By Jayden Krieg | NORTH'S NBA week. About the week, why we are running it and how YOU can be a

Preface By Janx.....

PICTURED: Flyer for the event. This development camp probably has the most high profile coaches and camp leaders of any openly accessible development camp in Australia, ever.

www.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com is not a commercial site. Why we exist is plastered on the homepage of this site so we won't repeat here.

Whilst we listen-to and engage with everyone we are not commercial, so what may be an opportunity to those seeking a buck does not apply to us. We are not a commercial venture and as such if these "opportunities" do not provide value to our featured athletes, or our valued readers and followers, then we are going to say thanks but no thanks to most of these opportunities on offer. I state this to make it clear this post bears no commercial benefit to us at all.

Occasionally an opportunity comes along that we just have to share the information on. This is one such opportunity and I have asked Jayden Krieg to fill us all in on.

We have asked Jayden to blog on the event he is supervising for a combination of 4 reasons.

The NSBA (organisers of the event) have offered our network and followers a DISCOUNT which we greatly appreciate
The organisation (NSBA) he works for is one of the largest and most respected Basketball Associations in Australia. Over years I've coached against and seen so much talent out of his association. I have a lot of respect for the NSBA. During my time as Director of Coaching with Central Districts Lions I did scour the Bear's website for coaching handbooks, drills and even policies to provide me with inspiration and ideas at the Lions. The NSBA organisation are impressive!!
The event in question includes some of the best basketball players out of Australia playing in the WNBA and NBA, plus a very intriguing American born player in Chris "Birdman" Anderson.
We will always be keen to try to help any organisation that is not for profit association, affiliated to the peak sporting body in their respective state.

In this blog Jayden provides insights beyond the "standard advert" for this event. We want any reader interested in this event to get value by reading this blog but also anyone interested in how a successful organisation like NSBA is led, as well as insights on how to organise such a grand scale event. We also find out why they setup this event and what they hope to achieve. I’m fascinated to hear how they managed to pull profiles and talent as big as they have done for this event.

Well done to Jayden and Norths for setting up an event like this, it is great for the sport!!! Maybe other associations get their creative juices and inspiration by what Jayden and NSBA have achieved.

Over to Jayden....

About NSBA

PICTURED: NSBA who are running the event are one of the most successful and respected basketball associations in Australia.

Northern Suburbs Basketball Association Inc (NSBA) is a community based not for profit sporting association with a North Shore history extending over twenty years. NSBA has grown from a small group of interested basketball players in the early 1980s to a champion Association with over 5,200 registered playing members and a professional management team. The aim of the association is to build a community renowned for its sportsmanship and providing opportunities for everyone to participate in basketball.

My role at Norths is the Development Program Coordinator. Essentially, I am in charge of running the administration and access to our programs which include after-school skills sessions, holiday camps, elite morning training sessions as well as sessions dedicated to preparing players for their first representative trial.

The thing that I think Norths is able to do so well is provide opportunity to all its members, whether they are at the beginner level, or whether they are moving into an elite pathway. For example, we have taken a big step towards accessibility for new players by offering all our development programs five days a week. For our elite players, we have recently had specialised morning sessions with current and former professional players. These included Leilani Mitchell from the 2016 Opals Olympic team and Ben Knight, former NBL player in over 350 career games. On top of this, I even had the opportunity to create a Norths advertisement video showcasing our pathway from learning the game to getting to the elite level.

PICTURED: Different day, a different star.

About the NBA week

The biggest opportunity open to the public yet, that I think has ever been done in Australia is our Norths NBA Week. Some camps have had one guest NBA/WNBA Player in attendance for a day or two, we wanted to have a week long NBA experience that we could provide NBA fans across Australia. What started out as a small idea generated into this huge event we are running now. The line-up for the week includes Dante Exum (July 10), Lauren Jackson (July 11), Joe Ingles (July 12 and 13) and Chris ‘Birdman’ Andersen (July 14). It is a star-studded 5-Day NBA Experience not to be missed (July 10-14 2017).

To date, we have had ticket sales across NSW and even Australia, including Queensland and Melbourne. We want to fill our stadium with as many fans as possible who may never have the opportunity to head over to the USA and watch an NBA game, let alone be coached by this calibre of player or even meet them. As I mentioned, this camp is for ANY NBA fan! Our campers will be split into age and skill groups throughout the week to ensure that the level of training is up to standard with the level of player. Basically it’s open from anyone in primary school to finishing high school. We can ensure that the development opportunity will be what you are after. We have even opened up adult and corporate packages which are lunch-time sessions. These adult NBA fans can come in, train with their preferred player for an hour session, get their gear signed, have lunch and be back to work in time for the end of the day!

How the even came about

I set out with an idea to have this sort of camp and host it at Norths. I wondered why there were such barriers in having these high-profile players come and run a camp. It took a lot of unrewarded hours contacting sports agencies via email and phone, until a couple stuck. Over this event, I have dealt with some of the biggest sports agencies in the world, and it has been really cool to see how they work and what sort of effort is involved in maintaining relationships with them moving forward. I have established a number of contacts which in the future, will give us access to even more NBA Stars.

Once the line-up was confirmed, we got a lot of interest from companies wanting to attach to the project. Our major sponsor is the Throwback Store based in Sydney. They are a leading provider of custom sports apparel, as well as licensed retailers of NBA products. Spalding also has jumped on-board as the ‘Official Ball of the NBA Week’ which is super exciting! On top of that, we have also partnered with Harris Farm Grocer in their goal to provide children and young adults healthy eating habits and options. To have such big brands partner with us over this week has been really exciting for us as a local basketball association. We never thought that this event could get to a scale like this and are very grateful for all their hard work!

What we want to achieve

With this event, I really just want to provide an opportunity for basketball fans all over Australia the opportunity to do more than just meet these players. I want them to have the feeling that they connected through basketball by being coached by them and truly interacting with them. I believe there is a big difference between meeting someone, and being influenced by them. Ideally, every person that comes to this event is influenced and inspired by these players, whether in their basketball or in another aspect of their lives. Our sport shouldn’t all the time be competitive and who is better than who. For something like this, it’s about growing the sport and making something everyone loves accessible to Australia.

Discount to all www.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com readers, subscribers, supporters and followers

For those wanting to purchase tickets to this event, Norths wanted to offer all members of the www.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com $50.00 off the ‘NBA Fan Ticket’ (5-Day pass). A special code has been set up – HOOPS – which you just have to enter on the ticket page for the discount. Tickets can be purchased through following the prompts at our website www.nsba.com.au. We have a number of ticket options available, including single-day and VIP Packages, as well as those Adult Only sessions I talked about. All the sessions are inclusive of Subway lunch, a Norths NBA Week exclusive t-shirt, and the experience of a life-time. I hope that as many of you as possible are able to take up this opportunity and come across to Sydney to experience the NBA!

Thanks so much everyone!

Jayden Krieg

PICTURED: Success story with the Utah Jazz this past season, Adelaide born Joe Ingles will be leading campers over a 2 day period. Joe also gets big mention in a recent blog by James Woite on the Basketball SA Premier League; South Australia Basketball is producing diamonds, now it is time to look inside the rough

PICTURED: Lauren Jackson. MUM; "Hey Jane so who did you learn from today.". JANE: "ummm I don't know, ONLY the greatest female, Australian player of all time".

PICTURED: Work with Dante, learn from one of the guys that are considered the future of the Aussie Boomer's medal chances. We also recently did a blog on the U18 National Championships that Dante featured in Perth; The greatest collective talent at U18 National Champs in history.