think there are any ex-NBA players this season, though in recent times we've had guys like Josh Childress and Hakim Warrick. There are a good number of fringe-NBA players, such as Chris Goulding. We happen to have a McDonalds All-American this year, Terrance Ferguson, who chose to come here instead of college. In the NBL there is a 3 import rule, so you can't have any more than 3 players from overseas (Aussies, Kiwis and some of the surrounding island nations are classed as locals).

No doubt, most of the NBL teams could probably beat more than half of the Euroleague teams, and to put it in perspective, some CBA (Chinese) teams came to play in our preseason tournament this weekend and they seem to be losing by an average of 50 or so. One game blew out to a 70pt deficit.
 
My Bullets opened up with a big win over the reigning champs Perth last night, Beal and Craig both came up big but all the guys had their moments. It was a nice comeback after being down 10 at the half. And yeah, I was there in the crowd.:) Got a free shirt out of it too.:cheers:



Edit: Bullets won another tight one vs the Kings today, 2-0!!
 
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I figured I'd offer a little standings update just to keep this thread buzzing. Here's how things are looking down in the NBL...

* Sydney Kings (9-6, 15 pts.)
* Brisbane Bullets (7-6, 13 pts.)
* Illawarra Hawks (7-7, 14 pts.)
* Cairns Taipans and Adelaide 36ers (6-6, 12 pts. each)
* Melbourne United (6-7, 13 pts.)
* Perth Wildcats (6-7, 13 pts.)
* New Zealand Breakers (6-8, 14 pts.)

I guess this is good for Australians that all the Aussie teams are better than the lone New Zealand team. Anyhow, that's how the NBL standings look right now.
 
Such a close season, last place has only won one less game than 2nd place.
 
How is Steve Blake going so far? I remember seeing ads plastered with him from the Kings awhile back, maybe bring some exposure 1v1ing someone mid match :lol:
 
Stavingo
How is Steve Blake going so far? I remember seeing ads plastered with him from the Kings awhile back, maybe bring some exposure 1v1ing someone mid match :lol:
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He went back to USA a few weeks back citing personal reasons.
 
Well now Bairstow has done his ACL, so bad to see it happen to anyone much less the Bullets' franchise player.:(
 
I decided to bring back this thread for some Australian basketball discussion from the premier basketball league in Australia. As of December 13, 2017; here is the better half of the eight-team NBL field:

* Perth (10-3), New Zealand (10-4), Melbourne and Adelaide (7-6 each)

And here is the bottom half of the NBL field:

* Cairns (7-7), Illawarra and Brisbane (5-8 each), Sydney (3-12)

And there you go.
 

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