By RUSSELL BENNETT
“WHILE you’re resting, someone else is working.”
It’s a motto Endeavour Hills product, and Australian basketball superstar, Andrew Bogut lives by.
The 28-year-old is spurred on by a ruthless drive to succeed — one he has carried with him from a floodlit backyard court at his family home, to the shimmering courts of the NBA’s most famous arenas.
The former number one overall draft pick, and the best basketball talent Australia has produced, returned home recently after San Antonio eliminated his Golden State Warriors from this season’s playoffs.
He came back to recharge the batteries – to where it all began in Melbourne’s south-east.
It would be easy to assume that a man set to earn more than US$14 million next NBA season would get carried away with the glamorous lifestyle – let it all get to his head.
At times, his straight-talking demeanor and pure honesty have been mistaken for arrogance.
But talking to the News from an inner-Melbourne car workshop, nothing could be further from the truth.
Away from the court, he loves nothing more than tinkering with his cars, heading to the beach or getting a coffee from a local café – “normal stuff”.
And his rise through the basketball ranks was far from a fairytale story.
The now 213-centimetre Australian Boomer cornerstone was cut from multiple representative teams as a teenager – his unwavering competitiveness wrongly branded as an “attitude problem”.
“But I just played with a fire and a real passion,” he said.
Bogut worked with a coach for two to three hours per night on both the physical and mental aspects of his game.
“I always had it in the back of my mind that there was a kid elsewhere training right at that moment in either Europe or America,” he said.
“And I was competing with him.”
Such is his competitive edge, and his passion for developing the game, that he even went on to transform his own private Carrum Downs off-season workout facility into ‘Andrew Bogut Basketball’ – Melbourne’s only private venue dedicated solely to basketball players and their passion to improve.
Two of Australian basketball’s best young exports since Bogut – Patrick Mills and Aron Baynes – are currently lining up for the Spurs against the world’s best, Miami’s LeBron James, in the fight for this year’s NBA championship.
Bogut lists Spurs leader, and four-time championship winner, Tim Duncan as the current player he most respects. But he doesn’t admire him … there’s no time for that when he’s hell-bent on beating him.
“I don’t really admire any (of my peers) because they’re my opponents, but I have so much respect for Tim and what he’s been able to achieve,” Bogut said.
He is more focused on the Warriors with a young nucleus of players – including budding superstar Steph Curry and Klay Thompson – that he hopes can stay together “for years to come”.
“We’re quiet achievers,” he said.
“No one picked us to go through the first round of the playoffs, or even make them, but we need to back it up next season.
“Teams will be after us now.”
And Bogut will be ready. He has been cruelled by freak injuries in recent seasons, including a dislocated elbow and broken hand suffered from a horrific on-court fall; and a fractured ankle that saw him miss most of the 2012/13 season.
“Most of those injuries were high impact, but out of my control,” he said with more than a hint of frustration.
“Hopefully, all that is behind me now.
“My ankle is really responding to rest.
“I weigh 120 kilograms, so I really need that!”
Bogut cherishes his time back in Australia before the dawn of another Warriors season kicks in. He’s made himself available to a host of media commitments and outside demands.
“I really want to do it,” he said.
“When I come home I want people to have access to hear my story, people who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance.”
“I like to give back to the people who have been so good to me along the way.”
But one thing is clear – he’d rather be in great mate Mills’ shoes … testing himself against the best, competing to win it all.
