Fleer's Luc Longley NBA card from 1995 was the sort of stock I'd typically ride into the summer, even if the Chicago Bulls didn't win the title the ensuing campaign.
Consider his numbers, after all: 9.1 points per game, 5.1 rebounds, 1.4 blocks.
Alright then, screw the numbers.
Longley was the first Australian to reach the NBA, okay. That's a commodity where I come from.
You have to understand, outside of our Hollywood hunks, Ugg boots, and Oprah hugging a koala, Australia doesn't really rate in the U.S. Oh sure, you love our accents and reckless bravado in the face of deadly snakes, but we haven't truly won your attention, have we?
Yes, I know, when Chris Hemsworth takes his shirt off, or Mel Gibson is arrested after too many spritzers, then you're all over us like Steve Irwin on an antsy croc. The point is, Australia’s true value, at least in a global sense, has long been its rarity.
So I say it's time for America to forget our omnipresent movie stars - including the ones who are kind of ours, but not, like Maximus Crowe - because Australia's top basketball prospects, both those imported from and exported to the United States, are suddenly racing up the charts.
You’ve heard about some of them, but not all, so grab a cold one (and not Fosters!) as I talk you through it.
Have sneakers and sunblock, will travel
Firstly, we have players destined for a future in the NBA, a league in which only a handful of Aussies have played and perhaps just a portion have truly excelled. Andrew Bogut, currently with the Golden State Warriors, is certainly laying claim to being our best ever export to the league.
Now comes the new shipment. These players aren’t simply giants with low-post potential, as is commonly the case, or human pogo sticks who imitate Nintendo's NBA Jam –which, let’ face it, many base an entire career on - but genuine all-rounders who have NBA scouts and basketball writers alike giddy.
That's right. Boomshakalakaaaaaa!
The most highly touted of these prospects might be Dante Exum and Ben Simmons, both from Melbourne and groomed by the Australian Institute of Sport in the nation's capital, Canberra. Nobody really knows what happens inside those walls, outside of the people that go there. It’s some kind of futuristic sporting lab as far as I know. Listen, in lieu of an American-style college system, we have The Institute.
Anyway, the duo’s timing couldn’t be better because basketball culture Down Under is quietly stirring, from kids copying Andrew Gaze by hurling rubber Spaldings at rickety backyard hoops, to something much bigger and somewhat easier for nine-year old arms to manage.
And it's all happening at once. Following Bogut’s strong season with the Warriors, the signing of NBA draft pick James Ennis to the Perth Wildcats, the 76ers recent hiring of former Australian Boomers coach Brett Brown, and the success of Jonny Flynn in the National Basketball League (NBL) last season, Australian basketball is enjoying rave reviews.
Simmons isn’t yet drawing the bold headlines of Exum, though he’s younger at 17 and may end up playing college ball first anyway. For now he's a pulsating blip on the pro sports radar.
A recent CBSSports.com article went as far to suggest that if Simmons was at an American high school, he would be the country's top talent in the 2015 class.
Of course, his Aussie high school coach Kevin Goorjian has known of Simmons’ ability for some time, once telling a local newspaper that the teenager was more athletic than any player he’s come across, including one-time high flying Australian Boomer, Sam Mackinnon. Mackinnon dunked the ball as well as any Aussie international ever did. In fact, as well as any white man in the country ever did.
Simmons followers certainly like his athleticism and ability to finish. His repertoire is expanding too, as fans saw during his recent showing with the Boomers. In short, he's a good passer and will look for the open man, has quick hands and soft jumper, and at six-foot-eight might play a number of positions as a professional.
As you know, Exum is bounding up NBA draft boards. On the proviso that he's skipping college, ESPN’s prospects guru Chad Ford placed him at No.3 on his mid-year list and the idea went viral. “Who is this kid?” pundits wondered while tapping his name into YouTube.
Like Simmons, there's no reason at six-foot-seven that Exum can't assume a dynamic point forward type role. His versatility is so stunning that most people in basketball circles are no longer asking who he is, but rather, “Where’s he going next?, and, “Isn’t that the coolest name for a baller ever?”
