I can see many in this thread are annoyed by the Australian media's constant mentioning of football backgrounds for our basketballers but this is just the nature of being a talented Australian junior sportsman. It used to be that almost every kid growing up in Australia would play cricket over the summer months and one of the dominant football codes in the winter months. Those kids would then have to make a decision somewhere between the ages of 14-17 as to which sport they wanted to pursue going forward, despite possibly being able to play both sports at the professional level.
You often hear the US media talking about how talented LeBron James was as a high school American footballer but that's really the exception in America. Most kids in the US have already settled on one sport by the time they reach their teenage years. Then you have really exceptional athletes that thrive in more than one sport at the professional level like Bo Jackson and that garners an extremely large level of interest.
I guess the point I'm trying to get across here is that there will always be intrigue when an athlete shows promise in more than one sport and because the AFL has such a stranglehold on the narratives pushed by the Australian media, we are going to continue to see/hear this. Tamuri Wigness also played Aussie rules as a junior and was scouted by the Gold Coast Suns so don't be surprised when that story pops up in a few years time. Patty Mills was a very talented junior footballer and was offered a contract by the Swans. Bogut, Delly, Ingles, Mathiang and Simmons all played Aussie rules in their younger years. It's sort of unavoidable in certain states like Victoria. Like it or not, it's going to continue to be a topic of discussion.
In regards to Josh, the kid is 6'6 with a wingspan of 6'11, is lightning quick and just as athletic as any junior basketballer in the US. You can imagine how much he would have dominated in the low standard of local Sydney Aussie rules coming up against physically inferior opponents.
