Mark Bosnich has fired back at suggestions the NBL is overtaking the A-League in terms of interest from the Australian public and expressed his bemusement as to why the two are even being compared.

The dig at the A-League came on Sunday evening when an article was published in the Australian by sports reporter Will Swanton, titled: ‘NBL slam-dunks crowd with Sydney Kings as A-League scores own goal’.

The article was referring to the record-breaking crowd of 17,514 spectators to watch the Kings defeat the Illawarra Hawks at the Qudos Bank Arena.

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Swanton claimed the NBL was “changing the Australian sporting landscape” while “the A-League is floundering from poor crowd and television figures, no real superstars and a standard of play far below the rest of the world’s domestic leagues.”

He also pointed out NBL owner Larry Kestelman rating his product as the second-best league in the world behind the NBA, while the A-League is nowhere near that standard.

But Bosnich hit back on Monday’s edition of Bill & Boz, calling out Swanton for his lack of knowledge about the A-League and expressing his disappointment that one Australian sport is being put down to make another look better.

“If he’s such an expert then tell us about the standard of play, then Will,” Bosnich said. “Because obviously you’re so qualified, you know about the standard of play.

“So, number one, you’re completely wrong about that.

“In terms of the crowds, the crowds are fine – and this is still without the A-League clubs having their hands on the steering wheel, it’s still yet to be put over.

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The NBL saw a record crowd as LaMelo Ball’s Illawara Hawks took on Andrew Bogut’s Sydney Kings. Source: News Corp Australia

“You talk about television figures, well if you really want to go down that road, free-to-air television had less viewers than were at the game for Sydney Kings. So don’t talk about television viewers.

“The bottom line is that the NBL’s average crowd last year was 6,000 people. Do you ever actually hear people from football bringing that up?!

“I would say it’s a great league, we’re really, really happy, we think Andrew Bogut is fantastic for the Australian team, the loan system they’ve implemented is absolutely fantastic with the likes of LaMelo Ball and even more American players who will be coming down here, we should be doing something similar to that…

“So for them to come out with that, I can only see it as one thing: I’ve seen it for the last 10 years I’ve been back, it’s a wind-up.”