The origin of Melbourne United’s Multicultural Jersey

Both the Multicultural Jersey and subsequent launch of The Multicultural Game are tremendously important things to Melbourne United.

In the 2019-20 season, the club made the decision to adapt the NBL’s ‘City Edition’ jersey into a special ‘Diverse-City’ jersey, a jersey that represented Melbourne’s multiculturalism and diversity.

2020 was a time of social tension, after some significant events across the world spurred the Black Lives Matter movement. Head Coach Dean Vickerman decided to bring leaders within the club and local basketball community together, to hear about people’s experiences with racism, and whether the club could do more to celebrate its diversity.

“Looking back, the Black Lives Matter movement was significant for everybody just to check yourself as a club and see what you’re doing,” he explained.

“I know at the time Vince (Crivelli), myself and other leaders gathered people together to talk about experiences that had happened in basketball and looking at if we were doing the right thing, were we celebrating diversity enough and celebrating people’s culture enough.”

United therefore made the decision to push further into embracing culture and diversity, and to evolve the previous season’s ‘Diverse-City’ uniform into the first Multicultural Uniform.

The colourful Multicultural Uniform was designed to represent the diverse nature of basketball and Melbourne itself, while also celebrating the many cultures of the playing group and staff surrounding Melbourne United. 

Following this, United partnered with the ‘Racism. It Stops With Me’ campaign and now shows an anti-racism video at the beginning of each home game. 

United would ultimately go on to win the NBL21 championship wearing their Multicultural Jerseys, something Vickerman says he and his players took great pride in.

“We had so many different nationalities on the team that we wanted to (celebrate). In that championship year, having (Yudai) Baba, Shea (Ili), Jo (Lual-Acuil Jr) and others, to be able to showcase that and put that jersey forward that everybody celebrated was really fun.

“When you get to those big moments, yes you’re playing for the club, but you’re also playing for the history of your game where it came from.”

A member of that team was Jo Lual-Acuil Jr, a proud South Sudanese-Australian, who spoke about the importance of the jerseys at that time.

“That group was obviously very diverse,” he said.

“The importance was always just representing where we are from and trying to make our people as proud as possible. Not losing sight of our heritage, even though we may not be as enriched as we would want to be.

“It’s always important to celebrate where you’re from and appreciate culture and different cultures.

“It’s just great for us as a club to embrace everybody, which we already do, and embrace all the different cultures that we have, it’s just kind of like a perfect melting pot.”

Following one of the club’s key values of inclusion, the Multicultural Jerseys were quickly embraced by all, ultimately morphing into the annual Multicultural Game and The Multicultural Festival.

The contest has become an annual staple for the club, bringing in people from across the city to celebrate alongside Melbourne’s premier basketball team.

Set to make his return in Round 4 and play in The Multicultural Game, Lual-Acuil Jr elaborated on why basketball is the perfect vehicle to promote inclusion.

“The game is for everybody,” he continued.

“The fact that the game is a celebration of different cultures is great but the best thing about this sport is that it doesn’t matter. 

“It doesn’t matter where you’re from, it doesn’t matter what you look like, it’s the game of basketball, you just pick it up and if you love it you come to the games.”

Melbourne United will proudly take to John Cain Arena in their Multicultural Jerseys as part of The Multicultural Game on Sunday from 2pm.

Tickets remain available here.