Saturday, 23 June 2012:

Former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has been appointed as the new boss of Basketball Australia.

Keneally last December became the chair of the board of BA and remained a Labor Party backbencher, but will now quit politics altogether to focus on her new role as chief executive, which is effective as of August 3.

Keneally, who established the WNBL Commission, brought back the NBL All Stars game and negotiated a better NBL television deal as chair, will now be charged with seeing the men's and women's national teams through next month's London Olympics.

"Kristina has more than proven her worth to Basketball Australia during her short time as chair; we've all been extremely impressed with how much she's done to take the organisation in a new direction," acting chief executive and BA board member Scott Derwin said.

"There's no better time to be involved in Australian Basketball. It's an Olympic year, and all four of our international teams are ranked in the top 10 in the world."

Keneally, who has had a long love affair with the sport since playing competitive basketball as a teen in the US, said the London Games will serve as the perfect springboard into continuing the sports popularity.

"Now, with the Olympics and Paralympics ahead of us, our teams are set to strut on the world stage," she said.

"Basketball in Australia has a solid success story to tell: we're ranked as one of the top-five basketball playing nations in the world; our success at an international level is something other Australian codes can only dream about.

"Beyond this year's Olympics, our vision is to capitalise on that success in a big way - to put Australian Basketball front and centre on our shores."

AAP