Welcome to the Brew Hoop Night Shift. Every evening at 9:00pm (central time), this all-purpose thread goes up, and the comments section is where it’s going down. What Bucks news did we not cover? What topics do you want to break down further? Or is there something non-Bucks that you want to bounce off of one another? Even something non-basketball? This is the place.
Tonight’s (on)topic: Basketball in Australia
.@bryancurtis on the rise of the mid-morning sport in Australia: the #NBA https://t.co/hoEjLbRwC8
— The Ringer (@ringer) February 20, 2018
The Australian fandom for the NBA is awesome. Luc Longley is my first memory of an Australian in the NBA and I liked the guy simply because he was Australian. One of the more interesting things out of the above article from The Ringer, is how Australian NBA fans came about rooting for a specific NBA team. This quote stuck with me the most:
Australians were as bad at picking a favorite NBA team as soccer-curious Americans were at picking a Premier League side.
I remember when American soccer hero, Clint Dempsey, played for Fulham and then transferred to Tottenham. So many of my friends became Tottenham fans overnight. I can only imagine how many Australian basketball fans decided to make Milwaukee the team that they would follow simply because the Bucks drafted Andrew Bogut first overall. The comparison between how the English Premier League is viewed in the States with how the NBA is viewed in Australia helped put the fandom in perspective for me.
The professional basketball league in Australia, the NBL, had a few teams squaring off with NBA teams during the pre-season. That kind of exposure is great for the NBL in America, as well as growing the fandom across the Pacific. As the NBA looks to maybe tweak their one-and-done rule, that could lead to an influx of young, American players playing a year professionally in Australia, so they can still enter the draft one year removed from high school.
Tonight’s (off)topic: Homemade Snacks
Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are my favorite snack but I’ll be undergoing a serious diet change in the coming months and those might have to get cut from my dietary roster. I have already looked into making Flamin’ Hots from scratch which I feel like would be healthier relatively speaking. I have made chicken wings from scratch and those turned out so dang good. Puppy chow is a snack that tastes a million times better when it is homemade as opposed to store-bought. Has anyone made their own homemade version of what is traditionally a store-bought snack?
As a general rule, non-basketball topics are permitted in an open thread, provided that they follow the SB Nation Community Guidelines.