Pioneer's pride: Brad Newley on his European journey and unforgettable memories
After calling time on his career, Newley reflects on his journey and longevity overseas, including a recent special honour from his favourite club in Spain that he was able to share with his family.
Brad Newley is a pioneer of Australian basketball, and that’s not up for debate. Newley recently retired from professional hoops, after building a long and successful career overseas. He was undoubtedly one of the earliest Australians to do so, at a time when the NBL was not what it is today.
Photo credit: EuroCup
He spent 20 years across Australia, Greece, Turkey, Lithuania and Spain, was drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2007, and donned the green and gold of the Australian Boomers at two Olympic Games and three World Cups (World Championships). He was also a member of the 2003 Under-19 FIBA World Championship team that took gold in Greece, as well as winning gold at the 2006 and 2018 Commonwealth Games.
About the only thing that’s eluded him is a professional championship. He came agonisingly close with Melbourne United this past season, was a member of the NBL20 Kings team where the series was cut short due to COVID-19, and never managed to win one in his years in Europe. But Newley will be remembered more for how he played and the impact he had.
He announced back in February that NBL24 would be his last season as a professional; while he’s still going round one last time with Frankston in the NBL1 South conference, he’ll hang up the sneakers for good in a couple of months. Newley knew that his time was coming to an end, when he signed on for one more season with United last year.
“I had a pretty strong indication that this year, 2024, was going to be my last season,” he told The Pick and Roll recently. “Throughout my negotiation to get the extra year of the contract, I knew what my minutes role was going to be and to me that was like, ‘Well I’m getting closer to 40. It’s not as if I’m going to be able come out in that time and impress to get more minutes.’
“What I’ve done is done, so my body of work for 19 years was what it was. So, going into this season I had a fair understanding of what my role was, which was to be, not like a babysitter, but more a custodian of the bench and the training facility, just to make sure everything went smoothly.”
Being a professional athlete for 20 years is no small feat. That kind of longevity is not that common and takes a lot of discipline, talent and also some good fortune to stay healthy. For Newley though, to do that across some of the best leagues in the world is even more impressive.
And while he didn’t really take the time to think about that longevity until the last few years when his minutes and role began to decrease, he now realises how special his run has been.
“It probably took me til this year to realise it’s not so bad to look back and appreciate what you’ve done, cos I was always competitive about trying to extend my career,” explained Newley. “So I guess I never really sat back and gave myself some flowers, and it was only towards the end of this season where I started to really reflect and think about the good things; some of things I’ve done and places I’ve been.”
The early years
That 20-year run began before he ever set foot on a professional court.
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