BIO: Born in Birchip, Victoria, Aaron Bruce attended Horsham College in nearby Horsham, where he graduated in 2002. Bruce received a scholarship to attend the Australian Institute of Sport (Canberra) in 2002. He spent two years year there and played for the program’s state league team (2002, 2003).

FAMILY: Aaron’s brother, Shaun Bruce also played 314 games in the NBL. Bruce is the son of Steve and Julie Bruce. His mother was a national-level swimmer while two of his uncles, Des and Stephen Ryan, played in the Australian Football League. He also has a third brother Cameron who played state level basketball as well.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Aaron Bruce made his NBL debut with the Adelaide 36ers at 23 years of age. He scored 22 points in his first game.

In August 2008, Bruce joined the Adelaide 36ers for the 2008/09 NBL season and averaged 10 points and five assists for the season. He was subsequently named NBL Rookie of the Year. In 2009, Bruce took a career break in the United States, and in August 2010, he earned his undergraduate degree from Baylor University.

2010/11
Following the club’s worst ever season, Scott Ninnis was sacked as coach and replaced by Johnson’s former AIS coach Marty Clarke for the 2010/11 NBL season. Clarke, who had won a NBL Grand Final with North Melbourne in 1989 as a player, was a unusual choice as coach due to his lack of experience coaching at a NBL level.

Before the season began he recruited two of his former AIS graduates, Daniel Johnson (Melbourne) and Rhys Carter (Sweden) to bolster the bench as well as oversaw the re-signing of team captain Adam Ballinger who had led the team in scoring, and rebounding the season prior.

Clarke then replaced imports John Gilchrist and Cortez Groves with sharpshooter Troy De Vries and Craig Winder.

The 2010/11 season saw a litany of injuries befall the 36ers. The first casualty being Nathan Herbert who would miss the entire season after a anterior cruciate ligament injury. After defeating long-time rivals Perth in the opening game of the season 74-69, the 36ers recorded two wins in seven games. December then saw Rhys Carter suffer a major injury that would see him miss a third of the season. During Carter’s absence, Adelaide signed Bruce, who had returned from studying in the US. When healthy, Carter returned to the lineup, but Adelaide also chose to keep Bruce on the roster for the remainder of the season. Import guards Troy DeVries and Craig Winder, who had battled with fitness issues, were released and replaced after the first nine games of the season. The underperforming Winder (10.1 ppg from 35% shooting) was replaced by Ron Howard and De Vries (10 ppg) with veteran Euroleague guard, Eddie Shannon.

Shannon, who was recommended to Adelaide by Chris Anstey, who played alongside him in Russia, had played in Europe for ten years as a pro despite only being able to see out of one eye.

The 36ers never quite nailed their imports and for the first time in their history, the Adelaide 36ers failed to win at least ten games in a season, finishing with a 9–19 record. Bruce finished the season averaging 6 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists.

Adelaide was able to avoid their second straight last-place finish only because of the returning Sydney Kings, who, with a limited budget for players and finished one game behind (8–20).

Ballinger (15.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.9 blocks) led the team in scoring, shooting a impressive 54.1% from the field and was the league’s leading shot blocker before injuring his ankle in Adelaide’s last home game of the season. Due to the relatively small size of the 2010/11 36ers squad, the 205 cm tall Ballinger was used as the team’s’ starting centre until sustaining a season ending ankle injury on March 18, 2011. He did, however, revert to his more natural position of power forward when 212cm teammate Daniel Johnson was on the court. Ballinger won his fourth straight club MVP award, finished third in the NBL’s MVP voting and was selected to the All-NBL Third Team.

SYDNEY KINGS
2011/12
The Kings’ retained their core group of Julian Khazzouh (team captain), Ben Madgen, Luke Martin, Luke Cooper and Graeme Dann and looked to build on their disappointing return to the NBL. Head coach Ian Robilliard was able to bolster the roster by signing former Australian Boomers guard Aaron Bruce (via Adelaide), college grad Anatoly Bose (via Nicholls State) and, after a import roller-coaster the previous season, signed Jerai Grant (son and nephew of NBA stars Harvey Grant and Horace Grant respectively) and state league talent, Kevin Ratzsch.

