BIO: Kendle was born and raised in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and grew up playing basketball. As a sophomore at Jeffersonville High School, Kendle was nearly cut from the basketball team due to his small stature; he was five-foot seven inches tall and 140 pounds. He was told he wasn’t good enough to make the varsity basketball team. The head coach on the senior varsity team wanted to cut him, but the junior varsity coach knew his father and they had a mutual respect. He kept Kendle on the team, but he rode the bench for the whole season. The next year, he hit a six-inch growth spurt and worked really hard physically. He subsequently started on the varsity team as a junior.

As a senior in 2005/06 playing for coach Jimmy Just, Kendle averaged 15.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. He helped lead the Red Devils to a 23–2 record, and the Hoosier Hills Conference Championship, and subsequently earned first team All-District, All-Region and All-Area selection.

FAMILY: Kendle’s wife Nadia is from New Zealand. The couple have twin boys, Tekoa and Izzakin, that were born in 2019.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Jeremy Kendle made his NBL debut with the Brisbane Bullets at 28 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

After his 2015 MVP season in the Queensland State League, Kendle was invited to train with the Cairns Taipans but never played a game.

During the 2016/17 NBL season Kendle began training with the Brisbane Bullets before signing with them as an injury replacement, he made his debut for the Bullets four days later in loss to New Zealand (84–82), recording five points, one rebound and one steal in just under 12 minutes off the bench. That month the Bullets chose to release Jermaine Beal and Kendle became part of the team’s permanent roster. Kendle averaged 11.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 2.4 assists for the season.

SYDNEY KINGS
2017/18
Kendle, well known among NBL circles now, signed with the Sydney Kings as an injury replacement for Kevin Lisch during the 2017/18 season. He appeared in six games for the Kings before the team signed import Jerome Randle as Lisch’s replacement. He averaged 6.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game.

BRISBANE BULLETS
2018/19
On December 4, 2018, Kendle was again signed by the Brisbane Bullets as a replacement player after the release of import Stephen Holt. Kendle had been training with the Bullets all season and with the team being satisfied with his play extended his contract with the Bullets for the rest of the season on December 13. In 18 games, he averaged 6.0 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 1.1 assist per game.

ADELAIDE 36ERS
2020/21
Long time head coach Joey Wright was released from the 36ers at the end of the 2019/20 season despite still having time left on his contract. His departure coincided with accusations of abuse and bullying from players, amongst other off-court issues. Adelaide would replace him with former Perth assistant Conner Henry.

The 36ers began the season with Jack McVeigh, Obi Kyei, Brendan Teys, Daniel Dillon and Alex Mudronja as contracted players.

A flurry of off-season signings then saw the 36ers rebuild their roster. In the backcourt, Josh Giddey, who one month earlier had become the youngest player to debut for the Boomers since Ben Simmons on a Next Stars program contract. Sunday Dech (via Illawarra) was added to back-up Josh Giddey (three-year deal), and former NBA guard Donald Sloan was announced as the team’s first import signing. In the frontcourt, Five-time club MVP Daniel Johnson was first re-signed (three-year deal), then Isaac Humphries (two-year deal), fresh from a stint in the NBA and 25-year-old Keanu Pinder (one-year deal), who had spent the previous season in Europe were signed. Lastly, veteran forward Tony Crocker was signed as the team’s second import, finalising the main roster.

In their season opener, Adelaide chose to start young guns Giddey (18 years) and Humphries (23 years) against Melbourne and suffered a demoralising loss (65-89) which led coach Henry to change tact for game two. Adding some experience into the starting lineup, Sloan replaced Giddey at the point, and Pinder swapped roles with Humphries, the result being a eight point win over South East Melbourne (116-108).

In Adelaide’s third outing for 2020/21, Sloan returned to the starting lineup as the team lost a rematch against South East Melbourne and was sent back to the bench in favour of Josh Giddey for the remaining games. Despite recording a season-high 20 points off the bench in his next game, Sloan’s disinterest in playing off the bench saw him granted a mutual release to pursue playing opportunities elsewhere.

After Sloan was released, Dech was elevated into the starting lineup, and Jeremy Kendle was signed as a interim replacement player.

As Adelaide continued to juggle their lineup, they started the season off looking like a team bound for the playoffs (4-2), until the NBL season was disrupted by COVID-19. This led to the league installing the NBL Cup, a ‘bubble tournament’ that required the entire league to play the next eight games in Melbourne.

The Sixers struggled to win whilst based in Melbourne and, by the conclusion of the NBL Cup had fallen from third on the ladder to seventh. Although Adelaide would eventually release Kendle (5.1 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 2.0 assists) and bring in former NBA talent Brandon Paul, the 36ers would lose Humphries to injury for the remainder of the season shortly after. Jack Purchase was signed as his injury replacement player and was a part of the team for the remainder of the season. Daniel Johnson (19.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists) continued to deliver offensively, notching up career-high scoring numbers and leading the 36ers in scoring for the sixth time. He was subsequently named the 36ers co-MVP alongside Josh Giddey (10.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 7.6 assists), who led the league in assists and was also voted NBL Rookie of the Year award.

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS
2020/21
On March 13, 2021, Kendle signed with the New Zealand Breakers as an injury replacement for Lamar Patterson. He played three games for the Breakers while replacement import Levi Randolph completed his COVID-19 quarantine.

Jeremy Kendle played five seasons across three NBL teams. This included the Brisbane Bullets, Sydney Kings, New Zealand Breakers and Adelaide 36ers. He averaged 6.6 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 51 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (827 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.