Six Australians to attend third NBA Academy Games
The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced that the third NBA Academy Games - a series of exhibition games featuring prospects from the seven NBA Academies and other teams - will take place Tuesday, July 9 – Sunday, July 14 at the Emory Sports Medicine Complex, the official practice facility of the Atlanta Hawks, in Atlanta, GA, making it the first time the NBA Academy Games will take place in America.
Six Aussies will be flying the flag at the Academy Games: Taran Armstrong, Dyson Daniels, Joshua Giddey, Blake Jones, Kane Waters and Mojave King.
Tasmanian Taran Armstrong, brother of NBL1 North-West Tasmania's Tre Armstrong, was a participant at Basketball Without Borders Global 2019, and plays with the CoE in the NBL1. The 6'2 guard will be part of the team in the coming U17 Oceania Championships, along with Giddey and Jones.
https://pickandroll.com.au/wigness-potter-head-teams-for-fiba-under-17-oceania-championships/
Bendigo's Dyson Daniels played with the NBL1 Braves, and attended the 2019 NBA Global Camp. "I never expected to one day get a call up from the NBA," the 6'2 guard shared with the Bendigo Advertiser. "Especially at such a young age, it's a dream come true and beyond my expectations."
The 6'6 Giddey claimed gold at the Australian U18 championships earlier this year, while Queenslander forward Jones, whose goal is to attend a D1 US college and play professional basketball, also played with the 2018 U17 World Cup.
Waters, a 6'9 forward from Rockingham, is part of the CoE squad. He quotes Kristaps Porziņģis, Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo as his role models. Waters aims to head to college, and play at the highest professional level he can, be it NBA, NBL or Europe.
The 6'4 King is an up and coming talent who has been training at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) and is working on his Australian citizenship.
"[King] is an electric offensive player," CoE's Adam Caporn says. "I think he's got a chance to be an NBA player and a Boomer and play Olympic games and help us achieve some really exciting things.
"Obviously there's a lot that goes into that, and he has to get better... we're really excited about his future."
The series of exhibition games will feature prospects from the NBA Academies in Australia, China, India, Mexico and Senegal, along with two select teams of top international prospects. In addition to being open to NBA team personnel, the NCAA-certified event will be held during an NCAA live recruiting period and will be open to NCAA coaches from Thursday, July 11 at 1:00 p.m. ET – Sunday, July 14 at 6:00 p.m. ET.
The two previous NBA Academy Games were held at The NBA Global Academy, an elite basketball training center at Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, which serves as the NBA’s hub for top male and female prospects from outside the United States.
Catch up on all NBA Global Academy games on The Pick and Roll.
Roster of selections from NBA Global Academy
LAST NAMEFIRST NAMECOUNTRYDOBHEIGHTPOSITIONAbogidiEfeminaNigeriaOctober 11, 20016'9"PFArmstrongTaranAustraliaJanuary 15, 20026'2"PGMegnangloBidossessi EmmanuelBeninApril 13, 20016'7"PFCuiYongxiChinaMay 28, 20036'5"GDanielsDysonAustraliaMarch 17, 20036'4"GGiddeyJoshuaAustraliaOctober 10, 20026'6"GJonesBlakeAustraliaFebruary 28, 20026'9"PFKhalifaAlyEgyptNovember 22, 20016'10"PF/CKingMojaveAustraliaJune 11, 20026'4"GSinghPrincepalIndiaJanuary 3, 20016'10"PF/CVescovi VannetSantiagoUruguaySeptember 14, 20016'2"PGWatersKaneAustraliaFebruary 1, 20026'9"PFYeoJunseokSouth KoreaMarch 29, 20026'9"F