South East Melbourne’s Mitch Creek soaring over NBA champion Matthew Dellavedova has become an iconic image for the NBL in the 48 hours since the Phoenix claimed victory in the latest edition of “The Throwdown”, with the footage exploding on US social media after ESPN’s Sportscenter posted the video to their 21 million followers on Instagram.
The video has been liked over 800’000 times so far and attracted the attention of former NBA stars Andrew Bogut and Kenneth Faried.
The play even made some NBA fans question if they’d been watching the wrong league all this time.
Creek definitely dunked Delly into the shadow realm with this one; and with the NBL reporting 10 million views for the play on their Twitter page, the otherworldly act is arguably the biggest single play in NBL history.
10 million views and counting 🤯 https://t.co/nqcSJMVt2N
— The NBL (@NBL) December 14, 2021
The dunk, which Andrew Gaze aptly described as “hellacious”, has come at just the right time to capitalize on the NBL’s deal with ESPN Australia, which is estimated to be worth over $45 million dollars over three years.
The deal has seen collaboration between the Australian and American arms of the sporting network, evidenced by Kendrick Perkins appearance on The Jump with Andrew Gaze, and now, has seen Mitch Creek make a name for himself in the US with ESPN USA picking up the footage of his slam for Sportscenter.
The moment also found a home in the Herald Sun, which released a double-page feature on the dunk and the resulting melee between Melbourne United and the South Melbourne Phoenix thanks to the deal the NBL brokered with Newscorp.
The gravity of the Newscorp and ESPN Australia deals cannot be overstated.
By signing those deals, the NBL has created something of a perfect storm that allows a moment of this magnitude, which would otherwise be a secret known only to NBL fans, to be appreciated by millions of people at home and abroad who otherwise would never have known the league existed
The NBL is still weighing up disciplinary action for both parties but regardless of the outcome there is no question that the incident will be one of the league’s defining moments.
Jarrad Hurley's professional basketball aspirations led him to the dizzying heights of the Adelaide social league circuit. After an epiphany that his hoop dreams would go unrealised, he put the ball down and picked up a pen. Jarrad lives vicariously through the successes of Australian basketball, is a mad 36ers fanatic, and might just cry if the Boomers ever medal.
