The Overseas Market Is Moving. Watch Australia.

Melbourne United just signed Cole Anthony, a guy with hundreds of NBA games on his resume who is only 26 and still in his prime. He is heading to the NBL to play next to Aussie great, Joe Ingles. A player who could still be in the NBA right now is choosing Australia. I have a personal stake in that news…I played in that league myself, for the Cairns Taipans, and I played against Joe Ingles in the playoffs before he ever left for the NBA.

It was the second playoff game in Taipans franchise history and the whole town was buzzing all week, because we were the only pro team that tropical city had, and I was the young American import everybody was counting on to carry us. And for the most part I did. I put up nineteen points and twelve rebounds, grabbed everything, scored when we needed it, and did all the dirty work I built my whole game around, a double-double in the biggest game the club had ever hosted. Then I stepped to the free throw line and my body betrayed me in front of the entire country.

The Dragons had scouted that I had gone cold from the stripe, so every time I got a lane they just fouled me and made me earn it there, which was smart, and for one horrific night it worked better than they could have ever dreamed. The first one clanged off the front of the rim, and I told myself to breathe and relax and just shoot the damn ball, and the next one clanged too. The fans started throwing me a pity party, cheering louder every time I went through my routine and groaning louder every time it missed. I spent twenty years perfecting that shot and my arms locked up like they had never touched a basketball, and I finished one for eight from the line, and the only reason I made that one was because I banked it in.

We won anyway, and that is all that fucking matters, since I put up a double-double despite my shooting woes. We still beat a team with a future NBA player on it in the most important game of my life. 

My experience down under is why I pay attention to what is happening right now. I know how good the NBL already was when I played in it, and it has only gotten bigger since.

The NBL is drawing bigger crowds, bigger TV and bigger names. A 26-year-old in his prime just picked the NBL when players used to wait until the very end of their careers to come down. When Anthony takes an import spot, the athlete who used to have it goes and takes one in another league, and the athlete he beats out goes somewhere else, and it rolls downhill through every level. The reaching down I talked about last week runs through every league that suddenly looks interesting, and Australia is turning into one of those destinations as we speak.

That is why I keep telling you to watch the transactions. Know which leagues are getting more attractive and to who. Know where the talent is going and which spots are about to get squeezed, because the overseas world you understood two years ago is not the one you are walking into. I learned what that league demanded the hard way, with a double-double and the worst free throw night of my life on national television. You get to learn it by paying attention before it is your spot on the line.

With OverseasX, you’ll never have to walk this journey alone.