The 10 Greatest Australian Basketball Players of All Time
Australian basketball has never been in a better place. Every year another Aussie slips into the NBA conversation. Every year the Boomers pipeline gets stronger. And every year the debate gets louder about who truly sits on top of the Australian basketball mountain.
Most people pick the safe options. Championships. Longevity. Role player reliability. But that is not the full picture. Peak level matters. Global perception matters. The ability to shape a game and influence a franchise matters.
This list is about the players who reached heights no Australian before them ever touched. And in some cases, heights we did not think Australians were capable of reaching at all.
So here it is. The definitive countdown. The 10 greatest Australian basketball players of all time.
Let’s get into it.
10. Dyson Daniels
At just 21, Dyson Daniels already defends like someone who has spent a decade studying the best guards in the world. After two stop start seasons in New Orleans, the trade to Atlanta unlocked everything. Running offence next to Trae Young, Daniels finally got the keys to show he is more than a defensive specialist.
He did not just take a step. He blew the door off.
In 2024–25 Daniels averaged 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 3.0 steals per game for the Hawks, leading the entire NBA in steals and posting 229 steals, the highest total since Gary Payton in 1995–96 and the largest gap between first and second in league history. He was named Most Improved Player, made All Defensive First Team, finished runner up for Defensive Player of the Year and cashed in with a four year, 100 million dollar extension in Atlanta.
Daniels cracks the top 10 because he is already doing things players with five years of experience cannot do. If this is the starting point, in five years this ranking probably looks way too low.
9. Joe Ingles
There are two kinds of basketball fans. Those who understand the value of Joe Ingles and those who need to watch more basketball.
Ingles was never the fastest or the flashiest, but he became one of the smartest and most reliable role players in the world. He turned into the connective tissue of a Utah Jazz team that sat near the top of the West for years. He defended above his athletic grade, spaced the floor and ran pick and roll like he was born to do it.
When he walked onto the court, teams immediately respected him. They schemed around him. They feared his chemistry, his lefty pick and roll and his ability to punish every single mistake. His basketball IQ is top tier and his impact was far bigger than the box score suggested.
On paper the resume is serious. Ingles is Utah’s all time leader in three pointers made, owns a career 40.9 percent three point percentage, won a EuroLeague title with Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2014 and was a key part of the Boomers bronze medal run at Tokyo 2020.
He is the definition of an overachiever who created a blueprint for future Aussies.
8. Aron Baynes
If you wanted to know how tough Aron Baynes was, you only needed to listen when opponents hit the hardwood. That thud was usually Baynes setting a screen.
Baynes brought brute force to every possession. He defended big bodies, rebounded with intent and gradually stretched his game to the three point line. He turned himself into a legitimate rotation piece on playoff teams, the sort of big every contender wants on its bench.
At his peak he was one of the most respected interior enforcers in the league. Durable. Reliable. Physical. A player every coach trusted to do the dirty work without complaining.
Across 9 NBA seasons Baynes averaged 6.0 points and 4.6 rebounds in 522 regular season games, winning an NBA title with the Spurs in 2014 and later becoming a valued piece in Detroit, Boston and Phoenix. He also helped the Boomers claim Olympic bronze in Tokyo 2020, before fighting back from a serious spinal cord injury to return to professional basketball.
His journey from Mareeba to NBA champion is pure Australian basketball folklore.
7. Matthew Dellavedova
If effort had a stat line, Matthew Dellavedova would lead the world every year.
Delly’s legacy is tied to a single idea. He refused to back down from anyone. Not LeBron in practice. Not Curry in the Finals. Not the Warriors dynasty that ran through the league. His defensive pressure and relentless energy helped Cleveland punch above its weight in the early LeBron return years and set the tone for a championship culture.
He made life miserable for elite guards and carved out a long professional career by knowing exactly what he brought to the table. Screen navigation. Charges. Hustle. Leadership. Noise.
On the resume side Delly is a 2016 NBA champion with the Cavaliers and a Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallist with the Boomers.
He remains one of the most loved players in Aussie basketball history. Every kid who dives on a loose ball is doing the Delly.
6. Andrew Gaze
You cannot write the history of Australian basketball without Andrew Gaze. Yes, his time in the NBA was short, but his global impact was massive and his body of work is ridiculous.
Gaze dominated the NBL like few athletes have ever dominated any league. He was an Olympic icon, a scoring machine and a foundational pillar of Australian hoops. He made basketball matter in this country before the NBA wave properly hit.
NBL wise his numbers are obscene. Gaze scored 18,908 points in the NBL at 30.8 points per game, won seven NBL MVP awards, 14 scoring titles, 15 straight All NBL First Team selections and two NBL championships with the Melbourne Tigers. He represented Australia at a record five Olympic Games, carried the flag in Sydney 2000 and later entered both the FIBA Hall of Fame and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, where he now holds legend status.
