It's November 2002, and NBA legend Magic Johnson is lacing up his sneakers for an exhibition game against his former college basketball team, the Michigan State Spartans.
The 43-year-old former Los Angeles Laker had just been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and has hand-picked a little-known Australian team — the Canberra Cannons — to take on his former college squad.
What followed was one of the most surreal moments in Australian basketball with the Cannons winning 104-85 behind 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists from Magic.
For Brad Williams, playing alongside the five-time NBA champion was a dream come true.
"It was just such an amazing experience to actually not only meet one of your heroes growing up, but to play with them," he said.
But while Williams and his teammates were living the dream in LA, a nightmare was forming for the team in Australia.
After returning home, the Cannons rejoined the National Basketball League (NBL) season, but only weeks later were abruptly shut down, with the team entering administration.
Players and team staff were suddenly left without jobs and salaries only weeks out from Christmas.
But what happened to the Canberra Cannons in 2002 was not unique; in its 43-year history, the NBL has lost 24 teams — leaving the lingering question of whether the league is vulnerable for this to happen again.
Birth of the NBL
The NBL formed in 1979 after a collection of high-performing local clubs, including the Canberra Cannons, banded together to kickstart a national league.
Its early success led to the number of teams increasing from 10 to 17 in just five years.
Award-winning NBL writer and journalist Boti Nagy has covered the league since its inception.
He said the initial explosion in teams came with some serious setbacks.
"These were all club teams that were based in suburban stadia that were seating 350 people, and the costs involved with travelling around Australia — I think a lot of people bit off more than they could chew," he said.
"Then, when they became part of it, they found 'my god, this is a lot more expensive than we realised'."
By the end of the 1980s, the NBL had already lost eight teams, including the Sydney Supersonics, West Adelaide Bearcats and West Sydney Westars.
The 'golden era'
As teams started moving into bigger and better stadiums in the late 80s, the quality of TV broadcasts also improved immensely for people watching at home.
This helped grow the audience and the money that came with it, leading to a period from the late 80s to the mid-90s widely considered the league's "golden era".
NBL legend Andrew Gaze said it was a milestone moment for basketball in Australia.
"In 1987 we were terrible, playing in front of 600 people, and four or five years later, we were at the [Melbourne] Tennis Center playing in front of 15,000 people," he said.
"Such was the growth of the game, in a relatively short period of time."
But Nagy said the immense success of some teams also created an uneven playing field for the smaller clubs that had not kept up with the league's boom.
Several clubs started to fall by the wayside, simply because, financially, they just could not meet the level of commitment that was now required to compete with the bigger city teams, he said.
By the turn of the century, the league had lost another eight teams, among them the Geelong Supercats, Hobart Tassie Devils and North Melbourne Giants.
The fall of the Cannons
Before their sudden downfall, the Canberra Cannons had been one of the league's storied franchises, winning championships in 1983, '84 and '88.
But, by the late 90s, the team had started to fall on tough times.
They had played out the Australian Institute of Sports (AIS) Arena since their inception.
But the 5,000-seat capacity venue had started to fall behind others used by the league.
This hampered the team's ability to generate enough revenue to remain viable, plunging the team into debt.
And, by the time the Cannons had returned from their historic game with Magic Johnson in late 2002, the team's luck had run out.
Players and staff were informed of the team's closure at an emergency meeting at the team's training facility.
Hall of Fame NBL player Cal Bruton was the coach of the Cannons at the time and said the news was devastating for the team and its fanbase.
"They called us in and said 'that's it, it's over, just like that', so everybody was just shocked," he said.
"That was just a whole new level of disappointment."
Ex-Cannons player Cameron Rigby said the proximity of the announcement to Christmas also made things worse.
"We had no jobs, the money stops, and all that stuff hit us instantly," he said.
The Cannons eventually returned to the court to finish the 2002-03 season while they searched for a new owner.
To make up for missed games, the team had to play a gruelling compressed schedule, even enlisting a number of retired NBL stars like James Crawford to field a team.
"I don't want to say travelling circus, but it was an interesting way to finish up an elite professional season," Rigby said.
"Absolutely bizarre, if I wasn't there to experience it, I wouldn't believe that it would have happened."
The Cannons were eventually sold to a Newcastle-based group before the end of the season.
Soon after, it was announced the new owners would be packing the team up and moving them to Newcastle to become the Hunter Pirates.
But, after winning just 30 out of 67 games in their first three seasons, the Pirates were again moved to form the NBL's first and only club based in Asia: The Singapore Slingers.
After two losing seasons, the Slingers were also shut down and the team licence was cancelled altogether.
Back from the brink
By 2015, the league had fallen into one of the most troubling financial positions in its history, with many teams either burdened with debt or struggling to break even each year.
The NBL was then given a lifeline from Melbourne-based real estate mogul Larry Kestelman, who took ownership of the entire league for just $7 million.
Mr Kestelman said building a sustainable business model for the league was his top priority after taking over.
"I really wanted to squarely put the focus on: 'what business are we in? What is the actual sport about?' And give it the attention it deserves and build it into a sustainable business," he said.
"If you cannot make clear, concise and quick decisions, that's a formula for a disaster."
The league has since seen a remarkable return to prominence.
The high-profile signing of young American prospects LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton in 2019 drew international attention to the league.
And the addition of the South East Melbourne Phoenix in 2018 and the Tasmania JackJumpers in 2020 grew the number of teams to 10.
The NBL then signed a record $45 million broadcast deal with ESPN in 2021.
"What Larry has done is put us back on the map, if he wasn't running the NBL, I shudder to think what state basketball would be in," Nagy said.
But, despite the turnaround, some NBL teams have continued to struggle.
The Illawarra Hawks, the only foundation NBL team still afloat today, escaped complete collapse in 2020 after an administrator recommended the team call it quits.
The Hawks' struggles continue today, with the team regularly failing to fill even half of their 6,000 capacity arena, according to figures from Austadiums.
Could the NBL return to Canberra?
Mr Kestelman said the success of the Tasmania JackJumpers expansion team was a sign that a new NBL team in Canberra could be on the cards.
"We absolutely would love to see a team in Canberra, and in the past, it was something that was very successful and super popular," he said.
"I think there's a huge supporter base, fan base, participation base, it's the capital of the country, so for us not to have NBL games in Canberra is a negative."
The main barrier to Canberra's NBL reunion is an appropriate venue.
The Cannons' old stomping ground, the AIS Arena, has been closed since the start of the pandemic due to its inadequate fire safety.
And despite a recently announced $11 million funding package to get the arena upgraded and reopened in 2023, Mr Kestelman said that did not go far enough to make it NBL-ready.
"The expectation now, if you look at all of our venues around Australia, is of a very professional and global standard event," he said.
"So that's a conversation if the government wants to have, we're certainly open to those discussions."
For NBL legend Andrew Gaze, the continued expansion of the league is absolutely vital if Australia expects more podium finishes at the Olympics and world championships.
"Right now I think that we could do with three or four more teams, given the talent that we have playing," he said.
"If we want to be winning medals in the Olympics and world cups and having our national team play at the highest level on a consistent basis, you need a really strong program at the national level to continue to develop the talent, to have the capacity to play on the international stage."
