NBL All Star Game

Saturday July 4, 1992. The NBL All Star Game at the AIS Arena in Canberra. In the lead up to the Barcelona Olympics, Basketball Australia decided to format the All-Star Game as a warm up game for the Olympic Team – Australia versus the best Americans in the NBL.  

This was also at the height of the NBLs popularity locally coupled with Michael Jordan mania which was about to spread to the Olympics with the original, and the best Dream Team. Australia though had formed a strong side of their own, with Luc Longley starting to find his way as the first local to play in the NBA. Along with Longley were the regulars, Shane Heal, Andrew Gaze, Andrew Vlahov and Phil Smythe plus naturalised Leroy Loggins leading the way.

For the first time since its inception, the notion of an All-Star game had some real purpose – patriotic bragging rights between the Australian’s and the American imports, coupled with a true Olympic hit out for the National team.

Selected for the American’s were the likes of Scott Fischer, Andre Moore, Lanard Copeland, Bruce Bolden and Mark Davis. Both squads were filled 12 deep with stars in their own right from within the NBL. 

In the 90’s, imports within the NBL tended to either crash and burn straight away, some suffering from Pacific Shrinkage as it was known, or they would star and then end up staying multiple seasons – often for good! Leroy Loggins was the perfect example! These guys were the stars year in year out, and truth be told, that is what made the NBL so popular back in the day.

So, 20-year-old me along with 2 work friends decided to drive down for the weekend – catch up with some family, and again truth be told – hit the casino, oh, and watch some basketball!

The AIS Arena was and still is, a very small gymnasium type building, a far cry from the entertainment centres and arenas teams play in these days. We’d already invited ourselves in t watch the qualifying heats for the 3 point competition earlier in the day – no one questioned us, so we watched and grabbed a couple of autographs! So come game time I was pretty keen to see how relaxed security might be from a photography side of things.

I stayed in my purchased seat for the entire first half and for the commencement of the slam dunk contest – this was what I wanted to photograph, especially given the relative closeness to the court that not only our seats, but every seat in the arena had.

Slam dunk contests at the time, were things we would see on Wide World of Sports on a Saturday afternoon, or on the NBA news section during NBL broadcasts – it was pre internet and pay TV. Michael Jordan though was everywhere, and so too was his iconic 1988 dunk photo – the one from the free throw line – the Air Jordan logo! yeah that one!!! Now by no way did I expect anything near as iconic as that, but I did expect someone to try and replicate or honour might be a better word, that dunk.  My challenge was going to be trying to capture it.

Step up Lanard Copeland! He already had a reputation as being a high flyer within the league, often off the back of an Andrew Gaze alley-oop pass, and also quite often, at the expense of the Sydney Kings.  The picture highlighted below, is my favourite basketball photograph I have ever taken! Lanard Copeland in mid-flight, from the free throw line, hand above the rim, about to make his version of the iconic dunk.  In 1992 it was still film, so I had no idea if I caught the shot or not! Indoors, so I couldn’t (and wouldn’t have) use a flash, so I wasn’t sure if my exposures were accurate – it was a case of wait and see!

The Lenard Copeland Dunk - captured on film from my allocated seat. To date, still a favourite picture of mine.

Having though seen that dunk, and more so, seeing the number of photographers on the floor itself, I decided to push my luck and take up a spot under the basket, what’s the worst that could happen? Much to my surprise, no one even gave me a second look. So, from here, my intention was to shoot the remainder of the slam dunk contest, and then return to my seat.

The second photo below is another that I love, as it is very much an in your face, posterised picture of Andre Moore. It’s funny, but one of the main reasons I like this picture, apart from the fact that Andre is coming straight at me, is that little finger! It just sticks out at suck a weird angle.

Andre Moore

With the slam dunk contest complete, I cannot even remember who actually won, I decided I would take my time getting back to my seat – basically I decided to stay here for as long as I could – little did I know it would be for the entire second half!

I took the opportunity to shoot the from inside the advertising boards – today that is unheard of! When you’re sitting on the floor looking up at 7-foot-tall Luc Longley and the in comparison short guys like Heal and Smythe, taking pictures is a challenge to both capture their size and athleticism. For a non-contact sport, the bumps were loud and solid, something that doesn’t translate when watching on TV. Guys like Mark Bradtke and John Dorge, up this close, looked like disproportionate footballers, so solid in build, but also so tall and agile with their hands and feet.

In the end, Australia won in a typical non descript, high scoring all star game, but for me, I got my own version of that Michael Jordan iconic dunk picture.

One final tip for anyone planning a trip with mates, don’t trust a driver who says the dipstick doesn’t work in his car! 5 extra hours and a tow truck ride home from Goulburn is another story for another day.