Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

is a sport played both indoors and outdoors in Australia. Basketball is the number two sport globally with over 200 countries participating and over 450 million players. According to research by Sweeney Sports, one in three Australians has an interest in basketball. Furthermore, basketball is played by approximately one million men, women, boys, and girls throughout Australia. According to

Basketball Australia Basketball Australia is the governing and controlling body of basketball in Australia, responsible for the development and promotion of the sport at all levels. Basketball Australia sanctions Australia's two professional leagues, the Nation ...

, as of March 2014, basketball is the second highest team participation sport in Australia. Basketball in Australia experienced a golden age in the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, during which the National Basketball League saw its halcyon days. However, its popularity, media attention, attendance, and corporate support deteriorated during the 2000s. Despite this, figures released by the Australian Sports Commission's Exercise, Recreation and Sport Survey in 2010 showed that basketball was the most popular sport played in the state of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

History

The first press reference to a game of basketball in Australia is from ''

The Adelaide Advertiser ''The Advertiser'' is a daily tabloid format newspaper based in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. First published as a broadsheet named ''The South Australian Advertiser'' on 12 July 1858,Our Boys Institute Our Boys Institute (OBI) was a junior branch of YMCA. Opened in 1896, the club was housed in a purpose-built premises at 221 Wakefield Street, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The Our Boys Institute included lecture and games rooms, indoor ...

, said to be the largest gymnasium in the colonies, OBI would play YMCA in the first exhibition of basketball in South Australia. There is no evidence of any game being played earlier elsewhere, thus the first game of basketball was played in Australia on Tuesday 23 February 1897. The game occurred six years after the invention of the sport on 21 December 1891 by Canadian

James Naismith James Naismith (; November 6, 1861November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote ...

, a physical education professor and instructor at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School (YMCA) in Springfield, Massachusetts. OBI and the YMCA continued to be at the forefront of the development of Adelaide basketball. More than 120 years later, basketball is one of the most popular participation sports in the country.

National League

The National Basketball League ( NBL), which began in 1979, is the top-level men's basketball competition in Australia. The sport experienced rapid growth in the 1980s with the influx of American players. National competition became popular in the major cities. By the late 1990s, basketball in Australia went into sharp decline. According to

Adelaide 36ers The Adelaide 36ers, also known as the Sixers, are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL). The 36ers are the only team in the league representing the state of South Australia and are based in th ...

championship coach Phil Smyth, Australian basketball administrators rested on their laurels during the 1990s. "They let the brand get damaged," Smyth said. "It's that old saying 'if you keep doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result, you're a fool — and basketball was foolish." During the 2000s, interest in the NBL dwindled, with many teams folding, audience attendance fluctuating, and the league's TV presence inconsistent. In 2015, a record number of Australians playing in the NBA led to a renewed popularity in the sport and showed Australians still loved basketball but were unsure about the national version.

National teams

The Boomers are the men's basketball team which represents Australia in international competitions. As of 2022, the Boomers have won 19

FIBA Oceania Championship FIBA Oceania Championship was the Oceania basketball championships that took place every two years between national teams of the continent. Through the 2015 edition, the Oceania Championship was also a qualifying tournament for the Basketball ...

s (no longer contested), one FIBA Asia Cup, one

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

Gold Medal in 2006 and one Bronze Medal at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

Tokyo 2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, But not

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. Until winning the Bronze in Tokyo, their best finish being fourth place at the Olympics in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

, 1996,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, and fourth at the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

World Cup. The women's national team is the Opals. They have won Olympic silver in

, 2004 and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, Olympic bronze in 1996 and

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

, as well as gold at the

2006 FIBA World Championship The 2006 FIBA World Championship was the 15th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. The tournament was hosted by Japan and held from 19 August to 3 September 2006. It was co-organised by ...

and bronze at the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, 2002 and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

World Cups.

League system

;Men ;Women

References

External links