How Jacob Furphy is becoming Tasmania's latest success story

Furphy has consistently produced well beyond his years, and it was no different at this year's Basketball Without Borders Asia camp, where he clinched MVP honours.

Credit: NBA

NBA Global Academy Technical Director, Marty Clarke describes Jacob Furphy as ‘very organised’. For any 16 year old that’s a rare compliment, but when you consider what the youthful Tasmanian wing has had to juggle over the last couple of years, it’s nothing less than a necessary characteristic.

In 2022, Furphy represented Australia in the FIBA U16 Asia Championship and the U17 Basketball World Cup, as one of only three bottom age selections alongside Rocco Zikarsky and Roman Siulepa.

This year, Furphy parlayed his good form into a scholarship to the NBA Global Academy. He subsequently played in both the U20 Nationals for the NBA Global Academy, and U18 Nationals for Tasmania, and most recently was selected to compete in this year’s Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Asia camp.

Unlike Siulepa and Zikarsky, his bottom-age peers on those aforementioned FIBA teams, Furphy does not stand out by virtue of otherworldly athletic characteristics, that allows him to compete against older age groups. Instead, his immense polish, IQ and maturity have allowed him to compete beyond his years. These characteristics have underpinned a staggering level of success through his myriad of local and international experience, and have left a strong impression over his time at the Academy thus far.

Credit: NBA

“What [Jacob] brings is an understanding of how to be a pro. His leadership, he’s very organised and very driven,” Clarke said of Furphy’s transition to Canberra’s Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), which is where the NBA Global Academy is housed.

“All the things that we usually have to teach here, he already has. He could step in here and accelerate without having to go through the normal freshman learning curve because he’s a very organised 16 year old, which is hard to find.”

As much as these traits are to his individual credit, his preparedness appears part of a growing trend of talented athletes deriving from across the Bass Strait.