Kenny Smith: 'NBL best pathway for NBA'

Two-time NBA champion, Kenny Smith, believes that the NBL is perfect place for players looking to accelerate their path to the big league.

“There are certain players that need to be pros tomorrow and that’s what this league is for,” Smith said during a press conference last Thursday.

Smith is referring to players like Josh Giddey, who weren’t on draft boards prior to joining the NBL and finished the season as a lottery pick.

Rocco Zikarsky and Izan Almansa currently headline a class of five Next Star’s in NBL25 who are looking to rise up draft boards and make it to the NBA.

Fellow Next Stars Ambassador and part of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, Carmelo Anthony, echoed those sentiments from Smith.

“I think it’s for the development aspect of it and the fact that there’s no other place, no other game in the rest of the world that is as close to the NBA as the NBL,” Anthony said.

“I’m talking about style of play, pace, the development aspect of it, understanding the game, having the chance to play with older guys or bigger and stronger guys. That’s very hard to do and not everybody can do that.”

Both Anthony and Smith had front row seats for the NBL’s inaugural Hoops Fest in Round 1, including meeting with the Next Stars and other teams across the weekend.

“But the difficulty, I said this to the Brisbane team, I appreciate the difficulty it is to be a pro basketball player. Anywhere. There are, probably at this time, 1000 people in the world that get paid to play basketball.

“This league isn’t for everyone,” Smith agreed.

“Let’s not be remiss that, yes, this is probably the only league that prepares guys to leave and go to the NBA.”