NBL Announces Three Sides Will Tour the US

Three Australian basketball teams will travel to the US to take on some of the world's best

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The National Basketball League was due to make the announcement on Tuesday morning but early reports have confirmed that three NBL teams will be heading to the United States in October.

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that NBL teams Melbourne United, the Sydney Kings and the Brisbane Bullets will all travel to the US for a series of pre-season matches against the worlds elite.

From current information it looks likely that United will face reigning MVP Russell Westbrook and his Oklahoma City Thunder, the Kings will face Aussie pair Joe Ingles and Dante Exum and the Utah Jazz and the Bullets will head out to the desert to play the Phoenix Suns.

This is a huge announcement for the NBL who have pushed hard for NBA teams to tour Australia in recent years, and the invitation to play against NBA competition shows how well Australian basketball is travelling at the moment.

The NBL has become a destination for budding NBA stars in recent seasons, with young players like Terrance Ferguson and Torrey Craig choosing to forego college to play professionally in the NBL. It definitely paid off for those two, and if this US tour is a success we could start to see even more stars choosing to ply their trade in Australia.

The NBA season start date has been moved up to the 17th of October in an attempt to reduce back-to-backs and this would mean all sides are likely to trot out full strength sides only weeks out from opening games.

In great news for Aussie fans that means that stalwarts Ingles and Exum will most likely line up against the challengers.

From the provisional information, this is what the US tour will look like:

Sydney Kings @ Utah Jazz on October 3rd.

Brisbane Bullets @ Phoenix Suns

Melbourne United @ Oklahoma City Thunder

Updates to follow.

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