Melbourne United’s training sessions continue to attract top talent. The gym is gaining a reputation as the place to train for the NBA players when they return to Australia.
It’s fun and the competition (at the Melbourne United training) is definitely up there” – Jonah Bolden, Philadelphia 76ers
Australia’s top talent have been rotating through the sessions during the NBA off-season, Joe Ingles, Dante Exum and Jonah Bolden all stopping by Melbourne to put in off-season work before returning to the big leagues.
“We want to be the place where we welcome you down here (NBA players back in Australia) and let talent do what it does” – Dean Vickerman, Melbourne United Head Coach.
Newcomers Daniel Trist, Mitch McCarron and NBL Final’s MVP Chris Goulding have been using these opportunities to go head to head against the world’s best and no doubt this pays off for United when the 2018-19 season kicks off.
With so much talent in the training gym it’s surprising its not an event in it’s own right. Most hard core basketball fans in Australia would jump at the chance of attending training sessions of this magnitude.
“When I’m back here (in Melbourne) this is the place I want to be” – Dante Exum, Utah Jazz
Melbourne United have put a lot of focus into creating opportunities for their players to develop during the off-season. In addition to being able to get up shots with NBA players the organisation has arranged for two pre-season clashes with top class US college teams St Mary’s (California) and Loyola Marymont.
The first of these pre-season matches is scheduled for tonight 9 August 2018 at the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna South before the team go head to head with Loyola Marymount at Casey Stadium in Cranbourne East.
United will also face Sydney Kings in two pre-season games sure to excite regional basketball fans in Bendigo Stadium (30 August 2018) and in Knox at the State Basketball Center (1 September 2018).
“The goal is get on the same level as the Euro league and the NBA and (NBLxNBA) is definitely a way to do that” – Jonah Bolden when asked about the upcoming NBLxNBA games.
Melbourne will also get the chance to face NBA talent in two NBLxNBA games, which will feature both Jonah Bolden and Dante Exum, as well as Ben Simmons and Joe Ingles.
Melbourne United have two games against the Philadelphia 76ers and then the Toronto Raptors. With all this preparation, and after going down by one last year, is this the year Melbourne United go one better and pull of the incredible.
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.
