There’s certainly no shortage of NBA jerseys getting around in Australia. Just head to any Summer music festival (if there’s any left) and you will be sure to see hordes of guys getting around in Curry / Lebron jerseys. More than likely they picked them up at Foot Locker the day before and don’t actually know anything about basketball but that’s for another time…
One of the great differences between been an NBA fan in Australia as opposed to America is that it’s completely acceptable to have a wardrobe full of different teams colours. What would be sacrilege to do with AFL/NRL guernseys is open slather with American basketball, particularly if you’re sporting throwbacks. With this and the fact that two Aussies (Simmons and Thon Maker) just went top 10 in the most recent draft we thought we would take a look at the holy grails of Australian NBA jerseys.
We evaluated their rareness on a scale of 1-5, with 1 been easy to source in all colour ways and 5 been borderline impossible to buy.
10. Andrew Bogut Warriors Jersey (rareness: 1)
ALMOST back-to-back NBA champion and an integral part of the greatest regular season team of all-time (sincerely sorry for that salt in the wound, Warriors fans) has no shortage of available jerseys. You can have Andrew’s number 12 in any way, shape or form: home yellow, away blue, sleeves or no sleeves, Chinese New Year style and so on. Hell, his GSW jerseys even line the streets of Bali for $10 a pop.
It’s Bogut’s Milwaukee Bucks gear though that lands him at number 10 spot on this list: they’re no longer available via NBA.com store, but some of them can be found on eBay at a reasonable price (67 AUD), even the ones that were still manufactured by Reebok (105 AUD) back in 2005/06.
9. Matthew Dellavedova Cavs Jersey (rareness: 1)
There’s only one kind of Delly jersey available via NBA store: standard wine and gold Cavaliers away gear (95 AUD), but 
that’s hardly a vast range of choices. If you prefer home court white, or the golden alternate – try browsing any of the major online markets such as eBay. Chances are you’ll find many styles and all sizes starting at 40 AUD.
Whilst a Delly jersey will still certainly get you some street credit it was a known fact that it was the most popular selling NBA top during the Cavaliers 15/16 run at the championship. However with him just been traded to the Bucks this week you can be sure that the Cavaliers will be clearing out what’s left of his jerseys at bargain prices…
8. Ben Simmons 76ers Jersey (rareness: 2)
It won’t be a stretch by any measure to call the #1 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft the 
hottest Australian player at the moment, and thus there’s no lack of his jerseys hitting the markets. You can literally find them everywhere right now: official NBA site, Philly merch stores and on-line re-sellers. The prices vary from 65 to 95 AUD, depending on where you’re looking them up, and for the time being, there are only two colour schemes available: 76ers home and away styles with Ben’s #25.
Whilst you will certainly see your fair share of Simmons jerseys getting about this Summer particularly with the Olympics just around the corner, at least for the mean time they’ll still most certainly have Australian basketball fans complimenting you on your fine jersey selection.
7. Patrick Mills Spurs Jersey (rareness: 2)
Ever since Andrew Gaze’s playing days at The Spurs they have remained one of the most popular teams for Australian 
basketball enthusiasts and after winning the 14/15 Championship Patty Mills certainly became a house hold name. However as with most mid-level active players, official retailers only have one or two options of the jersey. In Patty’s case it’s Spurs away and black alternative ones. A quick search for Patty jerseys online and you’ll be able to find his home and grey alternative jerseys. If you want to go vintage with Mr.Mills and get some real brownie points, you’ll even find a rare Patty’s Trail Blazers top for 45.17 AUD.
6. Dante Exum Utah Jazz Jersey (rareness:2)
As a player, Dante is certainly more hyped, than Bairstow or Delly, and that would 
make you think that Dante’s jerseys would be more readily available. That’s actually the case with his Utah away and alternate gear, which range between 54 and 80 AUD (although on a limited sale right now, so hurry up! =) at NBA.com. But his home white jersey for some reasons is quite scarce, particularly amongst official online retailers. However if you’re cashed up, you can get some Exum’s home gear from one of eBay’s re-sellers starting around 120 AUD.
