THE National Basketball League (NBL) has announced itself as a successful pathway for young basketball talents to take their journey to the next level. With quality talent spread across the league making for a tough competition, many young players see this as an opportunity to prove their worth against a more experienced league than the NCAA or other similar leagues.

The NBL has even developed a Next Star program, where the brightest young talents from around the globe are recognized and given the proper training and facilities to assist their development. In the past, this program has delivered international stars such as Lamelo Ball, RJ Hampton and Joshua Giddey.

Thanks to the success of these players, the door has been opened for even more of the world’s most exciting youngsters to join the program, before potentially joining the NBA in the future.

One of the players taking advantage of the Next Stars program is Mojave King, who is about to enter the second year of his two-year contract with the league. At just 19 years of age, King’s best is still to come, and with plenty of NBL experience under his belt, he looks likely to take the next step in his basketball career.

A native of Dunedin in New Zealand, King has always been involved in basketball, with the family moving to Australia with his father accepting a coaching job in the sport. While King was growing up in Queensland, his father’s prominence in the basketball world began to grow too, coaching in the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL). Being involved in his father’s work saw King’s passion for the sport develop as he began participating as he got older.

In 2019, King joined the NBA Global Academy, an affiliate of the organization that focuses on finding the world’s best young basketball players and giving them the necessary training and facilities to hone their craft and begin a basketball journey that could see these youngsters become some of the best in the world at some stage throughout their career.

Taking full advantage of the opportunity presented to him, King developed his game while playing with the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence in the NBL1, where he was given crucial experience in big games. Following this, he competed in a number of under-18 tournaments, where he was able to demonstrate his explosive scoring ability, a crucial trait for clubs on the lookout for a shooting guard such as King.

These strong levels of play resulted in a contract for the Cairns Taipans, despite being just 17 years old, as a part of the Next Stars program. While being on limited minutes compared to some of his teammates, he still was able to hit the scoreboard on a nightly basis. King averaged over six points per game and showed that if given the opportunity, he can score in quick succession. A career-high 25 points against the Brisbane Bullets only furthered these claims, with the youngster set to explode if given minutes.

Following the end of a successful debut season, King was moved to the Adelaide 36ers to complete his two-year stint with the program, before likely moving overseas for a shot at making the biggest stage of them all in the NBA.

At 6ft 5in, King also has the size to create a potential mismatch with his opponent at the two-guard position. Combining this with elite scoring and smooth shooting ability, King looks destined to be one of the finest products to come out of the NBL Next Star program.