It wasn’t until the early 1990s that Australia had a basketball player in the NBA, but ever since Luc Longley blazed the trail all those years ago, Aussies have become a more regular fixture in the world’s premier basketball league.
In this article, we count down the five best Australians that have graced the league.
Note: We have focused on players that have actually played for the Australian national basketball team, which is why the likes of Kyrie Irving do not feature on this list.
5. Joe Ingles
After playing in Australia and Europe, Joe Ingles made a relatively late entry into the NBA, joining the Utah Jazz in 2014.
The 6ft 9in small forward/shooting guard played for the Jazz between 2014 and 2022, helping them reach the play-offs for five straight seasons between 2017 and 2021.
While he was most famed for his shooting – he is the Utah Jazz all-time leader in three-pointers made- he was also a decent passer of the ball.
Ingles eventually left Utah in February 2022, traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, but he never played for Portland due to a knee injury. He moved on to Milwaukee in December 2022 and currently plays for the Orlando Magic.
Ingles has had a consistently reliable NBA career. In this era of online sports betting, he is the sort of player you want to include in your NBA SGP, if only for his three-point shooting alone! (Oh, for the initiated, SGP means Same Game Parlays, one of the most popular NBA betting promotions going around these days!)
4. Ben Simmons
Selected as the first overall draft pick in 2016, plenty was expected from Ben Simmons in the NBA, but a foot injury in September 2016 cruelly ruled him out of what should have been his debut season.
However, the Melbourne-born guard made up for lost time in the following years, earning Rookie of the Year in 2018, and gaining three successive All-Star call-ups between 2019 and 2021.
He has since struggled to reproduce his All-Star form, partly due to his infamous holdout at the Philadelphia 76ers, and injury problems after being traded to the Brooklyn Nets.
We have already seen plenty of what Simmons can do in the NBA, and if he can sort out his issues and his fitness, there’s definitely a lot more to come. It could well be that in half a decade, he’s higher up in the pantheon of greatest Australian NBA players.
3. Patty Mills
Patty Mills became the first indigenous Australian to be drafted into the NBA when he was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers as the 55th overall pick in 2009.
He would go on to have a long and successful career. Mills holds the record for the most NBA games by an Australian.
The Canberra-born point guard represented Portland for two seasons, and after spells in Australia and China during the NBA Lockout of 2011, he returned to the US to join the San Antonio Spurs in 2012.
He was not always a regular starter for SA, but over the next decade, he was an integral member of the Spurs’ squad. Mills was a pivotal piece of the 2014 championship winning team.
His strongest skill is arguably his shooting, and he broke the record for most 3-point shots made for one team as a reserve in January 2021.
The Aussie departed SA for Brooklyn in 2021, and teamed up with the Atlanta Hawks in 2023.
2. Luc Longley
Luc Longley opened the floor for Australian players in the NBA when he turned out for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1991.
Having been drafted as the seventh overall pick by Minnesota, he played for the Timberwolves between 1991 and 1994 before moving on to the Chicago Bulls.
It was at the Chicago Bulls that he enjoyed his best years in America, teaming up with the great Michael Jordan as the Bulls dominated the mid-90s.
While Longley was not your typical flashy NBA superstar, he went about his business very efficiently and was a significant member of the team that won the three-peat between 1996 and 1998. You had to be really good to play alongside “His Airness” and be a starter in that Bulls team!
Not only is he the first Aussie to win an NBA ring, the 7ft 2in Perth native is the only man from the country to claim three titles.
Some would say that based on individual numbers and overall skill set, he should not be this high up on the list, but when you achieve as much as he did, there really shouldn’t be any argument regarding his position as one of the very best Australians to play in the NBA.
His ten-year NBA career also included stints with the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks, with the centre finishing with a respectable 7.2 ppg and 4.9rpg.
1. Andrew Bogut
Andrew Bogut became the first Australian to be selected as the first overall pick in 2005 when he was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks.
He played for the Bucks up until 2012, before moving on to the Golden State Warriors, with whom he won the 2015 NBA title.
Bogut was renowned for his defensive prowess, with the seven-footer having the most blocks in the league during the 2010-11 season. He is regarded as one of the very best defensive players in his generation.
He also played for Dallas, Cleveland and the Los Angeles Lakers, ending his NBA career with a near double-double 9.6ppg and 8.7rpg.
Again, like Longley, Bogut wasn’t the most spectacular player to grace the NBA stage, but he was mighty good at what he does best.
