Basketball in Australia can be likened to the iconic Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

We all liked playing it as kids, we don't have the interest to watch others play, and its nostalgic qualities have given it an unwarranted niche label which separates it from mainstream entertainment.

Oh, and it needs to be on TV for it to work.

Luckily for the ‘revamped' National Basketball League, they have ticked the first box in their pursuit of nudging room under the Australian sporting spotlight - where they have been dressed in black in the shadows for going on a decade now. Being on TV is paramount to any public event. With Gen Y beginning their reign as dictators of the ‘cool factor', their philosophy is that if it didn't happen on TV, it simply didn't happen. That rings true with other facets of life - photos are the new autographs, YouTube is the new chat room, you have to see it to believe it. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to see it, did it really fall?

So I congratulate the NBL on their One HD signing, and that's with no disrespect to their previous Fox Sports arrangement. But with digital TV approaching mandatory status by the end of the year, and a plethora of free-to-air stations on the horizon, Foxtel subscriptions are sure to decline on their already modest numbers and the masses will be content with their ‘Two And A Half Men' boxsets and their 24-hour sports channels.

But just being on free-to-air isn't enough. As Ed Wyatt has accurately surmised in a recent wake-up call to the NBL on BackPageLead, the NBL isn't necessarily going to get back to where it was in the '90s because it is on free-to-air TV. Now that it's on there, you need to give people a reason to watch it. The NBL needs an NBA/A-League/ANZ Championship-like clean up to give the league some unity and show why it is the second most popular sport in the world and has the highest participation rate for children in the country.

So I've compiled a list, coming from both a player and keen observer, as to the boxes the NBL needs to also tick following the signing with One HD in order to make some room under that large Australian spotlight:

* Every home team wears their dominant colour, every away team wears white. Every team's uniform is made by the same manufacturer - no shiny Perth uniforms and meshy Townsville colours. The home uniform (dominant colour) will have the team's nickname across the chest (i.e. Tigers) and the away uniform will have the name of the city (i.e. Melbourne). Taken straight from the NBA, it's the little things that make the difference. Plus every uniform, and court for that matter, has to feature the NBL logo to promote unity amongst the clubs.

* All playing shoes have to match the team uniform. Again a little thing, but nothing looks more bunk than a blue pair of shoes with a red and yellow uniform.

* Think of a team sport that doesn't include socks as part of the team uniform. Basketball come to mind? Again, the NBA is on top of that one and it cleans up the appearance of the league. Every player to wear white NBL league socks, can come in varying sizes.

* No headbands, too ghetto. Wristbands are accepted but they have to be the same colour as the team uniform. And no shirts under the playing jersey.

* No mid-week games! The NBL moved to the summer so it wouldn't have to compete with the NRL and AFL and then moved to Wednesday night because... no one knows why. It's bad enough expecting people to sit inside a basketball stadium when it's 32°C and sunny outside, but expecting them to go straight from work on a perfect summer's night, get home late and have to get up early to work the next morning is ridiculous. Games should be Friday nights, Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons - just like every other sport that is successful in Australia.

* I've been referring to Australia's premier basketball competition as the ‘NBL', but I think the name should be changed. Despite the enormous amount of positive history the National Basketball League has, there are too many negative connotations with that name. I'm not saying change too much, maybe the Australian Basketball League? The second-tier competition is the Australian Basketball Association, so it would help bridge the gap between the two, and it would show people that Basketball Australia is serious about reforming our great competition. Or get a long-term naming rights sponsor and call it the [insert company name] Championship, much like the netball and to some extent the soccer (ie. Hyundai). Basketball has enormous potential for advertising dollars; players are clearly visible at all times and thus writing on their uniforms can always be read, the court itself can be covered in logos (though the NBA has it right in not allowing either) and the courtside boxes surrounding the court's perimetre can display dozens of company names. Bottom line: you can't call it a new league and have the same name.

* Every team has to put together a Public Relations/Marketing team. Why would the mass media seek out basketball when basketball doesn't seek out promotion and coverage for their own sport?

* Every team has to have a $5 t-shirt to be sold at every home game. Positives: fans feel unity with their team and with each other, fans wear t-shirts outside of basketball atmosphere (free advertising), players feel like fans are behind them. Negatives: none.

* Instead of each team having their own junior camps during the school holidays, a combined NBL (or ABL, [insert company name] Championship, whatever) junior camp is put together for school holidays and kids are featured before and at half-time of NBL games. Thank you AusKick for that idea.

* No music during games. The live sport catch-22: play music because the crowd isn't cheering but the crowd isn't cheering because music is playing the whole game. Let the crowd generate their own noise, and if you do have some music playing, let it be horns designed to get the crowd yelling and chanting, a la the NHL.

* No roving court announcers! Definitely deserving of an exclamation mark. Nothing is more annoying, even if it's your own home game. It makes the league look bunk, it gets on everyone's nerves and it stops people from thinking for themselves.

* I suppose nine teams is better than eight, but 10 or 12 would be even better. I propose 12 teams (Melbourne x 2, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Brisbane/Gold Coast, Townsville, Cairns, New Zealand x 2, Hobart and Wollongong) and running the season from June to December. By June we're waiting for something new in our lives, the weather is cold and dreary so we don't mind being inside a basketball stadium, but the finals heat up along with the weather. You're done two weeks before Christmas so money won't be an issue, and there's nothing but Cricket and Soccer in December. Everyone goes away in January and the ones that stay behind do so because of jobs, family or money, not because the NBL is at the mid-point of its season.

* Bring back the All-Star game, but also the three-point competition and the dunk comp, as well as a rookie game and a celebrity game. Make it an all-day showcase and televise the whole thing. Winning team gets prize money so the game is competitive.

Is that too much to ask? The sad thing is, if you've ever been to the Melbourne Tigers' home stadium, ‘The Cage', during a finals' match, you will agree that nothing needs to be changed because there is no sporting arena in the country that surpasses that atmosphere and volume; but if you haven't witnessed it, or you don't care enough about basketball to feign interest in the revamped competition (though you probably would've stopped reading by now), you would agree that the NBL/ABL/[insert company name] Championship could use a little touch up to make people realise how great our game really is.