Australian grassroots basketball is exploding, yet there are nowhere near enough courts to cater for all the people who want to play – meaning that masses of kids with dreams of wearing green and gold are instead turned away.

In years gone by, potential future Boomers and Opals like Scott Pendlebury, Luke Jackson and Sophie Garbin have been lost to other sports, having played basketball before choosing footy and netball.

Today, a nationwide shortage of nearly 1000 courts means 150,000 would-be hoopers have no choice. People are turning to basketball in droves – lured by the lower risk of injury compared to contact sports, a pop culture element, reasonable fees of $300-400 per season, and even dreams of one day earning big-money NBA contracts – yet many are unable to play in organised competitions.

Since 2019, the year before Covid decimated sports participation, there has been a rise of more than 400,000 players. Nearly 100,000 more women are playing basketball; 305,000 are now hitting the courts.

With about 1.6 million total active players, every court in the country is at bursting point. If another 900 courts magically materialised tomorrow, they’d immediately be at capacity.

In the meantime, players are being shut out. The next Patty Mills, Lauren Jackson, Josh Giddey or Ezi Magbegor could instead be running around playing football, tennis or cricket because the investment in basketball has not kept up with demand, leaving a black hole of more than $5 billion – conservatively – for the sport to navigate.

“Our entries are all online now and we’ll say, ‘OK, entries open 7am Monday’ and, within 15 minutes, most comps are filled,” says Hills Basketball Association CEO Steve Burke, who runs the biggest hoops association in NSW.

“I get people saying we’ve broken their kids’ hearts because they forgot to put the team entry in and all their friends hate them and all this sort of stuff.”

CODE Sports has obtained letters from parents whose junior teams in other associations have been turned away. They are heart-rending (read them on the link below).

Meanwhile in Victoria, some areas have no indoor courts at all. In Adelaide, the lack of courts while thousands of new houses are being built to the city’s north is sparking fears of major youth crime problems.

“There’s nothing for them to do, there’s no facilities. That’s going to be trouble for those kids in five years’ time, when those houses are all full. Youth crime in the future … you can’t think about it, it’s terrifying really,” says Sue Wood, administrator of Adelaide Community Basketball Association.

Referee abuse is another massive problem, with the confronting problems laid bare by a leading whistleblower.

– KEEP READING AT CODE SPORTS

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CODE Sports spoke to people on the ground all over Australia, plus basketball’s top powerbrokers and icons like Andrew Gaze and Robyn Maher, to deliver the special five-part report BOOM or BUST. Every level of the game was examined thoroughly, with remarkable findings.

PART I: 150,000 turned away: Australian basketball’s $5 billion problem

– A major roadblock in grassroots basketball is causing heartbreak for players and threatening ‘terrifying’ social consequences. It could cost us the next Patty Mills.

PART II: The glaring weakness in Australia’s gold-class talent pipeline

– Australian basketball’s junior elite development is envied worldwide, yet one ‘major problem’ is obvious. We delve into trends that have icons like Andrew Gaze and Brian Goorjian worried.

PART III: ‘Secret’ shame for women’s basketball after decades of neglect

– The WNBL is at ground zero, salaries are poor and the Opals far less popular than the Matildas despite greater success. Now an icon has unloaded over the sad state of Australian women’s basketball.

PART IV: Threats men’s basketball must defend against to avoid past disaster

– Australian basketball boomed in the 1990s, then almost died. We examine what the cautionary tale means for an expanding NBL, and rising stars who’ll decide the Boomers’ future.

PART V: A Boomers legend’s blueprint for Australian basketball’s future

– Australian basketball is exploding from the grassroots to the elite level, yet there is one serious threat to that growth. To conclude a special series, DAVID ANDERSEN examines the strengths of the sport and what must improve.