How Australia Became the NBA Point Guard Pipeline


Last July, a group of tall and excited youngsters gathered in a conference room in Canberra, Australia, to watch the NBA draft on TV. As a coach NBA Global AcademyMarty Clarke was responsible for getting them out of the classroom so they could watch as an old teammate on a school day, Josh Giddeyshe achieved her dream.

“I called the school and said, ‘Look, can we take the third class and take the kids back?’ said. Clarke remembered. “The older you get, the more you appreciate these things. You want to celebrate successes.”

When the Oklahoma City Thunder selected Giddey, a 6-foot-tall quarterback, with the sixth overall pick, the team’s reaction was something apocalyptic. “Pizza was flying everywhere,” Clarke recalled.

The NBA Global Academy, which opened in 2017 as the league looked for additional ways to grow the game abroad and develop high school prospects around the world, quickly built a reputation for nurturing a certain type of elite young players: the quarterbacks from Australia. Among those who watched Giddey get drafted were 19-year-old Dyson Daniels and 17-year-old Tyrese Proctor. Daniels has spent this season playing G League Ignite as he prepares for the draft this summer, and Proctor is considering scholarship offers from top universities. Programs like Duke and Arizona while continuing to train in academia.

“It was eye-opening to see Giddey selected,” said Proctor, who is 6 feet-4 tall from Sydney. “This shows that if you follow the hard work and the guidance the academy gives you, you can succeed.”

The NBA has never been more international with a record 121 players from outside the United States, including seven Australians on their opening night roster this season. And in its own way, academia is a microcosm of this trend. Its roster is full of players from countries like China, Indonesia, Qatar and of course Australia.

But the academy is perhaps most notable for its pipeline of NBA-ready quarterbacks; a phenomenon that those in the program say is probably in nature as well as nurturing.

“We never played isolation ball or went one-on-one in the academy,” Giddey said. “It’s always been a team-oriented system and I think that’s the selfless basketball brand that Australians have excelled at.”

Clarke, 54, told prominent Australian notion of “mateship” prioritizing teamwork, dedication and loyalty.

“Culturally, we were instilled in us from a young age that it was more about the team, the family, or the job than the individual,” Clarke said. “And if you work in that direction, you will be rewarded.”

Growing up, Giddey said, she was taught not to mind her stats. Winning was important and there were role models like Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Joe Ingles. The Australian Institute of Sport’s campus in CanberraFor decades it has featured many of the nation’s top young athletes in a range of sports, including basketball.

NBA Global Academy founded in partnership with AIS

“When I saw some really good Australian youth go through this programme, I knew I wanted to go there one day,” Daniels said.

Proctor remembered the morning Clarke called his family to let them know that the academy had offered him a scholarship.

“Obviously leaving home at 15 was a huge leap forward in my life and in my family’s life,” Proctor said.

With his players, Clarke emphasizes the “positionless” basketball that defines much of the modern NBA: offensive sets where players can switch roles and operate all over the court. In Canberra, players learn all aspects of the game. It doesn’t matter if you come as a quarterback or a power forward.

“Everybody is dominating the ball,” Daniels said, “and everybody’s doing post-work.”

Clarke recalled that when Daniels entered academia, most experts saw him as more of a wing. Still, Clarke shows promise in Daniels’ offensive ability, with Daniels averaging 11.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game with Ignite.

“Now,” Clarke said, “you have a 6-foot-7 kid who can be anything: an amazing body, a great athlete, he understands the game.”

Chris Ebersole, the NBA’s vice president of international basketball operations, said there is also an “iron dynamic that sharpens the iron” for guards in the academy. “You bring together a lot of top talent every day,” he said.

During the nine months they clashed in Canberra, Daniels learned as much as possible from Giddey’s play. Specifically, he studied how Giddey came off the curtain, threw diagonal passes, and used his length to finish in his hoop. It was easy for Daniels to get a clear view of Giddey’s work, as they had to defend each other in practice.

“It was a really competitive environment,” said Daniels of Bendigo, about 100 miles from Melbourne.

The team’s weekdays are structured. In the mornings, before the players go to school, the focus is on individual skill development on everything from shooting to the nuances of pick-and-roll news. Typically, those from Australia attend a nearby high school, while international players of the academy take courses online. The team regroups for off-site work around midday. For example, it could be a class on nutrition or one-on-one sessions with a sports psychologist or physical therapist. There are more academic classes in the afternoon followed by practice and weights.

The team typically plays against professional clubs in Australia’s second division, one step below the country’s top league. Clarke said the players lived in a dorm and learned to trust themselves.

“They’re not typical 17-year-olds,” he said. “They have life experience.”

Growing up in a small town in Tasmania, an island state off the south coast of Australia, Clarke said she had “never heard of basketball” until 1974, when a gym was built not far from her home. Clarke was 7 years old and immersed in the game with his father playing Australian football professionally. At the age of 17, Clarke had a decision to make: Football or basketball? He chose basketball.

Hoops were still a fairly new concept in Australia. Clarke remembers shuffling VHS tapes of NBA games that had the only access to players like Magic Johnson. But the game started to grow.

As a member of Australia’s national under-19 team, Clarke played with a talented striker named Warrick Giddey. Later, after Giddey emerged as a star for the Melbourne Tigers Australian National Basketball Leaguehis youngest son, Josh, used to rush to the field during time-outs to score a few baskets.

“All the crazy things little kids do,” Clarke said.

A few years later, Josh Giddey attended one of Clarke’s development camps. Clarke said that at the time, Giddey had a spurt of teenage growth—all muscular limbs, stiff hips, and raw potential. Clarke gave him some homework and sent him on his way. When Giddey returned to camp the following year, Clarke immediately offered him a scholarship.

“He was always determined to be a good basketball player,” Clarke said, “and then he got very inquisitive – always asking questions, always asking for extra exercises. Driven from the inside.”

After two years in academia, Giddey spent the last season with the NBL’s Adelaide 36ers before joining the NBA draft. In his first season with the Thunder, he won the NBA Western Conference Rookie of the Month Award four times, averaging 12.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game. Although the smash touch should work, they have a feel for the game.

“Of course I was the first player to be drafted from the academy,” said Giddey, who has been out of the squad since the end of February due to a hip injury. “But I won’t be the last.”

In the academy, the team’s recently renovated locker room features framed posters of the program’s time when NBA alumni were only associated with the national training center. There is also a sign: “Who’s next?”

“The idea,” Clarke said, “is when the players look at it and say, ‘Well, that could be me.’ ”



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