The NBL All-Star Game is knocking and HoopsFest should answer
It's time the NBL brought back the All-Star Game, and HoopsFest has presented itself as the perfect time and place for the marquee fixture to return.
Chris Goulding ripped baseline past Adris DeLeon, rose up on the reverse side of the ring and two-hand flushed it over Darnell Lazare.
No, I’m not having some sort of NBL nuffie fever dream, that is my lasting memory of the most recent NBL All-Star Game.
It would be difficult to recall anything else unprompted from that specific season, but Goulding’s dunk, which capped off an epic performance from the then 24-year-old, sticks in the mind.
Go further back and it’s a young Nate Jawai dunking everything against the league’s best, or current commentator Derek Rucker winning the game’s MVP. However, we now find ourselves closing in on 15 years without having had a marquee celebration of the league.
One of the biggest questions that gets raised as soon as the All-Star Game is mentioned is when in the season it could be played.
Some suggest the FIBA break, others think the direct mid-point of the season. Both have their flaws and neither seems to really fit the bill. But now the NBL has established the perfect weekend for an All-Star.
HoopsFest is quickly becoming a staple of the NBL calendar, with this year’s attendance growing 25% year-on-year. It’s a showcase weekend for Aussie hoops, extending past the NBL to the WNBL, Sneakerland, the HoopsFest Cup, and this year even an appearance from the great Allen Iverson.
Imagine if instead of the the regular season NBL games we had an All-Star weekend.
Two major format structures stick out…
