Some might think that basketball is a bit incongruous to Australian sport. After all, sports we traditionally enjoy like AFL, cricket and rugby were either invented by us or brought here from the United Kingdom. So, how does an American sport fit into our illustrious sporting pedigree? And why is Australia one of the most continuously successful teams in world basketball?
There are many reasons why we Aussies love ball and why we play it from our youth into adulthood – let’s take a look at them below:
1.We have awesome leagues
Australia has awesome ball leagues stemming from juniors to seniors and the awesome NBL. Yes, thousands of athletes across the country take to the court each week to out-dribble, pass and shoot their opposition on the way to being the best on court.
What’s more, thousands of keen ballers attend games in our highest competition each week. Whether you don the Melbourne United, Perth Wildcats or official Sydney Kings basketball gear, you are in for a fun time out at the NBL!
2.We’re good at it
Australia has produced some of the game’s best players and this is especially true of the modern era. From Andrew Bogut to Lauren Jackson, Patty Mills to Penny Taylor, our players have taken their skills and drive to the world stage and earned countless accolades in the process.
The knowledge of our myriad champions isn’t lost on our youngsters, either, with thousands of talented kids playing ball across the country. We start out playing for teams with names like the Sharks and Sabres before moving our way onto massive stages!
3.We’re made for sport
Australia is a sporting nation, period. We love our sport, we’re good at sport, we’re outrageous overachievers in sport. For a country with a population of just 26 million (and that’s in 2024) we win the respect of bigger nations across myriad sporting events.
If we’re not the most overachieving nation at the Olympics we’re earning underdog victories in the FIFA World Cup. What’s more, we are the most successful cricketing nation in the game’s history, not to mention our love for our home grown sport of AFL.
Naturally, basketball was never going to escape the Aussie love for sport. We took it like Shaq to a slam dunk, forging our history as one of the world arena’s greatest competitors. We constantly take it to the opposition in the Olympics and have earned a reputation as one of the top balling nations outside of the States.
4.We’re a competitive bunch
Following on from that last point – we Aussies love to win. Well, at least one thing’s for certain, we don’t like to lose, and we take that love of competition to all kinds of sporting events across the world. Our passion for a little healthy competition is what partly makes us such a great balling nation, too, as we routinely step up to the competition in the world’s biggest competitions.
5.It’s just a fun pastime
And who doesn’t love a fun sporting pastime? Naturally, this is one that we Aussies can easily get around. It’s fun, it’s social and it’s good for our health, so this is certainly something that we like to invest our time in. What’s more, there is a lot of opportunity for Aussies to take their game to the next level and even represent their country on the biggest stage – what avid baller doesn’t want that?