Otago might be a small player in the basketball world, but it is getting in on the sport’s boom.
Locally it has had its financial difficulties of late, but from a playing perspective it is thriving. Across all its competitions Basketball Otago has 435 teams, with a player base of about 3500. It is in the secondary schools and social leagues that numbers are the strongest, with 145 and 108 teams respectively. Meanwhile, miniball has 123 teams between the primary and intermediate competitions, men’s club has 29, women’s club has 14 and the new year 1 and 2 school league has 19.
That is a boost on five years ago, as Otago has capitalised on the continuing global rise of the sport.
"Miniball has stayed about the same but secondary schools, when I first started in 2011, was at about 96," Basketball Otago competitions manager Greg Brockbank said.
"Men’s club has gone from 23 to 29, which is a reasonable increase, and the women’s club only had eight teams. We got 16 one year, so it peaked a couple of years ago."
Brockbank said there were several reasons for that rise, all contributing to the sport having become more visible in New Zealand.
"The Breakers were really successful around the time I started, so I guess that’s probably helped. I also think recently Steve Adams has lifted the NBA profile in New Zealand.
"Even things like on ESPN, you used to get one game a week, or maybe two; now you’ve got six or seven. So the whole sport’s a lot more visual now."
The NBA side of it had a big impact, as its growing fan base attracted more people to give the sport a go, particularly at school level.
"The social side of our school basketball is massive. A lot of people play basketball as their second sport, almost. There’s plenty of competitive ballers, but we go out there and we see B, C and D grade and that’s where 70% of our players are.
"You look at them and some of them don’t have uniforms; they’re all just wearing the same colours, like NBA jerseys. You just see all the NBA influence: they’re wearing the [Stephen] Curry shoes or the LeBrons. It’s so commercial, the sport and the NBA, that the kids in the social side of the sport love it.
"I think basketball’s strength is that it’s a great social sport, it’s a great pick up game. That’s kind of where BBNZ and Fiba’s gone down the whole road of 3x3, because they realise the power of the pick up game.
"You always see the outdoor courts with the chained nets and there’s people playing 3x3 all the time. So that’s a huge strength of our sport and we’re not going to turn our back on it. It’s not an issue that it’s such a social sport, because at the same time our competitive numbers are good and our rep teams are doing well."
A big question locally remains the status of the Otago Nuggets, who have not played in the NBL since 2014. While the team is something the region would love to have back, it has to be questioned whether it is necessary, especially with numbers strong and a shop-window in the NBA.
"That’s a good question," Brockbank said when asked about the Nuggets’ influence on the game.
"You look at local guys, say Olly Smith, who’s one of our NBL-level local guys. He’s managed to go down and jump on the Southland team, so he’s still getting that experience and then with the guys that went up to Christchurch and the guys that went off to college.
"So possibly not in the short term, but maybe long term. If you want guys to stick around in Dunedin and progress their games here, then probably. But at the same time, we’ve only missed two seasons, so it’s hard to actually say if we had a Nuggets team if those guys would still be around."
With another year looming it was hard to say how things would be looking next year, although if recent trends were anything to go by, numbers would probably remain strong.
"I never have any idea. I always finish the season and go through the reviews and think there’s little ways you can improve. But more of the same in the most part.
"When it comes to secondary schools, you look at it and think we can’t actually grow much more. Miniball, who knows, but we’re hoping to have another good year with the year 1 and 2s."
