The early to mid 90's was a golden period for basketball in Australia. National Basketball League (NBL) games were shown on free to air TV in prime time, the crowds were big, and kids were hitting the basketball court rather than the football oval. Andrew Gaze and Lanard Copeland were at their peak, and most kids could quote Michael Jordan's season stats off by heart.

Something happened in the late 90's/early 00's though. Basketball in Australia lost it's way.

Why? I'm not really sure, there were probably a number of factors that contributed. Channel Ten stopped covering NBL games in 1997, and around the same time the competition was shifted to its current summer season style format (running from October - April). Apparently the shift was to avoid direct competition from the variety of football codes played throughout the Australian winter.

Once prime time TV coverage disappeared, so to did the corporate support. When Mitsubishi Motors dropped out in the early 00's, the NBL really started to turn pear shaped, with a number of previously well supported teams folding including the Canberra Cannons and more recently the Brisbane Bullets and Sydney Kings.

For a guy that only has access to analogue free-to-air TV I could be forgiven for thinking that basketball has ceased to exist. In terms of basketball I'm still stuck in the 90's, with Andrew Gaze, Lanard Copeland, Shane Heal, Robert Rose, Scott Fisher, Andrew Vlahov and Derek Rucker. If it wasn't for NBA2K8 on the Xbox 360, I'd have no idea who was playing for who in the NBA. If it weren't for video games, I might still think that Shawn Kemp, Reggie Miller, Larry Johnson, Penny Hardaway, David Robinson, Chris Mullins and Latrell Sprewell were all still running around.

Where's this little nostalgia trip heading? Well the NBA are fresh off their All-Star weekend, and All-Star weekend means slam dunk competition. Here are some highlights, including the winning dunk from New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson. According to fountain of knowledge Wikipedia, Robinson is 5 foot 9 inches and has a vertical leap of 43.5 inches (110cm), which probably explains how he is able to literally dunk over the top of Dwight Howard who's listed as 6 feet 11 inches.

Robinson's dunk brings back memories of Vince Carter in the 2000 Sydney Olympics game against France, in which the Frence media later described Carter as delivering "le dunk de la mort" (or "the Dunk of Death" for the non-French speakers).

Tanktop Singlet Jersey Shirt Adult S Vintage Retro NBA NCAA Orange basketball

0 Bid

US $5.00

5d 10h 21m