Young Aussie stars to collide in NBA clash
THE future of Australian basketball will collide this morning (Australian time) when Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels go head-to-head in the NBA for the first time.
It is a match-up the Victorian guards have dreamed of since they met as state under-12 teammates, and while the pair became close friends on their journey to the top, there will be no love lost when Daniels’ New Orleans Pelicans take on Giddey’s Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I’m sure when we get out there on the floor together, there’ll be a bit of trash talking,” Daniels said.
The game also marks the first NBA meeting between graduates of Australia’s NBA Global Academy – a milestone technical director Marty Clarke said highlighted our status as a rising basketball powerhouse.
Giddey and Daniels spent about a year in the Canberrabased program together on the way to becoming NBA first round picks in successive years.
It was as teammates in a tournament in Spain in 2020 – where Giddey was named as the MVP – that Clarke said the basketball world began to sit up and take notice of his program.
“That was the catalyst for people to say, ‘wow, what’s going on down there?’,” he said.
“I was really pleased for them and a little surprised that they made the step so quickly. Both of them came through here and their plans were really another year here.”
“They both accelerated their development here to such a point that they outgrew the environment and needed more challenges, which is a credit to them.”
After Giddey shone as Oklahoma City’s starting point guard in his rookie season, Daniels put himself into this year’s NBA draft and was snapped up by the Pelicans.
He is now playing a key defensive role off the bench, guarding the league’s top players including Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Ja Morant.
“It’s everything I expected. Competition-wise, it’s tough, but I’m taking steps and learning every day,” he said. “I want to earn my minutes, keep my spot in this rotation and coming off the bench, to be one of the best sixth men in the NBA.”
Clarke said the youngsters typified the academy’s focus on producing multiskilled players who were also leaders.
“They’re both really funloving guys … They’re good in the locker room, they’re good on the court, they can bring the energy up but they’re also very serious about their basketball,” he said.
While Daniels had marked Tuesday’s game on his calendar, he said he was also excited at the prospect of representing his country alongside Giddey, potentially from next year’s World Cup.
“The Boomers is a big aspiration of mine,” he said.