New Basketball Australia (BA) chief executive Larry Sengstock believes the advent of a revamped elite national men’s competition will usher in a golden age for the game.
The BA Hall of Famer used a press conference announcing his appointment to identify reigniting the popularity of the national league as his key priority.
He said in most other aspects basketball was the envy of other sporting codes.
Sengstock cited basketball’s huge participation rate of more than 600,000 and Australia’s overall No.2 world ranking across men’s, women’s, junior and wheelchair teams as major strengths.
“The priority right now is, because the national basketball league is the showcase it’s important to get that right,” Sengstock said on Tuesday.
“People’s opinions of basketball are predicated on what they see in that showcase.
“We need to make sure that that is strong and that is back where it needs to be, on a solid footing.”
A replacement competition for the National Basketball League will be announced within the next fortnight.
Sengstock, part of five NBL championship teams and the league’s inaugural grand final MVP in 1979, also played 293 games for Australia and at four Olympics.
He said the league was stronger than ever in terms of player talent, but its profile had slipped badly.
“We’ve lost our way, we’ve lost our positioning in Australian sport over the years,” he said.
“But that’s more because other sports have seen how strong basketball was in the late 80s, early 90s and really took us on and had the ability to take us on at a much higher level.
“We probably didn’t stand to that challenge at the time.”
But he said with the NBL and BA having recently merged and the new competition soon to be unveiled, a revival was coming.
“We’re poised on the brink of what I think will be a new golden age of basketball and I am very much looking forward to that,” he said.
BA chairman David Thodey said Sengstock was the right person to lead the sport because his excellent playing record was backed by impressive business credentials.
Sengstock was head of sport and athlete services for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006 and is currently a senior consultant of international projects for sports consultancy firm SGL Group.
He officially starts his new role on April 27.
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