A Trump acolyte, a rival billionaire and a power struggle: how civil war erupted in Australian basketball
Donald Trump's appointment as the next ambassador for New Zealand and Samoa, who is also a Republican political donor and the son of a St Louis oil baron, has emerged as the catalyst in the battle for control of one of the world's top basketball leagues.
It is a story of international athletic A-listers, a controversial property development and high-net-worth individuals with pockets billions of dollars deep. But most of all it is about whether professional basketball in Australia can be viable, and whose vision may prove it so.
Jared Novelly, owner of Australian National Basketball League (NBL) club the Illawarra Hawks, is a respected sports investor who also has a stake in Hong Kong's Bay Area Dragons. The son of Apex Oil owner Paul 'Tony' Novelly, who died in February, is leading a group of aggrieved team owners against the NBL and the man who purchased the competition a decade ago, Larry Kestelman.
The stoush has now made it all the way to the head office of international governing body Fiba in Switzerland, after Novelly sent a letter requesting an investigation into Kestelman's alleged conflicts of interest in the league. Kestelman has been part of the ownership of the Tasmania JackJumpers and Melbourne United, but has announced plans to exit both clubs. The letter alleges Kestelman of 'suspected violations' of Fiba's code of conduct and calls for a provisional suspension.
A spokesperson for the NBL said the allegations were 'baseless'. 'The NBL considers that its time and resources are better invested in helping to grow the game of basketball in Australia and New Zealand, from grassroots to elite levels, rather than responding to further iterations of baseless allegations, which the NBL has previously addressed,' the spokesperson said.
The letter is the latest escalation in a dispute hurtling towards the courts. The NBL has ordered financial management and insolvency firm KordaMentha to look into Novelly's Hawks, who defeated Melbourne United in the competition's grand final last week.
Confusion was added on Friday over the stance of Basketball Australia (BA), the organisation responsible for the sport's grassroots and representative teams. BA has recently sold a controlling stake of the WNBL – Australia's women's competition – to Kestelman and the Wollemi Capital Group of Tesla chair Robyn Denholm.
An NBL spokesperson initially passed on a statement from BA saying the governing body 'fully supports the management' of the league. But after confirmation was sought from BA on Friday morning, a comment shared directly by BA's representative did not include any reference to support. 'Basketball Australia has contracts in place with the NBL to run the league,' the statement read. 'Over its time in charge, the NBL has grown and has been very successful.'
The developments in recent days follow an email circulated by Novelly last week to club owners proposing a buyout of the NBL, and detailing grievances including 'secret ambassador agreements, gambling revenue, the sale of the [Tasmania] JackJumpers, integrity concerns and financial transparency'. Owners of seven of the 10 NBL clubs are sympathetic towards Novelly's arguments, which reflect frustrations with the financial dynamics of the league.
High-profile figures with a stake in the league include tennis player Nick Kyrgios, who has a share in South-East Melbourne Phoenix alongside five-time NBA all-star John Wall, and Team USA gold medallist Khris Middleton who is in a group controlling the Brisbane Bullets, headed by former Swansea football investor Jason Levien.
Club owners have expressed concern they must continue to meet multi-million dollar annual losses while the NBL – as a commercial entity owned by Kestelman's property development group – can set the terms of media deals, club agreements and player payments.
The recent sale of successful expansion club the JackJumpers pushed the owners, led by Novelly, to act. The new team joined the league in 2021 and won the title in 2024, in a period marked by more than 50 consecutive sell-outs. But other owners have been frustrated by how Kestelman has personally benefited from their success. The club was established under the ownership of Cannes Properties, an investment vehicle wholly owned by Kestelman, who is now set to benefit from the sale.
The Ukraine-born founder of telecommunications company Dodo, who is now a property developer, leveraged the success of the JackJumpers by striking a deal with the Tasmanian government to develop the neighbouring Wilkinsons Point and build a retail precinct, resort and hotel complex. At the announcement in February to sell the JackJumpers for a reported fee of $35m, Kestelman said 'a substantial percentage that will go back towards the NBL and the clubs'.
The NBL under Kestelman has attracted record crowds including a cumulative attendance of more than 1.1m last season. But while billion-dollar broadcast deals in major Australian professional leagues such as the AFL and NRL help clubs avoid losses, television revenues in the NBL remain low. Last year's deal with Channel 10 and ESPN was a one-year extension valued at around $20m, but much of that is spent by the NBL on producing the broadcasts in-house, leaving little to be distributed to clubs.
Novelly has owned the Hawks since 2020. Trump described Novelly as a 'highly respected philanthropist' who will 'always put AMERICA FIRST' when he announced the appointment of his new ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa in January. Novelly is expected to step back from the operations of his sporting interests when his appointment is confirmed.
The NBL is considered by its advocates to be the second best basketball competition in the world behind only the NBA. In addition to Charlotte Hornets' all-star guard LaMelo Ball who played a season with Novelly's Hawks, Chicago Bulls playmaker Josh Giddey and Washington's No 2 draft pick Alex Sarr both had stints at NBL teams.
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