This list weighs legacy as well as the highest level played. No one carries more legacy weight than Gaze.
5. Josh Giddey
Josh Giddey is already one of the most naturally gifted playmakers Australia has ever produced. His feel for the game is absurd. His passing is elite. His ability to dictate pace at 21 years old is unheard of.
He started his NBA career as a teenager running the offence for a rebuilding Oklahoma City team. Since then he has kept stacking milestones. At 19 years and 84 days he became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple double, then joined Luka Dončić, Ben Simmons and Grant Hill as the only players to post at least 1,000 points, 700 rebounds and 500 assists in their first 100 NBA games. In one recent season he averaged 16.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists, basically flirting with a nightly triple double.
Giddey’s ceiling is sky high. At his peak he could very well pass Simmons, Bogut and everyone else on this list. His trajectory says future franchise star for both the Bulls and the Boomers.
4. Luc Longley
Before anyone else made the leap, before Australia had its modern NBA wave, there was Luc Longley.
Longley was the starting centre for the Chicago Bulls at the height of the Jordan dynasty. He defended, he facilitated out of the high post and he made himself invaluable to a team built around the greatest player of all time. His role was not glamorous, but it was essential.
He took the hit, set the screen, protected the rim and gave Phil Jackson the big body he needed to run triangle offence properly.
His numbers are quietly solid. Longley averaged 7.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.0 blocks across his NBA career and won three straight NBA titles from 1996 to 1998. He also picked up domestic honours back home early in his career and remains a central figure in the story of Australian basketball.
He is the original Australian NBA export. He walks straight into the top four.
3. Patty Mills
Patty Mills is the heartbeat of Australian basketball. He is the soul of the Boomers and a Finals winning contributor for the San Antonio Spurs.
What Mills did in the 2014 Finals belongs in the conversation of great Australian sporting moments. In Game 5 he dropped 17 points, including 14 in the third quarter, to help bury Miami and close out the series.
Beyond that single series the resume is huge. Mills became the first Australian to play 1,000 NBA games, owns 98 NBA playoff appearances, spent a decade in San Antonio as the cultural glue of a title contender and has represented Australia at five Olympic Games, leading the Boomers to their first ever Olympic medal with bronze at Tokyo 2020. He also sits among the top five scorers in Olympic basketball history, which is wild given the names on that list.
He is one of the most respected Australians ever to play the game. A true cultural icon of the sport.
2. Andrew Bogut
The first Australian drafted number one overall. An All NBA level defender. A champion. And the backbone of one of the greatest teams ever assembled.
Andrew Bogut changed the way Golden State played basketball. His screening, his rim protection, his passing and his physical presence were the glue that held the early Warriors together before the three point avalanche truly peaked. In Milwaukee he had already shown he could be a franchise anchor, putting up a career high season in 2009–10 with 15.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per game and earning All NBA Third Team honours.
Across 706 NBA games Bogut averaged 9.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists, won the 2015 NBA title with Golden State, made the NBA All Rookie First Team, and later anchored the Boomers at multiple Olympics and World Cups.
Bogut did everything you want from a franchise big. He guarded stars, played through pain and made everyone around him better. His legacy is enormous.
There is only one Australian who reached a higher individual level.
1. Ben Simmons
Say whatever you want about the later years. The peak speaks for itself.
Ben Simmons reached an elite level no Australian has ever touched. After missing his first season through injury, he stormed into the league, won Rookie of the Year in 2018, then stacked accolades at a ridiculous rate. Between 2018 and 2021 he became a three time NBA All Star, a two time All Defensive First Team selection, made All NBA Third Team in 2020 and led the entire league in steals that same season.
At his best he was a walking mismatch. A 208 centimetre point forward who could guard all five positions, push in transition and create open looks on demand. For a three year stretch he was consistently ranked inside the top 15 players on earth and was talked about as a future Defensive Player of the Year and MVP candidate.
No Australian before or since has generated that level of global respect.
The later seasons, trades and injuries change the narrative, but they do not erase the peak. And the peak was historic. Until someone else matches that level, Ben Simmons stays number one.
Final Word
Australian basketball is deeper than ever. Young stars are already knocking on the door of this list and in five years the entire landscape could shift. Giddey is still climbing. Daniels is only getting scarier. The next wave is already lining up behind them.
But for now, these are the ten players who shaped Australian basketball. The pioneers. The champions. The stars. The prodigies. And the one player who reached a peak the basketball world had no choice but to acknowledge.
