“When I was here previously, for us to get international competition we would have to pay $100,000 then get on a plane and fly 20 hours and play eight games in a row and come back.
“The NBA has allowed international competition into the training environment. The Aussie kids get to play against athletes from Africa, shooters from Asia and the tough, gritty guys from South America and do it on a daily basis.”
The NBA has also opened academies in Africa, India and Latin America.
While Giddey, Daniels and Latin American academy graduate Bennedict Mathurin have made it to the NBA, the academies weren’t set up to create NBA players but rather lay the groundwork for teenage talents to develop elite training habits.
The NBA’s head of elite basketball Chris Ebersole was in Canberra to look over the NBA Basketball Without Borders Asia camp at the AIS last week and as the man who oversees these academies, he was quick to add that the league’s top executives were noticing the impact of the program.
NBA head of elite basketball Chris Ebersole.Credit:NBA Basketball Without Borders Asia camp
“Most of the players are not going to make it to the NBA, at least not right away,” Ebersole said.
“We have now sent over 80 players from the academies to division one college basketball and have others playing around the world.
“We just had the first male player in the history of Indian basketball commit to a division one school, these other milestones don’t get as much publicity as someone getting drafted but are massive steps forward for us in other regions. We have just signed our fourth player with the NBA’s G-League Ignite team.
“If you look at the three players we’ve drafted, they all got to the NBA via different routes. Mathurin went from the Latin American academy to college basketball, Giddey signed with the NBL Next Stars program and Daniels signed with Ignite.
“No matter where a kid is born, if they have that talent and desire, we want to make sure there isn’t a gap for them to slip through.”
Ebersole also said the NBA was working to strengthen its programs and wanted to improve the opportunities for female players.
Forward Akira Jacobs, 18, won the sportsmanship award at last week’s camp and he aspires to join the academy program.
The 200-centimeter forward has a Japanese and African-American background, with COVID-19 seeing his family move back to Japan from California last year.
“In America, I was going nowhere and wasn’t playing at a high level,” Jacobs said.
“Honestly, I wasn’t working hard enough on my body. During COVID, I wanted to flip that around and I ended up with some opportunities and have performed well.”
Japan’s Akira Jacobs.Credit:NBA Basketball Without Borders Asia camp
Clarke said the academy’s aim was to prepare players so they trained as professionals and managed themselves on and off the court.
“We were sitting with our players on draft day and reminding them [of] our two-year plan for Dyson Daniels, he was meant to still be sitting with them but he was 12 months ahead of schedule,” Clarke said.
“Giddey was similar and now Tyrese is on the same path. The similarities are that they learned how to be pros, learned to work hard and learned how to learn.
“There are things like talent, background that we can’t take any credit for. But we teach them how to look after themselves and take responsibility for their own careers and not leave it to agents or parents – that was the same for guys like Patty or Delly.”
Wollongong guard Josh Dent, 16, is one of the players in the NBA academy team and was named in the best 10 players at last week’s camp.
The point guard knows he is a few years away from being able to enter the draft, but Giddey, Daniels and others have shown that the big league isn’t out of reach.
“You try not to think about but having those guys like Josh and Dyson who have been here helps build a pathway and allows you to mold your game and know that the hard work will pay off,” Dent said.
Roy Ward traveled to the NBA Basketball Without Borders Asia camp courtesy of the NBA.