A major structural review of basketball in Australia aims to bring the sport under one national governing body to drive future development and growth.

In a joint statement, Australian Sports Commission (ASC) Acting Chief Executive Officer Brent Espeland and Basketball Australia (BA) President John Maddock, along with Eddy Groves representing the National Basketball League (NBL) and its team owners, said they were greatly encouraged by the strong support they had received for moving to integrate into one unified national body.

A steering committee involving the ASC, Mr Maddock and Mr Groves will oversee the management of the review, to be conducted by an independent consultancy.

Following an earlier review of the sport, BA, the NBL, the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) and the Australian Basketball League (ABA) began operating out of one building; however the WNBL was the only professional league body that successfully integrated with BA until March 2007 when the ABA, which administers league competitions around Australia, voted to fully integrate with BA and de-register as a company.

Mr Espeland said that in late 2006 a Review of the High Performance Structure of Basketball in Australia was initiated by BA and is currently being conducted by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) through the Innovation and Best Practice Unit.

"Indications from this review are that a fully integrated structure is highly desirable and would significantly enhance and optimise the high performance athlete and coach pathways," Mr Espeland said.

"It is essential that this integration is completed in such a way as to ensure the best possible outcome for the delivery of each of the components and the sport as a whole."

Mr Maddock said basketball in Australia has a unique opportunity to reform the sport by creating one single national organisation.

"This was one of the key outcomes of an earlier review of the sport and it is heartening to see that all members of Basketball Australia and all owners in the NBL have now unanimously agreed that the reform is needed.

"It is hoped by all stakeholders that the reform will allow the sport to lift to another level in all business areas, including operations and commercial opportunities."

Mr Groves said the NBL expected the review to suggest wholesale reform of the code at all levels and said the NBL was both prepared for and fully supportive of such an outcome.

"This a tremendous opportunity for the entire basketball family to embrace an exciting new era for our sport and the NBL owners have voted unanimously to participate in the reform process," Mr Groves said.

"We expect the review to recommend a new structure and business model to improve efficiencies and commercial opportunities.  It could be very confronting for many, but there is a sense of preparedness amongst the NBL stakeholders of the sport to take the difficult choices required in order to be competitive with other major professional sports."

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are over 600,000 Australians who play basketball for sport and recreation.