Australian basketball player Jack White for Champion x NBL
Australian basketball is having a moment right now. We’ve got more ballers in the NBA and WNBA than ever before. Melbourne is home to more number one draft picks over the last 20 or so years than any other city. Our local league is hitting heights it hasn’t seen since the glory days of Gaze & Copeland.
The NBL is making high-impact moves, and the tremors are being felt right across the world. Just wait until you see LaMelo lining up a free throw sometime in the coming NBA season, with ‘Illawarra Hawks’ under his name in the stat box on the screen.
It’s not just a global thing though. The reach of the league extends from LaMelo’s hometown of California’s Chino Hills to Traralgon in Victoria’s LaTrobe Valley. The sleepy town of around 25,000 people is known for a royal visit in 1954 and a heritage-listed post office. It’s not the kind of place you would expect to unearth world-class basketball talent, but it’s 2020; nothing is as it seems anymore.
Traralgon is also the hometown of Jack White, a 6’7” forward who grew up balling on hardwood floors across the state. At 14, he was already playing in the senior leagues; not out of necessity but out of a desire to challenge himself. At 18, he went to Duke and became a Blue Devil. At 20, he became the captain of Coach K’s famous NBA nursery.
His next challenge lies in the NBL. Jack has committed to Melbourne United and, once the Covid delays are over, will line up alongside Chris Goulding and the rest of the squad for a run at the title.
Complex AU caught a few minutes with Jack to discuss chasing dreams, beating Covid, and Champion’s new deal with the NBL.
Victoria is proving to be a breeding ground for basketball talent but, more specifically, country Victoria is exporting ballers. It’s quite an unlikely path, what do you think is setting regional players up for success?
Well I think the difference between country and metro athletes was the attitude that we all had; it was more of a team game, more than the dog-eat-dog. From that perspective I think I learned to play the game the right way from very early on.
Because I was in the country and isolated from the city a bit more, I started playing senior basketball when I was 14. I think being in those kinds of environments really set me up from a young age to be challenged, both mentally and physically, in terms of getting beaten down every day and working out how to be effective.
Did you play senior basketball when you were 14 because there was no opportunity to play in under-15s or 16s?
Nah, there was always opportunities to play juniors and I did that all the way through but there was a really good opportunity for me there [in the seniors], being a gym rat. I loved the game from an early age, I wasn't great when I first started, but I always knew it was what I wanted to do.
Obviously I didn't play a lot when I was 14 and joined those senior squads but the amount I learned in training and just being around them was paramount to my development. Then when I went back and played for state teams and for Australia I felt like I had that going for me, that experience.
You were talking about your academic goals, and you’ve completed four years at Duke, with a few years as the captain of the squad, can you tell me what that was like?
It was an unreal experience and definitely, in my opinion, I got the best out of both worlds in terms of academics and athletics. Similar to when I first started playing senior basketball, those opportunities didn't really come for me straight away and that was something that I learned as I developed through juniors, and throughout my career, is that the places that I went really challenged me. When I went to the [Australian] Institute [of Sport] I felt I was really challenged there. Those are the places where I really got better and had to work out how I could be effective and how I could improve to ultimately try to be the best.
That was in my mind when choosing a school and obviously if you're gonna go to college, Duke's the place to be. If you're a basketballer that's the dream. I really just found my way those first two years, played against some great guys; Grayson Allen, Luke Kennard, Jayson Tatum, I could keep going and going but those guys I went up against every day in practice, ultimately made me ready to step into a leadership role in my final two years and be a more integral part of the team. Now that I'm into the professional world of basketball I definitely feel like I have a wealth of experience that not a lot of rookies have when coming into the league.
What are the lessons you learned as a member of the Blue Devils, that you can now bring back to the NBL?
I think first and foremost, just being around Coach K [Mike Krzyzewski] and the calibre of players that I was surrounded by will reinforce the level of professionalism and consistency needed on an everyday basis to be successful. The opportunity to go and compete at a high level is something that shouldn't be taken for granted, that's really something I learned and embraced over those first two years, especially when I wasn't playing a lot. When I did get the opportunity to play, [I focused on] working out how I can ultimately do that more; working hard in practice, trying to do all the little things right really makes a difference in doing the things you wanna do out on the court.
I think as well being that Duke is a pretty tough academic school, [I learned] time management. You want to get your academics done, make sure you're fresh for practice, make sure you have a social life and you need time to yourself, so really prioritise your time. I think that's really helped me thus far.
