You can now even throw the Corrimal Cougars, whose women’s side will tour Canada in October, in the basket of those with greater ambitions for the game than the NRL.

In that column we spoke about how the game, and its efforts at growth and expansion, is constantly hampered by self-interested clubs. 

We can now look to the NBL as a greater sporting visionary in this country with confirmation that the Sydney Kings, Melbourne United and Brisbane Bullets will travel to the US to play the Phoenix Suns, Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz respectively.

It’s going to cause a rejig of the NBL draw and will see Sydney rush straight back and off a plane into their season-opener against Adelaide.

It still pains us to see him in that god-awful purple and gold, but Sydney Kings captain Kevin Lisch’s comments said a lot basketball’s ambitions in Australia.

“I’ve been telling people I don’t care if we arrive five minutes before our first game,” Licsh told Fox Sports.

“This is about the bigger picture, this is about growing basketball in Australia.

“The preparation for the first game is really irrelevant for myself it’s more about growing basketball in this country.”