It’s game on for Tassie

RISING basketball stars Phoenix Robey, 16, and Luke Brown, 16, are jumping out of their skins at news that Tasmania has won a licence to enter the National Basketball League. Brown, brother of AFL and North Melbourne star Ben Brown, is thrilled.

“It is very exciting. Just having that environment is going to be huge for us,” he said.

Work on the $220 million project is expected to start within 60 days.

NO one is more excited about the benefits an NBL team will provide for Tasmanian sporting talent than Luke Brown.

Brown, 16, comes from a long line of football champions, as the younger brother of North Melbourne star full forward Ben Brown, the nephew of Collingwood premiership player James

Manson and the grandson of Glenorchy legend “Gentleman”

Jim Manson.

But it is the basketball rather than the Sherrin where Luke is focusing his sporting talents, and now he can aspire to be a professional player without leaving his home state with Tasmania rejoining the NBL in 2021-22.

He and his five brothers spent their childhoods playing hoops, including big brother Ben. “I used to play footy a bit, but I gravitated towards basketball, that was my first love,” the 196cm 16-year-old said.

Now he’s jumping at the possibility of representing the yet-tobe-named Tasmanian NBL side.

“It is very exciting, just having that environment where we can watch the players play is going to be huge for us — to have that example,” he said.

But it will be the whole state, not just young talent, that will benefit from the return to the big league, with Premier Peter Gutwein saying “Tasmania” or “Tasmanian” must be part of the club’s name.

He said he believed a competition would be launched in the coming days to name the new team.

“I think it is going to be a very exciting period for Tasmania,” Mr Gutwein said.