For all the uninitiated, The Basketball Jones is one of the best basketball podcasts on iTunes and is a wildly hilarious way to spend 35-60 minutes of your day.

Australian native, Leigh Ellis, is the shows fact checker/twitter guy and is developing a cult following with his occasional off topic excursions into the non-basketball world.

US Sports Down Under caught up with Leigh and asked his opinion on a few topics.

US Sports Down Under - Coming from Australia did you actively try and get an NBA related job when you moved overseas or did the opportunity present itself naturally?

Leigh Ellis –  When I came to Toronto in 2006, I was only on a 1-year working holiday visa. Shortly after arriving I met Roxana who has since become my wife. Once we decided we were going to stay in Toronto, I decided to try to pursue a career in sports media.

Fortunately, “The College of Sports Media” opened in Toronto in 2008 and I enrolled. It wasn’t cheap but it gave me a chance to break into the sports journalism world. It was a two-year course but during the first year, I began interning at The Score TV network and was then offered a full-time job which I accepted and didn’t return for my second year at the college.

I started working as an online editor/producer/writer/shooter for Thescore.com and did some work with The Basketball Jones when they were hired. Then, in November last year, we went on the “No Season Required” tour around the USA and I joined TBJ full-time in January of this year.

So, it was a combination of aspirations & opportunity that landed me where I am today.

USSDU - Being a Spurs fan, do you see Patty Mills making a big impact in the NBA?

LE - I think Patty has landed in an ideal situation in San Antonio. The Spurs are probably the best run team in the league and Patty will be given plenty of opportunity to play a valuable role with them. He’s not in the class of the league’s elite point-guards like Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Derrick Rose & Kyrie Irving etc. but he can be a solid back-up if he is able to accept that that is his role.

Shot selection is my biggest concern with him. He’s a capable shooter, but he’ll become a better one if he can reduce the wild ones he fires up at various times, particularly in transition. I think it’s great for him that Brett Brown (Australia’s coach) is one of Gregg Popovich’s assistants as Brown no doubt sees Patty as Australia’s starting point guard for the foreseeable future.

To move on to part 2 please click here: http://ussdu.com/WpIvKi