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Important SN update for Southland5 Aussie stars picked in round 1 of NBA Draft
SEN • June 25th, 2025 12:20 pm
The Dallas Mavericks will be the happiest team going into this year’s NBA Draft. After sensationally beating the odds in the lottery to claim the number one pick, it is expected that they will take Duke’s highly talented Cooper Flagg to add to their roster and immediately put themselves in contention for another championship.
If the number one pick is pretty well known, there are still bound to be all sorts of surprises and last-minute trades over the two days at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Fans will be hoping their team will choose the player that will transform them into title-winners – and many will be taking a look at the best NBA draft betting markets to make their own predictions of how it will all go.
The NBA is a global league these days, of course, and American players will be joined by athletes from all over the world already playing in the US college system. Others will be drafted directly from foreign teams. Australians have begun to make their presence felt in the world’s top league in recent years and many of those have experienced the drama and excitement of the NBA Draft – here are some that were picked in the first round.
Luc Longley
Making history as the first Australian to ever play in the NBA, Longley was born in Melbourne and briefly played for the Perth Wildcats before moving to the US. He had already been part of the Australian team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and all of that was enough for the Minnesota Timberwolves to take him with the seventh pick overall in the 1991 NBA Draft.
After two years as part of what was then a struggling T-Wolves team, Longley was traded to the Chicago Bulls where he became part of a legendary multiple championship-winning franchise. Alongside Michael Jordan, Longley won three consecutive titles before the roster was broken up. He would play for the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks before retiring due to injury. He then returned to Australia to live a quieter life but he will go down as one of the biggest reasons why basketball is so loved in the country today.
Chris Anstey
Not all Australians who get picked in the first round of the draft go on to win championships but they have all acted as an inspiration to youngsters playing the game. Chris Anstey had been a promising tennis player in his youth and only took up basketball at the age of 17. Two years later he was playing in the NBL and in 1997 he led a group of four Aussies taken in the NBA Draft.
The Portland Trail Blazers used the 18th overall pick for Anstey but he was immediately traded to the Dallas Mavericks, where he played for two years before joining the Bulls after the glory years of the franchise. He would later play in Europe and win championships on his return to the NBL, as well as play in two Olympics for the Boomers. His daughter now plays in the US at college level for UCLA.
Andrew Bogut
Luc Longley may have paved the way for Australian players in the NBA but it was Andrew Bogut who made history as the first Aussie to be taken as the number one pick overall. At 7ft tall, Bogut played two years with the Utah Utes before the Milwaukee Bucks chose him as the best player of his class in 2005.
Bogut immediately made an impression on the NBA, averaging 9.4 points and 7.0 rebounds – enough to earn him third place in the Rookie of the Year awards. He was also named to the NBA All-Rookie Team. Injury would cut short his second year in the league but he came back strongly before being traded to the Golden State Warriors. He would win a championship with the Dubs in 2015 before playing for the Cavs and the Lakers. Bogut then returned to Australia to end his playing career.
Ben Simmons
Just 11 years after Bogut made history, the Philadelphia 76ers took Ben Simmons with the number one overall pick and ensured that Australia continued to make a huge impression on the NBA. He was born in Melbourne due to his American father playing for the Tigers after college.
Simmons also played Aussie Rules but hoops was his true love and he moved to the US to play high school basketball in 2013.
Simmons would then spend just one year at LSU before declaring himself eligible for the NBA Draft. Injury would force him to sit out an entire year but he returned to be named as the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2018. Named an All-Star in three consecutive seasons, all was looking good before a holdout saw him join the Brooklyn Nets. Injuries and poor form curtailed his time there and he is now hoping to repair his reputation as one of Australia and the NBA’s biggest stars at the Los Angeles Clippers.
Thon Maker
He may not have the same high profile as Ben Simmons, but there was another Australian taken in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft. Thon Maker was actually born in what is now South Sudan but moved to Perth as a child. He was discovered playing football as a teenager and moved to Sydney where he took up basketball.
Maker then moved to the US to play high school basketball and was considered a five-star recruit when he made himself eligible for the NBA Draft without playing any college hoops. Even so, it was still something of a surprise when the Bucks used their lottery pick to take him 10th
overall in the same year as Simmons. Maker played six years in the NBA, including for the Pistons and Cavs, before stints in China, Israel, and most recently Saudi Arabia.
overall in the same year as Simmons. Maker played six years in the NBA, including for the Pistons and Cavs, before stints in China, Israel, and most recently Saudi Arabia.
