The first thing that I notice when I sit down with Isaac Humphries is his 7 foot frame towering over me. He barely fits into the chair at the café table where we sit for our interview. Unfortunately there aren’t any other chairs available, but he doesn’t look perturbed – I get the impression that this probably happens a lot for Humphries.
The second thing I notice is his youth. Watching him play, it’s easy to think of Humphries as just another basketballer, but in a one-on-one situation I’m struck by how young he still is. At 19 I’m fairly sure I was sleeping in, skipping classes and drinking myself into oblivion in my first year of university, along with many other people my age, so I’m impressed by the discipline he must have to have turned pro so young, as well as his eloquence in our interview.
Humphries is one of the more solidly-built players to come out of the college system, especially at such a young age, so perhaps it is no surprise that he hasn’t found the transition from college to the professional league much of a challenge.
“Early on there was obviously a growing period, in which I had to kind of find my ground and figure my way out in a new league, in a new team – that’s just normal anywhere you go… [But] it honestly hasn’t been a big transition at all… coming from Kentucky, [where] we’re treated like pros and we’re taught to be pros, and our environment’s very professional,” Humphries tells me.
“I think the size thing hasn’t really been an issue. I was up against big players as well at college and having all the NBA guys come back, from Kentucky; regularly playing against them kind of helps all of us get ready for the professional level,” said Humphries.
Speaking of the NBA – presumably he still harbours ambitions to join the other eight Australians in the Show?
“Honestly, it’s one season at a time for me – that’s how my camp likes to work; my agent and my family, we like to focus on the now and try not to look too far ahead because I feel that people tend to get distracted.”
“I only signed for a season [with Sydney] on purpose… I don’t know what’s next. Obviously I’ll go back over and do Summer League and all that sort of thing after this season, but… things come up so quickly, you just never know… I have a couple of teams that are interested from my previous experiences and stuff like that, but the NBA is a very weird place. It’s just so hit-and-miss, and if you’re in the right place at the right time it just works… I don’t have a specific place I want to go or anywhere that’s locked in or anything. I just think that once I’m over there, doing the rounds again, something will come up; something may not.”
Attempting to tactfully avoid Sydney’s obvious on-court woes, I ask Humphries why he decided to come back to Sydney.
“Honestly, the main reason was to be home amongst my family and friends again. It was time I came home and had a solid period of time where I could be around my core group and just kind of regroup…We all just thought it was a good option, and it truly wasn’t much of a basketball decision – it was more of a personal decision.”
He’s back living with his mother in the Sutherland Shire where he grew up (he tells me, “It’s a good set-up!” with a grin) but he doesn’t hesitate to add that the strength of the league was also a factor in the move home.
“I just think the NBL’s on an up right now, and they’re just doing really well.”
Except for the Kings, that is. Along with many other NBL fans, and every other Kings fan, I’d dearly love to know what on earth Sydney need to do to get out of what seems to be a ten-year rut. With the news that Kevin Lisch has re-injured himself at training earlier this week, I’m starting to think that we’re cursed. But maybe players like Humphries are the answer.
As the most populous Australian city, Sydney has a large network of quality basketball associations which have already produced the likes of Humphries, Jason Cadee, Angus Brandt, Anatoly Bose, Julian Khazzouh and Matthew Nielsen, to name just a few. The Kings are also the northernmost NSW-based club, and hence can lay claim to players such as Anthony Petrie and Damian Martin as well.
While even those who bleed purple and gold like me surely now have to concede that Damo is never coming ‘home’, perhaps we need to do more to attract juniors straight out of college or even high school who are products of our local system – and, most importantly, to keep them after their rookie season. 2012 Rookie of the Year Bose left for Europe and 2015 Rookie of the Year Brandt was snatched up by Perth, a loss that Kings fans still bemoan.
Surely we can leverage the pull of home along with an equal salary to what they are offered elsewhere, even if we can’t beat other teams’ offers financially?
In that spirit, I for one am hoping that Humphries sticks around after the dust settles on Sydney’s horror season. I finally invoke the elephant in the room and ask him about the rest of this season and his future with the Kings.
“I’m trying to be really positive, as we all are, and we’re trying to get better.
“There’s obviously a lot of frustration going around, but that’s normal, it’s common. It’s gonna happen. I think we’re all still trying to find the identity of our team and I guess it’s just taken a little bit longer than it needed to, really, but that’s out of my hands, and I’m just trying to take every day as it is and get better every day and play hard every game and learn from every experience.”
As far as Humphries’ future goes, as the man himself says, “one season at a time,” I guess.
Olivia is a long-suffering Sydney Kings fan as well as playing and refereeing basketball in local competitions for over a decade. In her real life, she's trying to get into academia, having just completed her PhD in film studies, and runs her own high school tutoring business. Her hobbies include trying to get love from unfriendly cats, drinking tea, and being jealous of fans of teams that actually win.