5. Cameron Bairstow Jersey (rareness: 3)
Cam is yet to make his mark or have a breakout performance on the NBA level, so smaller sporting goods stores, apparel 
joints and on-line shops are not exactly filled with his Bulls jerseys. But official Chicago NBA-store page is and has all sizes and colours available around 95 AUD. This is of course only going to go down too in the coming weeks as he was traded to the Detroit Pistons. Rocking a Bairstow jersey down the street will most certainly spark a conversation between you and other true Aussie basketball fans.
4. Joe Ingles Jersey (rareness:3)
There’s no doubt that JIngles is a great player, but he’s not that big in the eyes of 
an average NBA fan and not a highlight reel guy. That’s probably why it’s borderline impossible to find his gear through any official vendors and even major eBay shops. There is however a solid choice of his jerseys via smaller-scale online NBA apparel markets starting at 32 AUD and you can be sure that he will be making a big impact in the Australian boomers squad in Rio, making now is as good a time to grab one as any!
For a great story about Joe Ingles and Chris Paul check out interview we did with one of the best Aussie basketballers and all around legend Mark Worthington.
3. Luke Schenscher Jersey (rareness: 5)
It was really hard to rank Luke Schenscher on this list, because he wasn’t a consistent presence on NBA stat sheets: he only 
played 20 games for the Chicago Bulls in 2005/06 and 11 games for the Portland Trail Blazers the following year. But for what it’s worth, Luke had himself a nice NBA D-League career and even was selected to play in the NBDL All-Star game and was voted to All D-League’s 2nd Team. That is the only Luke’s jersey we’ve managed to find for now, the used Fort-Worth Flyers uniform, size 50, 133 AUD on eBay. Luke gets an honourable “bronze” on our list because of it’s rarity and price of this jersey along with the street credit factor for sporting this one around the streets of Townsville where he currently plays.
2. David Andersen Jersey (rareness: 5)
Andersen’s illustrious basketball career brought him almost all the possible trophies and championships, the last one being 
the French ProA title with Asvel this past season. Although his NBA career isn’t considered to be a huge success, Andersen still managed to get north of 10 minutes per game with pretty solid efficiency and per minute numbers. Anyway, it will take some extensive searching to find his NBA jerseys for sale. So far, we’ve only managed to find Andersen’s gear from his Toronto playing days, available in all sizes at a very reasonable 45.17 AUD.
1. Luc Longley Bulls Jersey (rareness: 5)
Lucien “Luc” Longley is probably the winningest NBA player of Australian descent, being a 
member of the Chicago Bulls second three-peat run. One would think that finding Longley’s Bulls jerseys would be relatively easy, but that’s not exactly true. There is some of Big Luc’s Chicago gear at basketballjerseyworld.com for 89 AUD, but only in kids and youth sizes, and several finished auctions on eBay and etsy.com with his Bulls red and black uniforms. There is also one, which is the crown jewel of Australian NBA jerseys so far: Luc’s autographed Phoenix Suns home white jersey size 52, on eBay auction for 800 AUD.
Okay so that’s our top 10 of rare Australian NBA jerseys but what about the real holy grails? This list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning those ones that are basically impossible to find (particularly not mounted behind glass) but it wouldn’t be right for us not to finish with them.
The Real Holy Grails of Australian NBA Jerseys
Andrew Gaze Spurs Jersey
Arguably the all-time greatest Australian basketball player probably has some jerseys from his Spurs days floating around the world, but for now, unfortunately, none of them are available. We were told though, the last time a Gaze jersey was auctioned, the winner paid around 1300 AUD to get it.
We have also managed to find this one, from Sir Andrew’s playing days at the Melbourne Tigers, with his autograph, going for 400 AUD
Shane Heal Jersey
Ex-Spur and Timberwolf, like Gaze, is an iconic figure in Aussie basketball, but hardly a NBA star during his stints with two franchises. All we’ve managed to find is Heal special t-shirts, available for 30 AUD and in all sizes.
https://shop.spreadshirt.com/classicbasketballtees/shane+heal+”classic”-A13272504
Mark Bradtke, Nathan Jawai, Chris Anstey Jerseys
These three players have three things in common: they were prominent ballers in the Land Down under, had a so-so NBA careers and their NBA jerseys are stuff of legends between fans, and pride and joy of the lucky few ones who own them . There’re some mentions of their uniforms of fan sites, but no trace what so ever of any auctions or stores where we could find their gear for sale.
We’ll leave you with this…
