Basketball in Australia

Scores and results for basketball leagues in Australia

All Leagues - Last 10 Days

Top 5 performances from basketball players

AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺

Country: Australia
Location: Oceania
Demography: 26M citizens (2021)
Spoken language: English
Largest cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide

How is basketball developing in Australia?

Australian basketball, with its major league, the National Basketball League (NBL), and its national team, is growing in the eyes of the world. And this, thanks to an extreme flexibility and a growing desire to become a land of welcome for some basketball players, without being able to count on an insane economic power, unlike China for example.

Indeed, more and more NBA players, who want to get back on track, are joining Australia and the NBL, especially because Australia is an English-speaking country and this is a detail that counts. Australia is becoming more and more recognized as a basketball country. So much so that young players are settling there more and more easily, with the ambition to join the NBA later on. Since two of the most expected American rookies of the 2020 Draft, R.J. Hampton and Lamelo Ball, surprised everyone by heading to the Australian league before being drafted, Australia has become a real alternative to the NCAA for young players who want to prepare for the Draft while earning money.

Former NBA players, young prospects... All this attracts the media and investors, in an increasingly virtuous spiral that contributes to the improvement and recognition of basketball in Australia.

What about the Australian national team?

The Australian national basketball team, which is under the umbrella of the Australian Basketball Federation, also known as "Basketball Australia", entered the world basketball stage at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Currently ranked third in the FIBA rankings, Australia won its first-ever Olympic medal at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. Eliminated by the United States in the semifinals, they beat Slovenia to win the bronze medal.

This selection of Australia's best basketball players, nicknamed the "Boomers", has also won the Oceania Championship 18 times.

Who are the most famous Australian players?

Some of the Australian national team players play or have played in the NBA, including Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Matthew Dellavedova and Dante Exum. But the most famous player must surely be Ben Simmons, who became the first Australian drafted first overall in NBA history in 2016.