I like to think of myself as a fan of world sports.  In watching a lot of sports from around the world, I’m often drawn down under to Aussie Rules football and rugby.  One of the great things about watching these sports is the commentary and comparing it to watching American sports.  The Aussie commentators are especially good in the big moments.  You can look at a great Aussie rules highlights here or here or the greatest rugby match of all-time here for some examples.  Well, one world sport I can say I’ve never seen is the NBL in Australia.  However, we received a Twitter tip from @bearsfanau08 to a must-see clip from down under.  In this clip you’ll see the Cairns Taipans and New Zealand Breakers in Game 2 of the best of three Grand Final.

After doing some intrepid internet research, I can confidently say that the play by play man you’ll hear below is not an Australian… but actually an American!  Steve Carfino, who played collegiately at Iowa, played professionally in the late 80s and early 90s in the NBL and is in the league’s Hall of Fame.  He then stayed in Australia after his playing days and became the top media personality associated with the game in Australia.  Needless to say, perhaps some of the Aussie excitement has rubbed off on him.  Enjoy! 

Even with the slight voice crack (ok, major voice crack), I still love the call and even a little Aussie Bill Raftery from one of the analysts with a “nothing but cotton.”  By the way, our crack research department has also revelaed that Taipans hero Ron Dorsey played collegiately at McNeese State and averaged 8.5 PPG in the 2004-05 season!  And, in case you were wondering, Cairns is a town in North Queensland and a Taipan is a venomous Australian snake!  Where else but AA can you find out so much cool information about Aussie basketball?  Cairns won Game 2 in double overtime to force a deciding Game 3 Friday night… Lord only knows when that actually is in the Eastern time zone!

Thanks to @bearsfanau08 for the clip!