Sunshine Coast teen Rocco Zikarsky has joined the list of Australians taking their NBA shot in 2025.
Zikarsky, from the Sunshine Coast, is one of four players from the NBL’s Next Stars program declaring for the draft, which will be held across two days in late June.
He announced his intentions on social media on Wednesday.
“All in,” the Brisbane Bullets centre wrote on his Instagram story accompanied by two crossed-fingers emojis. Players can only nominate for the NBA draft once.
Zikarsky had a quieter second campaign in the NBL that ended prematurely due to a knee injury.
But he is still rated a chance to be taken in the second round of the draft, offering the rare and imposing height of 220cm.
Zikarsky is a former Chancellor State College student and was a talented swimmer as a junior.
His father Bjorn was an Olympic swimming medallist and his mother Kylie was a champion Ironwoman.
He raised eyebrows while representing Australia at the under-17 world championships as a 15-year-old, starred at multiple national age championships, and impressed with the Centre of Excellence in the NBL1 East league.
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Sydney Kings wing Alex Toohey last month became the first of last season’s Next Star class to announce he would declare and could be taken with a late first-round pick.
Top Australian college talents Tyrese Proctor and Alex Condon have chosen to prematurely end their respective stints at Duke and the University of Florida to throw their hats in the ring.
Trinidadian Malique Lewis and Spain’s Izan Alamansa are the international Next Stars declaring for the draft after spending last NBL season with South East Melbourne and Perth, respectively.
The last remaining member of last season’s Next Star program Karim Lopez is too young to declare for the draft until next year, having only turned 18 this month.
Only 106 players lodged an application for early entry, a requirement for those who are not automatically eligible from having played four years of college or from turning 22 this year.
The Wildcats announced on Wednesday that Alamansa’s Australian teammate Ben Henshall had also declared for the draft.
Lachlan Olbrich is another Australian player with draft aspirations after playing two seasons with the Illawarra Hawks, with whom he won the most recent NBL championship.
Given he turns 22 in December, Olbrich did not need to apply for entry into the draft and is considered a slimmer chance than Zikarsky or Toohey to be selected.
