Golden-era star’s verdict on the modern NBL

Few League figures have watched the NBL evolve quite like Wayne McDaniel, and the four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBL team member believes the competition has never been stronger.

“It’s been super competitive and it’s been a little bit of surprise in some ways,” he said on NBL Now, presented by CODE Sports.

“Just to see the expansion of the League… these NBA players coming in and adding their flavour and their skill set.

“The League’s never been in a better situation than it is right now.”

After arriving from Cal State Bakersfield, McDaniel began his NBL career in Adelaide before spending the bulk of his playing days with the Hobart Devils.

Having starred through one of the NBL’s golden eras, McDaniel knows the League’s past better than most, and with his son Sam now playing in the modern game, he has a front-row seat to its present too.

“I would say that the Australian players now are far better in terms of skill than the Australian players when I played… at my peak in the NBL,” he added.

“Across the board, I think the skill level is far better. I think that’s pretty obvious.

“I think just the expansion of the League means the quality of imports is as good, if not better, simply because you’re attracting and accessing and securing more NBA talent now.

“I would say that those two dynamics are sort of the flavour in terms of what the NBL was and what the NBL is now.”

With the likes of Bryce Cotton, Kendric Davis and Cole Anthony battling it out each night, the on-court talent is special, but that blueprint had always been there.

“To see that level of professionalism rise in the late eighties and early and mid-nineties, and then to see what [Larry Kestelman] is doing now and has done now with the NBL,” he added.

“To take it even to another level of professionalism and global kind of acceptance, is just phenomenal.”