The National Basketball League may acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands that its game is played on, however its own custodians "have not yet sufficiently recognised in a consistent and sustainable way" the contributions First Nations peoples have made to the development and success of Australian basketball.

The frank admission has come ahead of the NBL's 46th year, with administrators beginning to develop a new Reconciliation Action Plan, years and in some cases more than a decade after leading sporting organisations in Australia introduced their own plan.

The Australian government was the first organisation to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan after Prime Minister John Howard and Professor Mick Dodson, on behalf of Indigenous Australians, came to a consensus on the detail in 2006.

The NRL was the first national sports organisation to introduce a Reconciliation Action Plan in 2008, while it took the AFL another six years to follow suit and form its own plan.

Cricket Australia waited until 2019 before it launched a plan phrased 'Cricket Connecting Country', on the back of creating the Johnny Mullagh Medal for the best player in the Boxing Day Test Match from a replica belt buckle the Aboriginal allrounder famously wore back in 1868.

Unlike cricket that had one male Test cricketer at the time – Jason Gillespie – when CA's Reconciliation Action Plan was first put forward, the NBL had tallied 19 Indigenous players since Danny Morseu for St Kilda Saints and Claude Williams for the entire lifespan of the City of Sydney Astronauts/Sydney Supersonics franchise played in the inaugural 1979 season.

A Reconciliation Action Plan enables a wide range of organisations to develop a sustainable and strategic framework to take positive action to advance reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people involved.

The NBL launched theirs in November 2020 during the first year of the pandemic to an array of promises, including to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander player recruitment as well as to establish talent identification pathways and to fund 50 per cent of a minimum salary for all Indigenous players engaged by NBL clubs as development players.

But the 2024-25 season has resulted in Indigenous representation in the league dropping from six participants last season – Biwali Bayles (Sydney Kings), Will Hickey (Melbourne United), Will McDowell-White (New Zealand Breakers), Keanu Pinder (Cairns Taipans), Nate Jawai (Cairns) and Tamuri Wigness (Brisbane Bullets) – to two players 12 months on.

Only Hickey, now at the Illawarra Hawks, and West Australian Pinder, now at the Wildcats remain in the NBL after others looked overseas, retired or were cut from rosters, despite the NBL openly encouraging clubs to recruit Indigenous talent in a bid to bolster representation of Indigenous basketballers, retain their talent and develop genuine pathways to an elite level.

The NBL's current Reconciliation Action Plan recognises basketball is "one of the most culturally diverse and inclusive sports played" throughout Australia and that the game has a "multitude of grass roots connections", but the document still leaves a number of gaps the league's administrators are hoping to better connect.

While the same Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan adds the league's "aim is to unite Australia's varied and vast basketball communities by acting as leaders in reconciliation and societal equality", it also says, "(but) nor have we implemented sufficient programs to ensure talent identification, encouragement and development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples".

In the current RAP, NBL Commissioner and Co-Chair of the NBL Working Group Jeremy Loeliger said: "The NBL has long celebrated the values of inclusion and diversity but we have not yet sufficiently recognised, in a consistent and sustainable way, the specific contribution that Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples have made to the development and success of Australian basketball, nor have we implemented sufficient programs to ensure talent identification, encouragement and development."

Importantly, the NBL is currently looking to replace and improve on the ongoing four-year plan with its new Reconciliation Action Plan.

The launch of the NBL's second plan will be released sometime during the current season to possibly coincide with the league's Indigenous round.

"NBL is excited to be launching its Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan soon and we've have made significant progress since our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan implementation which has helped drive positive change amongst our First Nations community, including the First Nations Player Rule, increased community engagement and stronger partnerships with our stakeholders across Australia," an NBL spokesperson told National Indigenous Times.

Earlier in the year during the 2023-24 season, the NBL introduced new clauses to its new First Nations' player rule.

If an eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander player is fully contracted in either one of their first, second and third seasons – separate to the previous ruling for contracted Indigenous development players – their wages will be exempt from the club's total salaries for the purposes of the salary cap.

For the same players in their fourth, fifth or sixth season in the NBL, a 50 per cent exemption of the wages will apply.

In order to qualify for these benefits the club must have adopted an organisational cultural safety program approved by the NBL. Will Hickey is signed at the Hawks under this rule.