A whole new future for basketball

MELBOURNE (The View from Downunder) - I am sure most readers would agree that the best thing about the basketball is its unpredictability. The biggest leads can be conquered in what seems like the blink of an eye, a dagger three pointer can be answered in milliseconds at the other end, and a steal can become a turnover before you even have time to cheer.

And of course, this unpredictability means spectators are often kept on the edge of their seats until the final shot has been taken. What makes basketball even more exciting is that games at the elite World Championships and Olympic level are now often as hard to predict as this weekend's lotto numbers.

Between 15 and 20 national teams are currently at a level where they could challenge for a top eight position at any given tournament. With this even spread of talent, a smorgasbord of close games, like at the recent Eurobasket in Spain and the Athens Olympics, may well become the norm in FIBA competitions.

And as more and more players from different professional leagues enjoy success internationally, the previously held belief that basketball is made up of the NBA, and then the rest, is slowly dying.

Players like Theo Papaloukas, Ramunas Siskauskas, Sam Mackinnon, Pero Cameron, Marcelo Machado and many more, who will probably never sign an NBA contract, have often been the dominant players on court in an international game.

Indeed, the past four international silver medals have been won by teams without an NBA player on their roster.

I think the key to players from other leagues being able to compete with NBA athletes has been the establishment of continental leagues in Europe and Oceania. Regularly going head-to-head with players of international standard means bringing your A-game every night, and with that comes inevitable improvement.

The results from this pre-season's tournaments demonstrate this irrefutably.

The NBA Europe live games were amazing to watch. Teams, playing different styles of basketball, probing at each others weaknesses to find a way to achieve that magical feat - putting the ball in the hole. The games ebbed and flowed at such a pace that I forgot it was NBA vs Euroleague and just enjoyed watching a pure basketball contest.

And while you cannot realistically use practice games to determine which team - or league - is better, the point to take note of is that every game was close and hard fought, suggesting all of these teams could beat each other on any given night.

And the story was the same at the CBA-Euroleague Challenge in Kunshan, China. Benetton Tamoil from Italy went down to the Chinese national team by 3 and the Sydney Kings from Oceania's NBL by 7. The winner of the tournament was powerhouse CSKA Moscow who, after defeating the LA Clippers by 19 points last pre-season, overcame Sydney by 9 and Team China by half a dozen.

The NBL's Brisbane Bullets also defeated the Chinese by 6 this off-season, and for me, it is CSKA and the Bullets that sum up the exciting direction club basketball is taking.

CSKA Moscow have eight internationals born in six different countries, the Bullets have five born in four. Brisbane's top scorer against China was New Zealander Craig Bradshaw, who torched Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi for 31 points. In the final quarter it was Nigerian star Ebi Ere and Aussie point guard CJ Bruton that carried the Bullets home.

In Unicaja's 3 point win over Memphis, among the Spanish outfit's best players were Danny Santiago from Puerto Rico, Boniface N'Dong from Senegal, and Marcus Haislip from the USA, while the Americans were paced by Juan Carlos Navarro and Pau Gasol from Spain!

How exciting is this? The best players from so many different countries, taking on each other nightly in competitions right around the globe - something only seen every two years until now.

More importantly, the prospect of club sides from four or five different continents competing against each other on a level playing field opens up possibilities no other sport can genuinely match.

Russia and Efes Pilson coach David Platt described this as "a whole new future for worldwide basketball". The question now is how to show this incredible new world off to new audiences.

Perhaps next pre-season while CSKA Moscow, San Antonio, Toronto, Panathinaikos and co. battle it out in NBA Europe Live - Brisbane, Team China, Unicaja and the Los Angeles Lakers could play their own tournament in Hong Kong.

And why shouldn't Andrew Bogut bring his Milwaukee Bucks to Australia to face Melbourne, Sydney and Real Madrid, while at the same time Phoenix, Cleveland and Milano take on Alex Garcia and Universo Brasilia in Rio de Janeiro?

It's just a thought, but I am tempted to book my tickets already! Why should the folks in Europe and China have all the fun?!

So what do you think? Would you pay good money to see a tournament featuring NBA, Euroleague, NBL and other teams? Which clubs from around the world would you like to see playing in your home town? And is the NBA still head and shoulders above the rest? Or is it now just the best of a number of very good leagues?

Until next time….

Paulo Kennedy