Did you know these blokes have a basketball background?
With Tom Wilson, a former Australian Boomer, set to make his debut for Collingwood this weekend, the topic of basketball backgrounds has come up (yet again).
With that in mind, we thought we'd rank our top 10 current players (based on current form) with a basketball background.
Here's what we went with:
(To be eligible for this list, the player must have played a minimum of high level junior representative basketball)ย
3. Scott Pendlebury
The first name that comes to mind when the words โbasketball backgroundโ are murmured.
Pendlebury represented Australia when he was 16 and was backed to have a potential future in the NBA by Boomers star Patty Mills. Pendlebury was selected ahead of Mills for a junior AIS basketball squad, where he would eventually withdraw from to pursue football, meaning Mills got the call-up in his place.
Tom Wilson and Scott Pendlebury pictured together back in 2013. Now they're teammates at @CollingwoodFC after the junior basketball gun signed a contract with the Pies. https://t.co/LSyJicHHat pic.twitter.com/UPnCuOKALE
— Matt Balmer (@MattBalmer7) May 3, 2019
Pendleburyโs surgical use of the ball and poise are certainly a reflection on his time spent with a Spalding in-hand, transferring his evasiveness within the paint to the contested ball in guts for the black and white.
