It's November 2002 and NBA legend Magic Johnson has hand-picked a little-known Australian team to take on his former squad, the Michigan State Spartans.
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After returning home, the Cannons rejoined the National Basketball League season, but only weeks later were abruptly shut down, with the team entering administration.But what happened to the Canberra Cannons in 2002 was not unique; in its 43-year history, the NBL has lost 24 teams — leaving the lingering question of whether the league is vulnerable for this to happen again.
This helped grow the audience and the money that came with it, leading to a period from the late 80s to the mid-90s widely considered the league's "golden era"."In 1987 we were terrible, playing in front of 600 people, and four or five years later, we were at the [Melbourne] Tennis Center playing in front of 15,000 people," he said.Andrew Gaze and his father Lindsay embracing after winning the 1993 NBL championship.
And, by the time the Cannons had returned from their historic game with Magic Johnson in late 2002, the team's luck had run out. "They called us in and said 'that's it, it's over, just like that', so everybody was just shocked," he said.Ex-Cannons player Cameron Rigby said the proximity of the announcement to Christmas also made things worse.The Cannons eventually returned to the court to finish the 2002-03 season while they searched for a new owner.
After two losing seasons, the Slingers were also shut down and the team licence was cancelled altogether.The NBL has seen a remarkable turnaround since Larry Kestelman took ownership in 2015. "I really wanted to squarely put the focus on: 'what business are we in? What is the actual sport about?' And give it the attention it deserves and build it into a sustainable business," he said.The league has since seen a remarkable return to prominence.LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton in 2019 drew international attention to the leagueAnd the addition of the South East Melbourne Phoenix in 2018 and the Tasmania JackJumpers in 2020 grew the number of teams to 10.
"I think there's a huge supporter base, fan base, participation base, it's the capital of the country, so for us not to have NBL games in Canberra is a negative."
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