Dyson Daniels opened his sparkling silver jacket on NBA draft night in 2022. Under the bright lights of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the lining on his right breast revealed the names of his parents and brothers. On Daniels’ left was stitched a map of Bendigo.

About two hours’ drive north-west of Melbourne and with a population of 122,000, Bendigo is no Brooklyn. But thanks to Daniels and a dominant professional women’s team, the regional centre generously described by some as a city has emerged this year as a genuine power in global basketball.

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Home of the Dja Dja Wurrung people, the area became a gold mining hub in the 1800s, leaving a legacy of Victorian architecture and wide boulevards, but without the heavy traffic of nearby Melbourne. “It’s nice to be somewhere that you can just pause for a second,” says Sami Whitcomb, guard for the Australian national women’s team and WNBL side Bendigo Spirit.

The California-born 36-year-old is among Australia’s best basketballers. Her family lives in Western Australia, but Whitcomb chose to join the Spirit on a two-year deal in September after she couldn’t find the right fit with Perth Lynx. “Honestly, I’m super grateful that it worked out the way that it did,” Whitcomb says.

It’s turned out to be a good year for both Whitcomb and Bendigo basketball. The two-time WNBA champion was named MVP of the Australian WNBL this week, and the Spirit take a league-leading 18-3 regular season record into Sunday’s first finals match against Sydney.

In Atlanta, Daniels has emerged as a difference-maker in the NBA for the Hawks and is one of the favourites for this season’s most improved player award. With three steals per game, the 21-year-old leads the league in the headline defensive metric.

Dash Daniels, his younger brother, was named the defensive MVP of the NBA Basketball Without Borders Global Camp exhibition at All-Star weekend in New Orleans a week ago. The 17-year-old will debut for Melbourne United later this year with one eye on the 2026 NBA draft.

With an elite women’s team, 4,000 registered players and an outstanding facility, Bendigo enjoys a reputation alongside nearby Ballarat as regional Victoria’s strongest basketball town. Ben McCauley, president of the Bendigo Basketball Association, says junior league trips to Melbourne in 25-seater buses – one per team, driven by a parent or coach – have proven beneficial for the children’s basketball and personal development, even if it means the kids don’t get home until 2am.

“Someone will bring a Bluetooth speaker, they’ll play music on the way back, having a ball,” McCauley says. “We’ve had kids that do a little bit of study, some bring food.”

Into this fertile sporting soil landed an American import in the late 1990s. Ricky Daniels was a forward from North Carolina who won two Australian MVP awards with local team the Braves. “Bendigo was very welcoming,” he says. “Everything was convenient. Even the trip to Melbourne was convenient.”

Perhaps too convenient. When Daniels first moved, his Australian partner Brikitta Kool was comfortable working in the fitness industry in Melbourne. But an ad he found in a newspaper for a manager at a Bendigo gym set the town’s sporting fortunes on a new path.

“I sent it to her and said ‘looks like we’ve found you a job’,” Daniels says. Kool interviewed and was successful, and two years later the pair decided to buy the business, around the time their eldest son Kai – who is now training with Richmond’s VFL side – was born.

Despite Bendigo’s charms Daniels says the family ultimately stayed because of the high-level coaching and training opportunities available. “If that wasn’t there, it could have been different,” he says. “They had a lot of state trainings there, which allowed us to just stay home and look after the business a bit more while the boys were still able to train in town at a high level.”

A network of social connections keeps Bendigo’s community close. The stadium’s head of commercial and community, Ben Harvey, is a long-time Braves coach and team-mate of the senior Daniels. “We had some really good times together on the floor, but really became great mates,” Harvey says of his relationship to Daniels. “And for some reason I’m godfather of the three boys, which is kind of cool.”

Recently retired Opals captain Tess Madgen also lives in Bendigo with her partner. She regularly catches up with Spirit players like Kelsey Griffin, who was part of the Spirit’s last championship in 2014 alongside former Opal Kristi Harrower, one of Bendigo’s biggest sporting names and now coach of Melbourne’s Southside Flyers. Griffin – as one of the WNBL’s best players over the past decade – is at the centre of many links, while her partner Erin also hails from Bendigo.

Dan Jackson was appointed general manager of the Spirit ahead of this season. The husband of Opal Marianna Tolo laughs when it is put to him that maybe the club just wanted to sign his wife. “Marianna is one thing, but attaching yourself to Kelsey Griffin is a smart way to go, she was a bridesmaid in our wedding, her wife Erin is one of my closest friends,” Jackson says.

Whitcomb describes Griffin as “thoughtful, competitive and accountable” and her presence was a main motivation for her to sign. Since coming to Bendigo, the league MVP has been overwhelmed by the personal connections she has made with locals. “People care about each other, people care about sport,” Whitcomb says.

Rick Stearns, a local independent jeweller, sponsors the side and makes a bracelet and charm for each of the players. For Whitcomb and Tolo, he crafted a necklace with Olympic rings to celebrate their appearance in Paris, and insisted they did not pay. “We hope that these girls take these memories away from Bendigo, remembering their special time here in our regional city,” he says.

The WNBL, widely regarded as the second or third best women’s league in the world, is set for an overhaul next season when NBL owner Larry Kestelman and Tesla chair Robyn Denholm, through her family’s investment group Wollemi Capital, take control. In the era of WNBA phenomenon Caitlin Clark, basketball’s opportunity for growth is considerable. There is currently no WNBL club with Melbourne in its name and Brisbane, Australia’s third biggest city, is without a team.

Bendigo may not be Brisbane, or Brooklyn, but Whitcomb believes the Spirit have an important role to play. “In places like Bendigo, where there isn’t this constant competition across all these different sports – I’m not saying that we can’t compete with them when they are there – I think sometimes that’s where we really can thrive.”

The Daniels sold the gym a year ago and are now spending more time in Melbourne, where Kai and Dash are continuing their sporting careers, although Ricky is adamant there is no plan to leave Bendigo permanently. “The traffic in Melbourne could make us stay in Bendigo longer,” he says.

His old team-mate Harvey, recalling the lining in Dyson’s silver jacket, believes the Daniels boys – wherever their skills take them – won’t forget where they’re from. “No way,” he says, before adding: “There’s always a next chapter, right?”