The NBL's Greatest Ever FIBA World Cup Scorers

The FIBA World Cup has often presented NBL stars the chance to showcase their wares to the wider world – and, on occasion, earn a big money move overseas.

For the upcoming tournament the tables may be turned though. The standing of the NBL as one of the top competitions in the world could prove any unfinished NBL24 rosters scout the competition for their final piece.

There is, once again, set to be strong NBL representation at the tournament. Mainstays Australia and New Zealand have once again qualified, while a South Sudan side filled with NBL talent will look to continue its history-making run in its first ever World Cup appearance.

The top 100 all-time World Cup scorers is packed with NBL talent. NBL Media looked through the archives to find our most productive players to have featured over the years.

Andrew Gaze: 3rd All-Time

Sometimes the GOAT just has to GOAT; Andrew Gaze appeared in four separate World Cups from 1986 to 1998 and scored 594 points over 29 games.

He sits behind only Argentine veteran and former NBA forward Luis Scola and Brazilian basketball legend Oscar Schmidt in all-time scoring at the World Cup – and he made the fewest appearances out of any player in the top five.

Although Gaze never won a medal through his World Cup career, his trophy cabinet weighs heavy from his appearances in the NBL and NBA.

Through his time with the Melbourne Tigers, he won two NBL titles, seven MVP awards, 15 All-NBL First Team nods, 14 scoring titles and, to top it all off, the 1984 Rookie of the Year award.

He is also responsible for seven of the 10 most productive scoring campaigns in the history of the NBL, in terms of points per game, and is the leading scorer in the history of the competition.

His average of 44.1 points per game over the 1987 season is the only time somebody has ever averaged more than 40 points per game in NBL history.

Gaze sits on-court prior to playing Puerto Rico at the 1994 World Cup.

Kirk Penney - 12th All-Time

Arguably the greatest player ever produced by New Zealand consistently performed for them on the world stage.

A key component of the Tall Blacks side that shocked the world with a fourth-place finish in 2002, Penney participated in four World Cups, with his first coming in that historic 2002 tournament.

He dropped 37 points in a game against Lithuania in 2010.

Penney’s stints in the NBL were littered with European and NBA adventures in between. 

The 2009 league MVP returned to New Zealand following appearances with Miami and the LA Clippers in the NBA earlier in his career, and earned All-NBL First Team nods in his first four seasons in the NBL – including in the title winning campaign of 2011.

He ended his career playing 187 games in the NBL and retired at the end of the 2018 season. He briefly hit the court for Auckland Tuatara in the NZNBL in 2022.

Kirk Penney performs the haka before playing against South Korea in 2014.

Phil Smyth - 47th All-Time

A three-time NBL champion as a player and a three-time title winner as a coach, Phil Smyth is lauded as one of the top names to have ever plied his trade in the NBL.

For Australia, Smyth played in four Olympics’ and four World Cups, and his mark of 39 World Cup appearances ranks fourth all-time – an achievement made all the more impressive due to the fact he missed the 1986 iteration of the tournament.

In addition to the three titles Smyth achieved in his playing career, he also added four Defensive Player of the Year awards and six All-NBL First Team selections.

He also recorded the first ever triple-double in the NBL with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists as a member of St Kilda in 1982.

Phil Smyth celebrates winning the 1984 NBL title.

Ray Borner - 61st All-Time

Ray Borner’s level of longevity in the NBL is at a level that is matched only by Andrew Gaze. The pair each played in 22 seasons in the competition.

Borner was the first Australian to ever be named NBL MVP in 1985, and he won his sole NBL championship in 1989 with the Giants.

He, like Gaze again, played in 29 World Cup games across four tournaments. His best scoring campaign was the 1986 tournament, which incidentally doubled at Gaze’s first World Cup.

The award for MVP of the Blitz – the NBL’s pre-season tournament – is named after Borner.

Ray Borner's 1994 playing headshot.

Patty Mills - 69th All-Time

Patty Mills may have only come to the NBL due to the NBA lockout of 2011, but he was treated to roaring crowds in each of his appearances – such is his status as one of Australia’s greatest ever basketball exports.

Mills has played in just two World Cup tournaments – 2010 and 2019 – and has been Australia’s leading scorer on each of those occasions.

The 2014 NBA champion was a part of the Olympic squad that won bronze in Tokyo and, given he is in the extended squad for the upcoming World Cup, could yet climb higher on this list.

Patty Mills playing against Argentina in 2010.

Phill Jones - 73rd All-Time

Phill Jones had pulled together and extensive career through New Zealand and Europe prior to the Breakers’ admission into the NBL in 2003, and he entered the league as one of the most high-profile recruits of the upstart franchise.

Named as the NBL’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2009, Jones – like Penney – was a member of the historic 2002 Tall Blacks side that achieved an unlikely fourth-place finish in the tournament.

He finished as the ninth-leading scorer for the 2002 iteration of the competition with 18.2 points per game, and retired from the professional game after two seasons with the Cairns Taipans in 2011.

Phill Jones plays against Australia in 2004.

Shane Heal - 96th All-Time

‘Little Shane’ as he is affectionately called by Shaquille O’Neal, used the 1998 World Cup as a vehicle to continue to hammer home his status as one of the top international guards in the world at the time.

Heal dropped 31 points against the USA, after playing 43 times for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1996-97 season.

He ranked as the fourth-top scorer in the 1998 tournament with 17 points per game.

An NBL champion with the 2003 Sydney Kings, Heal played 440 games in the NBL and was also named to the All-NBL First Team in the championship winning 2003 season.

He’s also the only player in the history of the competition to make 12 three-pointers in a game on three different occasions, and his career-best 61-point game against Townsville in 1994 is the third-highest scoring individual performance in the history of the NBL.

Shane Heal represents Australia against New Zealand in 2003.