EL SEGUNDO, California - Crammed in among the hoopla of All-Star weekend is the Basketball Without Borders camp -- an initiative created by the NBA in 2001 to feature the top youth players aged 19 years and under from Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa, as selected by the NBA, FIBA and participating federations.
Six Australians were selected to play this year in Los Angeles, including Kody Stattmann, Alex Ducas, Anyang Garang, Jazmin Shelley and Kobe King-Hawea. The list was higlighted, though, by Josh Green, who is being touted already as Australia's next star in the making when he becomes NBA draft eligible in 2020.
The 6'6 (198cm) Green, who is currently the 19th-ranked high-schooler in the U.S., took advantage of the opportunity the Basketball Without Borders camp offers to showcase his skills with some of the weekend's highlight plays. The camp featured 65 boys and girls from 36 countries, and the Sydneysider, who was named on the All Star team, described the experience as "awesome". He said it was great to be able to compare his game with that of other top recruits from around the world.
"You learn a lot playing with kids from around the world as well," Green said at Basketball Without Borders. "It was a really great experience. It's a blessing ... this opportunity, I'm really thankful for it. Everyone here was athletic so sometimes you need to find your way around and see what you can really do."
Known as an athletic two-guard with great verticality, Green wanted in particular to showcase his passing ability.
"I feel like I've always kind of had it [passing ability], but I feel like it was important to implement it into my game and I feel like it's helped out a lot," he said. "I just really like getting my other teammates involved into the game."
Ben Simmons is another Australian already known for his passing ability in the NBA. Their games aren't necessarily similar, but the hype around Green could eventually reach Simmons levels by the time he is set to come out of college and the NBA phenom said recently that he'd reached out to the teenager.
"I know there's somebody out here: Josh Green ... I've reached out to him, and spoken to him, if he needs any advice or anything like that," Simmons told foxsports.com.au back in December.
Green said that Simmons was an inspiration to the next generation of Australian kids coming up through the ranks.
"We do speak," he said. "He helps me out and gives me some advice so that's cool. He just tells me to play the game and enjoy it; have fun with everything.
"I think he's really motivated everybody in Australia. It shows that there's always chances no matter where you are in the world and you just need to make the most every opportunity you have."
Before Green can entertain seriously the idea of joining Simmons at the next level, he must finish this season at IMG Academy in Florida and enter the college system. He has attracted the interest of many top schools, including Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA and Kansas, but he is yet to make a decision on which one he'll attend next year.
"There's been a lot of colleges, but most colleges have offered me [scholarships] and stayed in daily contact with me, so there's nothing I can really pick out like that," he said.
"Right now we're finishing up our high-school season so I'm sure I'm really going to start thinking about what colleges I would like to attend, but I'm sure it'll come eventually, but nothing coming soon."