MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy's View from Downunder) - The NBA Finals are underway and it's fair to say, even though neither had a major impact in Game 1, the no-nonsense playoff exploits of Matty Dellavedova and Andrew Bogut have seen many in and around the NBA fall in love with Australia.

Once upon a time the feeling was mutual.

I have to confess to being an NBA tragic back in the 1990s. The love affair started late in the decade before that, and I emerged a Miami Heat fan.

How did I come to choose an expansion franchise that barely won a game in the 1980s? Well, as a 10-year-old, I stumbled across my first NBA game on TV thanks to my brother.

The Los Angeles Lakers were playing Miami, and given one of my favourite books borrowed from the Aspendale Primary School library was called Miami Mice - yes, some crack rodent detectives cleaning up the southern Florida town - the Heat became my team!

Pretty soon I knew every player on every team, their height, number, stats and a wrap of their playing ability, courtesy of the many preview magazines I would save up for and buy from the local newsagent.

I wasn't alone - although for some years I may have been the only Heat supporter Downunder - with the youth of Australia capturing Michael Jordan-Magic Johnson-Larry Bird fever and becoming NBA disciples.

Each weekend we'd wait to see NBA Action with superhuman highlight plays and slick features, and then watch the game of the week, always picked out to have a thrilling finish with game-winning or saving shots.

If you told me back then the NBA was where amazing happened, I really would have believed it.

Of course, that's a distant memory in Australia. The NBA never quite made it past the status of fad and into the mainstream conscience.

Nowadays, the only time it seems to attract genuine widespread attention is when Aussies are doing big things in the playoffs.

So now is one of those times, and the furore about Delly's "dirty play" has only heightened awareness.

Aussie sports fans love nothing more than an underdog, closely followed by someone having a genuine crack and upsetting those not so inclined towards the tough stuff.

But perhaps the furore about Delly simply putting his body on the line also gives insight as to why the NBA only has niche support in Australia, where nearly a million people play basketball.

While not all TV ratings are publically available, Game 3 of the Golden State Warriors-Houston Rockets Western Conference Finals attracted an initial rating of 49,000 viewers.

As a comparison, than was less than the Victorian Football League (VFL) game the day before - a semi-professional competition broadcast into just one state - it was a third the figure of the Tonga v Samoa rugby league clash, less than a tenth of the A-League grand final and one 50^th of what big Aussie rules and rugby league clashes attract.

Is it that Australians, already not passionate fans of basketball for the most part, are suspicious of a league where a player is criticised for competing too hard?

When Al Horford talks about the NBA being "a brotherhood" where players don't go so hard in case they might hurt each other, it is certainly pretty suss by Aussie or Kiwi standards. 

There is a very strong brotherhood amongst players in the NBL too, but it takes a rest for two hours each game night when all is fair in love and war.

Many NBA players come from seriously underprivileged backgrounds and their contracts are a way out for them and their family, I understand that, and if not playing as hard as you can is a way to protect each other then fair enough, but don't expect Australian sports fans to take it too seriously.

It's no secret the majority of regular season games are played at less than ultimate intensity. You only need to switch from an NBA broadcast to the Euroleague, ACB or NBL to see the difference in desire.

What surprised me about this incident was it happened in the playoffs, where the contest rises several levels in intensity above the regular season and becomes the sort of hoops myself and many other hoop fans I know thoroughly enjoy.

We've seen players ram an airborne LeBron James into the basket support amongst many other hard fouls that are generally considered good playoff basketball.

So what was different about Dellavedova's 'incident'?

Is it that Horford doesn't feel like Delly deserves to be in the brotherhood? Is there no place for a battler with lesser athletic talent, earning NBA chicken feed, playing physically against far more highly-paid stars?

Whatever the reason, I hope it doesn't deter Delly at all, and I doubt it will. It was also great to see Bogut stand up for his countryman (and hopefully Olympic teammate).

Who knows, if the growing number of Aussies in the NBA keeps stepping on some sensitive toes, our country might start to take notice for more than two weeks of the year.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA

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