The Sydney Kings blew through Utah on Monday night for a preseason game against the Jazz. It was a breath of fresh air.
Aren’t Australians always a break from the ordinary?
Joe Ingles is considered the most humorous Jazz player. Dante Exum is fairly quiet, but he’s honest. Asked beforehand if the Kings had any players who had influenced him, the young Jazz guard said, “Um, no.”
You have to love the Aussie openness.
Last July I interviewed Australian Mitch Creek, who was on the Jazz Summer League roster. He wasn’t loud, but he was affable.
“I do have a little bit of sneaky athleticism,” he told me.
The first Aussie player I remember was Andrew Gaze — the face of his country’s national team. Fittingly, Gaze is coach of the Kings. He has the classic Australian good humor.
Gaze played at Seton Hall when the Pirates met Quin Snyder and Duke. On Monday he described Snyder this way: “He’s one of those guys that you felt was kind of annoying. This good-looking fellow out here running around playing for Duke.”
Gaze bemoaned playing with the leather American basketball this week, compared to Australia’s synthetic ball. He called it “a wet bar of soap.”
“This thing is sliding through our hands,” Gaze said. “I mean, crikey, what’s going on here?”
The second Aussie player I became aware of was Luc Longley, when he played at New Mexico, then the NBA. By the time he got to the Chicago Bulls, Australia was on the world basketball map. Now there’s Andrew Bogut, Matthew Dellavedova, Dante Exum, Patty Mills, Ben Simmons and others.
Gaze described playing against Rudy Gobert thusly: “There are certain things that not too many human beings on earth could have stopped.” He admitted to “99 percent of the (Jazz) guys not even having heard of the Sydney Kings.”
When it comes to Australians and the NBA, all I can say is keep ‘em coming. As it says in their national anthem, “Advance Australia fair!”