Ben Knight on playing with the Sydney Kings, the 2002 Boomers squad that lost to New Zealand and more

Dan Boyce

3 years ago

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Ben joined Dan Boyce on the Aussie Hoopla podcast to discuss his NBL career which included playing for nine teams (an NBL record) during his 16 seasons in the league.

He also shares insights into the merger of the South East Melbourne Magic and North Melbourne Giants, helping to create a culture in Cairns, narrowly missing out on a championship in Townsville before returning to his hometown Kings to help them win a championship in 2005.

He talks about his decision to help the Singapore Slingers become the first Asian based team in the NBL and the obstacles it faced and discusses being a part of the Australian Boomers team which failed to qualify for the 2002 FIBA World Championships, losing to New Zealand at home for the first time in history.

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Podcast topics include;

On being recognised for his role in Sydney Kings history and entering the Kings “Inner Circle” (2:00)
Coming up through the Sydney Kings development program the Sydney Sky and making his debut for the Kings in 1997 (4:00)
Playing for Brian Goorjian at the South East Melbourne Magic in 1998 (8:00)
Is there truth to the narrative that Goorjian pushed his players too hard during the 1990s and by the Grand Final were always too ‘gassed’ to win the title (14:00)
The Magic and the Giants merge to create the Victoria Titans and Ben gets squeezed out of the roster and signs with Brisbane (17:00)
His fourth team in four seasons, playing for the Townsville Crocodiles in 1999/00 (20:00)
A breakout season in Cairns opens up opportunities with the Australian Boomers (27:00)
Being a part of the 2002 Australian Boomers squad which lost to New Zealand and failed to qualify for the FIBA World Championships (32:00)
Financial instability in Cairns leads him to move to Wollongong to play with the Hawks (40:00)
A homecoming for Knight as he returns to play for the Sydney Kings and helped win the team’s third championship (42:00)
Falling short in the Kings run for a fourth championship in a row before falling short to Chris Anstey and the Melbourne Tigers (49:00)
The Singapore Slingers and the difficulties it faced being Australia’s first Asian based team (54:00)
A near career-ending injury during his year with the Melbourne Tigers (103:00)
A return to the Sydney in 2010 to help re-launch the Kings (105:00)
Reaching his 400th NBL game in 2016 (109:00)
Coaching and life after the NBL (1:13:00)
The highlights and the biggest lessons learnt during Ben’s NBL career (1:15:00)

All of this and a whole lot more…

Dan Boyce (811 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.