At the end of June, the NBA’s latest installment of their ‘Basketball without Borders’ camp will be taking place in a land down under. For the first time, the camp will be headed to Australia to showcase some of the top young talent the country has to offer. With the recent influx of young Aussie talent with guys like Matthew Dellavedova, Dante Exum and Joe Ingles establishing themselves in the NBA and Ben Simmons being the potential top pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, it appears that taking the camp to Australia was a no-brainer.
Following from an official NBA press release.
The National Basketball Association (NBA), the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and Australia’s National Basketball League (NBL) today announced the top 45 boys from 17 countries who will travel to the first Basketball without Borders (BWB) Asia Camp in Australia, which will be held June 23-26 at Dandenong Basketball Stadium in Melbourne. BWB, the NBA and FIBA’s global basketball development and community outreach program, is celebrating its 15th anniversary this summer.
BWB Asia will bring together the top male players born between 1999 and 2001 from around the Asia-Pacific region to learn directly from NBA and FIBA players, legends and coaches, including Aron Baynes (Detroit Pistons; Australia), Dante Exum (Utah Jazz; Australia), Joe Ingles (Utah Jazz; Australia), Khris Middleton (Milwaukee Bucks; U.S.), and Patty Mills (San Antonio Spurs; Australia).
Baynes, Exum, Ingles, Middleton and Mills will be joined by former NBA players Bruce Bowen (U.S.) and David Robinson (U.S.); current NBL players Igor Hadziomerovic (Melbourne United; Australia), Daniel Kickert (Brisbane Bullets; Australia), Majok Majok (Melbourne United; Australia), Nate Tomlinson (Melbourne United; Australia), and Lucas Walker (Adelaide 36’ers; Australia); former WNBA and WNBL player Lauren Jackson (Australia); former WNBL player Jan Stirling (Australia); and current NBL coaches Lanard Copeland (Sydney Kings; U.S./Australia), Dean Demopoulos (Melbourne United; U.S.), Andrew Gaze (Sydney Kings; Australia), and Mike Kelly (Melbourne United; U.S./Australia).
Current NBA assistant coaches Zach Guthrie (Utah Jazz), Charles Klask (Detroit Pistons), Jay Larranaga (Boston Celtics) and Jerry Stackhouse (Toronto Raptors; former NBA player; U.S.) will also serve as BWB Asia coaches. President of the World Association of Basketball Coaches (WABC) Patrick Hunt will serve as camp director.