Prime cargo coming in
Australian imports is also a sound business to be in. Specifically, a number of new recruits to the NBL are making it feel like the nineties all over again, when the likes of Cecil Exum and Dave Simmons - the respective fathers of Dante and Ben - held court.
If you’re an avid fan of the college game, you probably know a number of the recently signed names such as Jermaine Beal of Vanderbilt, Jesse Sanders of Liberty University in Virginia, Charles Carmouche, who played his senior year at Louisiana State, Durrell Summers of Michigan State, Ennis who went to California State, and Demetri McCamey of the University of Illinois, to name a few.
Ennis is the standout and his inking was a genuine coup for our league, which is seeking the mass appeal it enjoyed 20 years ago. The 50th pick in the recent NBA draft stepped off the plane in Perth and onto a proverbial red carpet, before being excused for having little knowledge of Australian basketball. To be fair, he played his college hoops at Long Beach, which is separated from Australia's west coast by not only the Pacific Ocean and most of the Australian desert, but a distinct lack of cable feeds from the NBL.
Still, despite being a world away from home, the six-seven swingman was undoubtedly reassured that he’d joined one the country’s best sports clubs, the Perth Wildcats, a perennial playoff contender with five championship trophies atop the mantle. You may have heard of the Wildcats via former Chicago Bull, Perth native, and the aforementioned trading card gem, Longley, who owned the team for a short stint after his NBA career.
Hey, most NBL fans would concede that if you’re going to join the league from afar, you could do worse than the 'Cats, a highly professional outfit that’s well coached, and conveniently located on the country’s sunny western shore, amid a relaxed lifestyle, a rich mining-based economy, and burgeoning food scene, no less.
This all must look favorable to a young Californian with the world at his feet, because here before him is an chance to settle into a friendly town with an easy-going pace and catapult its basketball team to the heights of local footballing heroes like the West Coast Eagles.
Igniting a new era
Scoff if you will, but Ennis’ arrival to Australia - as Flynn’s was last season - is indeed meaningful. The NBL has longed for an injection of fresh talent after over-expansion and poor marketing in the early 2000s reduced the league’s impact to a Kenny Bania punchline. Prior to this slump, the competition was a sizzling ticket, pulling big crowds, solid TV coverage and even a sprinkling of celebrities court-side.
Basketball Australia, the game’s governing body in the country, seems to have righted the ship now though, in part by de-merging from the league so that it can make its own decisions using people closer to the ground. Better ties to community events and grassroots initiatives have helped, as has the league’s social media campaign.
But there’s still work to be done, and much of that you might be stunned to hear begins with players like Ennis. At his first press conference for the ‘Cats, he said politely that he felt the NBL was the ideal place to develop on and off the court. Hopefully he realizes he’s also here to further the league's development. The sport’s headlines will surely be impacted by how often players like Ennis rocket to the goal and rattle the rim. He’s already off to a flying start.
This all might sound an odd assignment to the uninitiated, but this is how basketball works in a nation of just 23 million people preoccupied with rugby, cricket, barbecues and good beer. It's a cluttered sporting market with few windows for growth, so if you're a smaller entity, you seize upon what you can. As a business, Aussie basketball is like an undersized forward fighting for low-post position: With a few clever exchanges and some a decent tread beneath its feet, success might be within reach.
Meanwhile, the Heat are keeping Ennis within their grasp, allowing him to play in Perth on a loan basis only, and retaining the rights to call him back should they need him. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement for both Perth and Miami in the end, bolstering the ‘Cats with a star attraction and offering the Heat a chance to further assess the 23-year old.
*Note: Dante Exum was drafted by the Utah Jazz in June, soon after this piece was written.
**James Ennis was on loan to the NBL for one season and has since returned to the Miami Heat. The NBL continues to sign NBA prospects from the NBA D-League and college system.
Jean-Paul Pelosi is a journalist and blogger from Sydney.