By JARROD POTTER
THE satisfaction of a sweet swish drove Alex Wood to change the outdoor basketball landscape in Victoria.
For too long Wood and his brother Jackson played on outdoor courts without a net and while it seems a simplistic problem, the addition of a chain net for a few dollars each makes a dramatic difference to outdoor matches.
It all started with that desire to swish and slam for Wood and his friends – who’d play pick-up basketball games on the courts around Mentone.
“We noticed there’s resurgence in basketball and me and my basketball mates were wanting to play with a net,” Wood said.
“We bought one and hung it up and all the kids wandered over from the skate park and were enjoying it.
“It’s the part of the game everyone loves – the validation where the chain echoes and everyone knows you hit it – you never get tired of hearing that.
“Guys will stop playing so we can hang it and you can see them lift up their intensity as everyone stands taller under the net.”
After crowd-funding $12000 from Kickstarter users, the Nothingbutnet legion of volunteers went about putting net after net up around Victoria.
Their aim on Saturday was to hang 100 nets across Victoria, with the City of Greater Dandenong gaining the organisation’s attention for its huge basketball community and countless outdoor facilities.
The duo strung up nets at over a dozen outdoor, council-owned basketball courts across the City of Greater Dandenong on Saturday as part of the organisation’s aim to reach every council court in metropolitan and suburban Melbourne and get more players out on court.
The level of skill in Dandenong’s basketball community was part of the reason the Nothingbutnet founder/baller wanted to hang nets in the city as he hopes it encourages players to spend more time outside and improve their game even more.
“One area we have all talked about is probably Dandenong,” Wood said.
“It has a huge Sudanese community… they’re amazing with 14-year-olds who dunk on you – it’s a bit embarrassing but they’re incredible.
“The whole city has a huge, diverse basketball community and there will be a lot more bouncing of the balls and swishing going on now.”
The organisation is also in the process of creating a smartphone app to tell players where their nets have been hung around Victoria, creating the first in-depth outdoor court maps in the state.
“Every time we rock up – invariably within five minutes there will be kids playing on it,” Wood said.
“They turn around and ask ‘are you going to take it away?’ and all we want is for them to take care of it.”
Information on the start-up charity and requests to get nets put up on your local court can be found on their website www.nothingbutnet.org.au or its Facebook page Nothingbutnet.
