Aussie Basketball Travellers Histroy

Aussie Basketball Travellers' founder, David Greenberg is now moving into a second decade of organising team and group travel. It's amazing the way things work out when we connect the dots. To think that David, along with two other club mates, was invited to join The Kings School (Sydney) on what is believed to be the 2nd ever Aussie Schoolboy Basketball Tour to the USA. This was in 1975 and a similar tour to that enjoyed by Kings in 1973.

Oh how things were different then, with refuelling stops in Fiji and Hawaii on the way to the USA West Coast! Actually being forced to sit in a classroom and write snail-mail home to Australia, phoning at dollars per minute which had an element of connecting to the moon! No email, online chat, and photos that were only seen after returning home.

Sounds like a nightmare now, but what an amazing experience and story to share. David, Steve Ashdown and Jeff Patterson returned to tell their Manly team that they just had to go back and weeks later the process began for next year's adventure. You wouldn't believe how much was fund-raised in 20 cent pieces by holding up buckets (& cars) at the red traffic lights*…. "we'd just show up and collect! If we were asked to move, we'd go to another busy intersection". We couldn't understand why the authorities couldn't see the value of this worthy cause!" Ultimately David did not travel on the Manly tour because he went to play Basketball (…..go to High School) in Hawaii. By all accounts the Manly tour was an amazing experience while In Hawaii, David was fortunate to play under Merve Lopes (later of Chaminade College and beating Ralph Sampson's #1 University of Virginia fame).

The circle turned and in early ‘97 David heard a cry of help to set up some tours to the USA. He agreed, as long as a quality standard was adhered to. Soon the first outbound tours to the West Coast of the USA were on their way. Soon after the Aussie Basketball Travellers brand was born in 1998 which was followed by All Aussie Travellers (Lic. No. 2TA 4912). ABT pioneered visits to some areas of the Midwest and the East Coast, raised the standard on inbound tours to Australia and, David eventually put his size 14 in his mouth as, ABT organised an around-the-world Tour for Van Kailis and the Wanneroo Wolves (Perth, WA) in 2004-05.

Much has changed in a short time, but ABT's philosophy remains the same.

Quality before Quantity
Never overlook the fundamentals that distinguish a champion from others
Become an essential part of our clients' team
Focus on winning the game instead of an individual's scoreline
Encourage everyone to have fun through travel and the sport they love

Aussie Basketball Travellers remains a Benchmark for sports & group tours to and from Australia.