Additionally, due to the 2011 NBA Lockout, Australia’s highest profile basketballer, former Milwaukee Bucks centre Andrew Bogut, was looking to play in the NBL during the 2011/12 season. He was linked with the Adelaide 36ers, the Gold Coast Blaze and the Kings, whom Bogut had supported when growing up in Australia. Sydney was favoured to secure his services, and Bogut ultimately chose to make his NBL debut with the Kings. However, the insurance to cover his remaining US$39 million contract with the Bucks couldn’t be resolved, leaving the Kings and the NBL without the services of Australia’s highest profile player. It was expected that Bogut’s signing would see a increase in Kings membership and league attendances. Despite not being able to play, Bogut later expressed interest in joining the Kings’ coaching staff during the lockout to help the club. This ultimately did not happen either.

Khazzouh was unstoppable during the first two months of the season was clearly the best player in the competition. This was no clearer than in the Kings 23 point win over the Adelaide 36ers in October 2011 when he filled the box score with 26 points, 13 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 36 minutes, a game which gained the attention of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. In December 2011, halfway through the season, Khazzouh would leave the team to participate in the Warriors pre-season camp. Khazzouh was then waived on 18 December 2011 and returned to Sydney to finish out the season.

The Kings fared better in their second year back in the NBL, beginning the season by winning half their games each month for the first three months. This saw the Kings jostling between fifth and sixth position, vying for a playoff spot, and having equalled their win from last season by round 14.

It was around this time Aaron Bruce (13.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 4.4 assists) suffered a vertical fracture to his tibia which ended his season and created a huge void within the team’s backcourt. With Bruce going down, the team managed only three additional wins for the year, resulting in Robilliard being moved into a executive role and replaced by Tim Hudson as interim head coach until the Kings came to term with club legend Shane Heal who agreed to coach the team on a multi-year deal.

Sydney finished in seventh place (11-17).

Julian Khazzouh (16.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 2.1 blocks) would lead the team in scoring as well as finish the season as the NBL’s leader in rebounds and blocked shots before being named to the All-NBL First team. Jerai Grant (11.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 1.4 blocks) would have a inconsistent season, winning Player of the Week in some rounds and then disappearing totally in others and Anatoly Bose (15.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.5 assists) was impressive in his debut season, earning the Rookie of the Year award. Bruce would appear in 17 games and averaged 13.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game.

2012/13
Having taken over the head coaching reigns mid-season the year before, Shane Heal set to work on helping the Kings return to the NBL playoffs for the first time since returning to the league in 2010. Heal began the season with some big roster holes to fill after losing both the leagues leading rebounder, Julian Khazzouh, Rookie of the Year Anatoly Bose and talented import Jerai Grant to European opportunities.

Heal would convince Former King Ian Crosswhite to return (via Cairns) and fill the shoes of Khazzouh, high-scoring shooting guard James Harvey (via Gold Coast) to cover the loss of Bose and recruit diminutive point guard Corin Henry and Darnell Lazare as the team’s import duo. Sydney was also bolstered by the return of Aaron Bruce, who had missed the second half of last season due to a tibia injury.

After losing to Illawarra in the opening game of the season (76–79), the team delivered a strong start to the season, and by the time of the league’s All-Star break, Sydney (9-5) was sitting in third place on the ladder.

The Kings’ second half of the season wasn’t as successful, managing just three wins from their remaining 14 games. Due to the dominance of the New Zealand Breakers (24-4) and Perth Wildcats (22-6), every other team in the NBL finished the season with a losing record. Thus, in unusual fashion, despite having a losing record, the Kings finished in fourth place and returned to the playoffs for the first time since returning to the league in 2010.

Once into the semi finals, the Kings were outclassed by the Breakers, who claimed game one in New Zealand (81-64) before closing out the series with a win on Sydney’s home floor (99-88). New Zealand would then defeat Perth in two games to become NBL Champions.

Sydney owed much of its success to a breakout season from Ben Madgen (18.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists), who led the league in scoring, was awarded the league’s Most Improved Player award and named in the All-NBL first team. Ian Crosswhite (10.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists) was named in the All-NBL third team and announced his retirement shortly after. Bruce would appear in 29 games for the Kings, averaging 9.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 3.1 assists.

Following the 2012/13 season, Bruce retired from basketball after failing to negotiate a pay raise with Kings. The club had asked him to take a pay cut; he instead chose to part ways with the team rather than accept a reduced contract.

Aaron Bruce played four seasons in the NBL, playing for both the Adelaide 36ers and the Sydney Kings. He averaged 9.7 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 3.9 assists in 90 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (798 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.