Time is always right, all of the other things you need to make it happen may not be right, but the time certainly is...

For Australian NBA fans, yes. For the NBA, it appears not.

Would be nice, but I think you'd have to get two of Cleveland, Spurs and GSW to really get a good crowd at a big venue.

I think the problem is that as a market we are nearly tapped out. its pretty common knowledge that we have the highest subscriptions for international league pass and NBA store sales are relatively high.

From the NBA's point of view they want to spend money where they are going to get the most return, Unfortunately Asia is where there is the most potential for them ATM and Africa looks good as a "goodwill" thing...

So our thinking here is that because we love the NBA so much, the NBA won't come because they don't need to promote the game here?

I don't see it this way, but also I don't see Etihad as the right venue either, sell it as a spectacle and hold it at something like Rod Laver Arena but have it on FTA TV and across the nation, live!

Surely there can only be winners, including the NBA, because apparently the NBA cares...

Dave is on the money. And I don't think Africa is just goodwill - it has huge potential. Europe, Asia, South America and Africa all absolutely dwarf our population.

Find someone involved in basketball in China and listen to stories about the money going around. It makes our struggling junior clubs and floundering national league look quaint.

China added a million new millionaires in 2014 alone. They could sell out their biggest stadiums every night for a month watching NBA games. When I was last there, they had giant advertising promoting NBA stars - I haven't seen the same here for a decade. Their media would fall over themselves to cover it. Here, we have to beg for anything.

We just had our national team, including three solid NBA players, play for Olympic qualification against a relevant team (e.g., not Iran) and the best we got was GEM and then a YouTube stream that started with the wrong link. An NBA game would certainly get more attention, but it'd be paltry when you compared with what they'd stand to gain on any other continent.

I love Etihad stadium but it would be awful for a basketball game. Its bad enough for a soccer game. It would have to be at Rod Laver or the Superdome.

It would be awesome if it could happen, but I'm not sure how much the NBA itself would get out of it, meaning it would have to be heavily financed by someone here.

That's true Isaac, but recently two EPL teams played here and it seemed to go quite well!

It depends on what we and the NBA want from such an event, surely it isn't about just getting the biggest crowd and most money, not for the NBA at least?

Africa, Asia and Europe are all good markets for the NBA, but how many Asians are currently playing in the NBA, not as many as we have here from Aus and NZ combined...!

NBA has formally turned down requests for games in Australia.
Even at zero cost to themselves, even when offered a bunch of cash al Liverpool

Other continents have very strong soccer leagues. That might impact EPL decisions?

Why do you think the NBA would do it here? Because it'd be nice and charitable? Why here and not somewhere else where more potential fans could appreciate it? If it's only about number of players represented in the league, why'd they play a game in London or Istanbul? Because of Ben Gordon? Luol Deng? Joel Freeland or whoever it is?

Population of Istanbul alone is more than half of the entire population of our country.

I can see it happening one day, but I think it'll be a B-level off-season team (e.g., Spurs without big three or Leonard) playing an exhibition game. Or some of the Warriors' bench at the prodding of Bogut. None of the other Australians in the NBA have clout at this point. "But Patty could talk to the Spurs..." But Manu, but Parker/Diaw...

Bear, the difference between the motivations for an EPL and NBA team coming here are different. We have been through this before.

It has to do with centralized versus non-centralzied marketing and controls across different leagues.

The EPL itself do not organise these teams coming to Australia. The EPL do not control the marketing and merchandising activities of the leagues. The clubs themselves do these deals.

The NBA would have to be involved however as their whole rights structure is different, they have different strategies and priorities.

Probably should have read that^ b4 I posted. Some really poor sentences there but you get the intent.

So, it is much harder for us here to entice the NBA to play a game with us as hosts, sure I get it, still if the time isn't fast approaching for us to at least try again I would be quite disappointed...

HO is correct more than 1 NBA team is prepared to play in Australia but can not get NBA approval to do so.

I think the most likely thing in the short-medium term is something similar to that of the NBA Africa game, where a number of Aussie NBA players are the real push behind it, playing a game against whatever other NBA players they can convince to come down. Its more likely to be a chance if/when one of our players become a star (Simmons, Exum, Maker).

A regular season game is way off

Whilst watching Hirds career end on Saturday at Etihad from the second tier, I thought the view from certain spots would be great, I feel though that tier 1 and the goal ends would be shocking views for basketball. Probably have to go Rod Laver or the Super Dome. TBH, the NBA would want the Super Dome, 6,000 more people at approx $50 a ticket is an extra 300k alone.

People saying Etihad (football stadiums) wouldn't work:
-They had an all star game at Cowboy Stadium, with 108,000 people watching. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_NBA_All-Star_Game

-Football is played on Etihad. Football players are the same size (human sized (slightly smaller than bball players)) as basketballers. In football you often would watch play occur in certain areas for prolonged periods of time, i.e: 3 minutes of the ball being congested in the centre square, or in one teams forward 50, and this doesn't really present a live viewing problem. For example you can clearly see the contest of a centre bounce from all areas of the MCG...

I see no reason why you couldn't watch a basketball game from any seat in the MCG, let alone Etihad

I think the Dallas all star game makes having an NBA game at Etihad or another football venue potentially viable. But there's a risk - would you sell out such a venue in a country where, let's be honest, hoops doesn't get top billing from the paying public?* Even if you had say, 35k people, would be a bit embarrassing if there were empty sections.

*Disclaimer: as someone who has yet to see an NBA game live in person, I would be there, wherever it was and whatever it costs. I would crawl over a basketball court covered in old razor blades to be there. Just sayin.

Football is played on Etihad. Football players are the same size (human sized (slightly smaller than bball players)) as basketballers. In football you often would watch play occur in certain areas for prolonged periods of time, i.e: 3 minutes of the ball being congested in the centre square, or in one teams forward 50, and this doesn't really present a live viewing problem. For example you can clearly see the contest of a centre bounce from all areas of the MCG