They're the main things; hard work and dedication. Looking at Coach K, he's achieved everything in his career, he’s in his early 70s, and how he conducts himself in terms of going after every game like it's a championship game. No matter if we're playing in pro season or against Carolina or an exhibition game, the way he prepares for each and every game is the exact same and that consistency is what made him so great. He never wants to lose no matter what the situation and I think that that's something that I've tried to take along with me now that I've parted from the program.
Talking about bringing those things back to the NBL, and the calibre of talent you were playing aside, these days the NBL is definitely on the improve; there's so much local talent, there's great imported players, were you keeping an eye on things while you were at Duke or have you kind of come back like 'oh wow'
I always had it in my peripheral vision. I was always interested in hoops in Australia, since I was younger and, even before I went to college, that was a path that I was weighing up in taking. I had the opportunity to be a DP (Development Player) up in Cairns for four weeks as an injury replacement so I got a taste of what the NBL was like at a young age. I was super fortunate to have that, and I had such a positive experience that I was really weighing up whether I wanted to follow through with my dreams and go to college and get that education and have that experience or try my hand at going pro straight out of high school. But that experience was something I just couldn't let go of and my younger self was in the back of my head like 'come on man, you've gotta go to college'. That was the luxury about it; if it didn't work out, Australia wasn't going anywhere. That option was always there, but if I went pro, I couldn't go to college cos you have to maintain that amateur status.
I always kept up with the highlights and news, when I came home in the off-season I would always work out with United. I think that in a way contributed to my decision, just that level of comfort and that transition phase that I'm somewhat still in has been really smooth just in terms of me knowing everyone at the club. But the league is in a fantastic place at the moment in terms of the talent that's back here. It's a great thing for Australian basketball that we have a heap of local talent coming back to play locally. And even my experience with United has been unreal; the calibre of players I'm surrounded by on a daily basis and the people I get to watch and learn from is world-class and as a rookie you can't ask for much more.
What have you been doing during lockdown to stay focused and in-shape?
I got back to Australia before the second wave really hit hard. I got back to Melbourne and we were under pretty strict restrictions about what we could do during practice and workout and everything of that nature at United. To some extent it was pretty normal, apart from sanitising every other minute and keeping your distance during workout, but we were pretty fortunate until Covid got into our sessions and shut everything down for about a month. I actually ended up getting it.
You had Covid?
Yea, I had it for my birthday. That was rough but the most frustrating thing about it was coming back to Melbourne, getting myself into really good shape and building myself up to where we're playing five-on-five, and right before I was about to go full pelt, that was when everything went down. I had to kind of hit the reset button again and start from scratch which was frustrating. We were just told to go and rest and there's not much you can do.
There's been a few phases around Covid; I had to work my way off it first and then I was able to take a step back from everything and give my body time to rest and recover. I’ve been trying to focus on the mental side of things; meditation every day, mindfulness, staying in the moment and being appreciative of what we can and can't do. So that's been easy to an extent because of how the practices and workouts are scheduled at the moment; they're very time-limited and time-specific so whenever we can get into the gym or get on to the court or do anything active with the group, it's something I definitely don't take for granted.
Really just trying to make the most of each day and each opportunity I have to do something to better myself I really try and make the most of it. Where we are now, I feel like we're in a really good spot as a group. We don't even have our full roster yet and we're looking really good out there and i'm just loving being in that environment.
Champion has come on as the jersey sponsor for the NBL, what does the brand mean to you?
I really had positive perceptions of the brand, and it's been really cool to see the brand come into its own and become really prominent across casual wear, and across athletic and sportswear now. I'm just really excited for the brand and having their gear now in all of our practice gear, I can speak from experience they're making great product, it's comfortable, it's great quality and I can feel like the vision for the brand and how they've worked into the NBL is really a positive thing for both parties.
What does being a Champion mean to you?
Honestly it means everything. If anyone knows me, they know I love to compete and I definitely like to try my best to win everything I do. Not only in sport but out of it. Being a champion is putting your best foot forward, and if you do that every day and control the things that you can control, no matter the result you should walk away from that experience feeling like a champion, with no regret. If you do end up winning and getting the result you want that's a bonus. I think ultimately controlling everything that's within your power with your preparation, with your mindset, and how you go about what you do is really what separates champions from the norm.
Champion x NBL fanwear jerseys available now. Rep your team colours here.
