With just seconds left on the clock, crowds sit silently with bated breath in Darwin’s basketball complex as Calvin Peris Chong lines up a shot.
As the ball swiftly makes its way through the net, the buzzer sounds, sending anxious parents watching from the grandstand into roaring cheers.
Calvin is among one thousand players across Australia who played in the Indigenous Community Basketball League’s (ICBL) inaugural season on Sunday.
But it hasn’t always been on the cards for the junior Aboriginal player.
He said his brother Brandan Parfitt, who plays for the Geelong Football Club, has carved out a family football legacy, hoping Calvin will follow in his footsteps.
“I reckon he’d like me to play for the Cats with him,” he told SBS News. “I think he’d hate me if I wanted to play basketball.”
Indigenous players are under-represented in elite level basketball with only three men playing in the National Basketball League (NBL), compared to AFL’s 87 and NRL’s 58.
The league aims to give young Aboriginal players the chance for international careers in the sport. Source: Supplied
Meanwhile, the women’s NBL only has five Indigenous players, compared with 22 in women’s AFL and 13 in women’s NRL.
Calvin said that while he loved football, he’s excited by the prospects the ICBL can provide him while he’s still young and figuring out his future.
“I’d like to see where my skills can go, I could probably go all the way but it’s just a matter of time,” he said.
The program is a joint collaboration between the National Basketball Association and NBA star Patty Mills.
It hopes to connect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids from Cairns, Thursday Island, Logan, Dubbo, Woodville (SA), Alice Springs, Darwin and Perth.
Patty Mills collaborated with the NBA to roll out the Indigenous Community Basketball League. Source: Supplied
Mills said it’s important to ensure pathways for the younger generation - one that he adds he was fortunate to have.
“You can still be proud of who you are as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander boy or girl and succeed in things and I think that’s the one constant that’s been powerful in my success,” he said.
“We’ll do everything we can to make sure kids succeed in basketball. But at the end of the day, basketball is only the vehicle for what we really want which is for people to understand who they are, acknowledge their culture and keep it alive.”
The program targets players under 14 years old, many who played in games at the weekend.
Yvonne Rankin said she was excited by the prospect this could be a start to a blossoming career in the sport.
“Having an opportunity like this is exciting because I’ve never done it before,” she told SBS News.
“I started playing because of my sister.”
ICBL’s Darwin regional coordinator Timmy Duggan said it could become a launch pad for an international career with the NBA’s involvement in the program.
“We’re creating the resources for these young people to eliminate a lot of barriers,” he said. 
Ambassador of the program, Clarence McCarthy-Grogan, said he hopes to see it one day extended to include wheelchair basketball.
Indigenous players are under-represented in elite level basketball with only three men playing in the National Basketball League (NBL), compared to AFL’s 87 Source: SBS News
“You’ve got to start somewhere,” he told SBS News.
“This is a really good stepping stone to start at and we’re excited to see how the tournament looks over the next few weeks.”
The competition runs over six weeks before the semi final and grand final in late March.
