Great question. And i think it's one that many people in a BA office ponder over. I have no confirmed numbers, but working in the sport and recreation administration field we talk unconfirmed that it is indeed number 4 in junior participation.

My comment will surround personal experiences. Does anyone else remember the days where EVERYONE played basketball and we all had like 3 teammates who could fill it up? Well, those days are gone. Watching domestic in my home town you still have your NTIP or Goldies kids, but the gulf between the stellar and well, yeah is as large as I have ever seen. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed?

It's all to do with lifestyle and what parents are prepared to pay for at a junior level. If they pay right up to U18's then they most likely will transition into social but if parents get busy and don't go further than 16's then the AFL grabs them and throws them into the system or in the world of XBox, they play no sport at all. I know plenty of kids i went to school with who as soon as their parents got busy suddenly never touched a basketball again and were so much better than a lot who stayed on.

Also doesn't help that the NBL isn't that fantastic to watch. I live 3 hours from the city and travel to watch SEABL and WNBL games but wouldn't bother with the NBL. It just isn't exciting hoops in my opinion and i think that's a huge part of the numbers. You always have to have something local. Look at the PBA and other Asian leagues. They worship the NBA, but because they have a strong league of their own then that love of the game doubles. If kids love a game, history says they will want to play it!

I think the problem is all through the sport. Basketball families will always be basketball families. It's the others we need to attract and I believe our time will come. The AFL are too worried about TV $$ and could drop the ball allowing for the A-League, NBL etc. to move in on a little more ground.

I'd love one day to talk with BA and find out just exactly what they're trying to do to combat the lifestyle and other issues that present themselves.

If you'd like an example google Mitch Creek AFL or Mark Worthington AFL. If you're half athletic a footy side wants you and even a basic salary there is very hard for an NBL team to match unless you're already proiven.

Basketball is pretty popular but i think that parents and kids tend to stop playing at U16 because of all the travel and schoolwork heating up they give it up and sadly 1 in 10 kids can only name 10 other players apart from lebron and jordan and like 1 in 30 for the australian players in the nba sadly...

I pretty sure the nba playoffs and finals averaged like 50k on foxtel and even more on league pass which is pretty good

Yeah but think most of the games are on weekdays in the middle of the day when people are at work/school compared to AFL/NRL on weekends.

I think as a participation sport it would be bigger than Australian Rules. The 16+ drop out thing happens in every sport basically, lots of evidence about that.

Not so much a focus on participation, but moreso a general awareness. Ive noticed an increase in basketball being mentioned in AFL shows - especially Game Day on Channel 7 on Sunday mornings. A lot of the time when a player is being interviewed and they get asked who their sporting hero is, or their favourite teams, its quite often an NBA player and team.

Basketball is making some inroads - slowly - but if the AFL players continue to plug the game, it starts to gain some traction, and this makes the sport look credible.

Other positives that help the popularity - The "invasion" of Aussies in the NBA has been huge, as is Andrew Bogut being the highest paid Australian sports star.

Crowds in the NBL are slowly improving, and if Channel 10 bothered with the product, the TV coverage would be more appealing. Hopefully with expansion comes a new TV deal that will see this happen.

Im confident in thinking that basketball is many peoples "second favourite sport". Particularly the younger generation.

I know this isn't much but i was watching the footy on Fox Footy over the weekend and the commentator referred to the players defense as the point guard matching up against the other guard or in some words like that. Along with that you continue to hear of the Basketball background of many AFL players. Just the mention of the word basketball to the thousands of people who watch the games is a step in the right direction. With Dante and Bear being drafted and our strong pedigree to come its hard not to say that basketball is being more popular.