‘Knew them before they were cool’: The NBL has a chance to go mainstream in the US
By Roy Ward
As the NBA prepares to welcome French centre Victor Wembanyama at its draft on Friday, Australia’s NBL has high hopes its Next Stars program will help boost its US audience.
Wembanyama is a 223-centimetre big man with a 238cm wingspan that has had NBA teams following him for several years. The San Antonio Spurs won the NBA Draft lottery and have the first pick on Friday; Wembanyama’s selection is seen as the most certain No.1 since LeBron James to Cleveland in 2003.
Victor Wembanyama is expected to go an No.1 in the NBA draft.Credit: AP
While Wembanyama has the headlines, the NBL hopes to have current Next Star Rayan Rupert selected in the first round on Friday, which would give the league four consecutive years of first-round picks. The run began with now Charlotte All-Star LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton in 2020, Josh Giddey in 2021 and Ousmane Dieng last year.
Ball and Giddey are the two poster boys for Next Stars, the program that has made the NBL an appealing destination for young guns needing to impress NBA scouts.
The NBL has five Next Stars coming in the league next season, and could still add a sixth. There are hopes the league could have its highest number of players taken in one draft in 2024.
Those young stars, led by US teenager AJ Johnson, Swedish forward Bobi Klintman and German big man Ariel Hukporti, are also pushing the NBL into new broadcast markets. NBL Commissioner Jeremy Loeliger wants to “double down” on finding a mainstream platform in North America to show their prospective NBA talent.
The NBL hopes Rayan Rupert will be picked in the first round.Credit: AP
The NBL has made big strides with its TV product after taking charge of the production of live games and has grown its local viewership, but still battles to gain larger domestic audiences during summer. Despite that, Loeliger is bullish about the chances of expanding the Australian broadcast product in the US.
“The easiest way to sort of encapsulate it is in discussions that we have about broadcast opportunities, in the US in particular, is the focus of those discussions is on the Next Stars,” Loeliger told this masthead.
“It’s on the Next Stars because of the quality of the rest of the competition, they want to see is how these young kids compare to genuine pros playing at the highest level of the game.
“Everyone wants to be able to say they knew that rock band before they were cool. This is exactly the same thing.”
The NBL was shown in just under 40 countries last season including parts of Asia and Europe but Loeliger wants to find a bigger US audience.
“The intention is that we really double down our efforts in the North American market over the coming years and we want to be on a mainstream platform over there,” Loeliger said.
Johnson is a 198-centimetre guard who was planning to play for the University of Texas before changing course and heading to the Illawarra Hawks while Klintman is a Swedish 208cm sharp-shooting forward who will join the Cairns Taipans.
Hukporti made a huge leap with Melbourne United in 2021-22 before rupturing his Achilles tendon last pre-season. He has come back bigger and stronger with his explosiveness and athleticism impressing scouts from a number of NBA teams.
Alexandre Sarr (France, Perth Wildcats) and Mantas Rubstavicius (Lithuania, New Zealand Breakers) round out this year’s Next Stars and both have legitimate NBA aspirations as well.
Melbourne United forward Luke Travers (drafted by Cleveland in 2022), Taran Armstrong (Cairns) and David Okwera (Perth Wildcats) are among other young players pushing for NBA call-ups either via the draft or other methods.
They aim to follow the lead of recent NBA championship winner with the Denver Nuggets Jack White, who earned an NBA call-up from Melbourne United last season, and Jock Landale, who was signed to the NBA from NBL the season before that. Landale starred in the recent NBA play-offs with Phoenix.
Loeliger is confident a record number of NBL players could be drafted in 2024 – although those players could opt to stay in the league for a second season if they need more time to develop.
“I’m confident we are building towards that because of the combination of Next Stars and the other young players being picked up by clubs independent of the Next Stars program,” Loeliger said.
”I don’t want to say that the penny has dropped but they are sort of doubling down of our efforts which is great – we wanted to incentivise this mentality of finding flourishing young prospects and nurturing them.
“It’s one of the things that sets us apart from other pro leagues around the world – these young players are getting a real chance to show how talented they are.
“But it’s a double-edged sword as we lose them to the NBA but we know we are not losing them, we are launching them.”
Rupert, a French swingman who spent the past season with the New Zealand Breakers, played an important role as they progressed to the grand final series before losing to the Sydney Kings.
Rupert, the son of former French captain Thierry Rupert and brother of current French women’s star Illana Rupert, has been invited to the green room at the draft but remains on the fringe between the late first round and second round, although it’s hoped he won’t go past the Indiana Pacers at pick 26.
Australian guard Mojave King, a former Next Stars player, is also in the draft and is projected as a possible second-round pick after playing with the NBA’s G-League Ignite team this past season.
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