BIO: Neal Bieker was born in Oregon (USA).

NBL EXPERIENCE

Neal Bieker made his NBL debut with the Eastside Melbourne Spectres at 29 years of age. He scored four points in his first game.

After a import merry-go-round and lacklustre season in coach Brian Goorjian’s first year, he looked to create some stability within the franchise. He re-signed import Arne Duncan, last year’s leading scorer and paired him with import Ben Tower, a Michigan native who had been drafted by the Detroit Pistons five years earlier.

The Spectres retained the core group of last season’s roster, team captain Warren Pink, Dean Uthoff, the league’s leading rebounder and the league’s most improved player Darren Lucas. The rest of the roster was built around a bunch of young talent, with Shane Froling, Paul Hotchin and Steve Lunardon all returning with one more season of experienced, 17-year-old Spectres junior player Rupert Sapwell and 24-year-old Wayne Larkins from Westside Melbourne.

During the pre-season, Duncan suffered a injury that saw him miss the first half of the regular season.

The Spectres then signed Kent Lockhart, who had been playing in the state league for Sandringham, as an injury replacement for Duncan. Goorjian, who had been playing pickup basketball games against state league players during the offseason, was impressed by his ability to play both sides of the ball.

Lockhart (28.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists) led the team in scoring, and made such a impact on the team that when Duncan returned from injury, the team released Ben Tower and signed Lockhart to the full-time roster. With Duncan putting up big numbers again (28.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 5.6 assists), Dean Uthoff (18.6 points, 17.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists) leading the league in rebounding for a second consecutive year and Bieker averaging 3.1 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.5 assists per game, the Spectres finished the year on a four-game winning streak. Lockhart, who posted a incredible 47 points against the Newcastle Falcons in Round 18, was named to the All-NBL First Team, and with Eastside Melbourne improved from a 11-13 to 14-12 record, leaving Spectres’ fans very optimistic for next season.

1990
Eastside had been slowly improving each season since Brian Goorjian was appointed head coach in 1988, and by 1990 many of the core group that had been a part of the roster when Goorjian took over had developed from junior talent to highly productive NBL players.

The only changes to the local roster were the exits of veterans Paul Hotchins and Warren Pink, who were then replaced with Darren Perry (Brisbane) and Nunawading junior Tony Ronaldson, who had just completed a year at the Australian Institute of Sport. The departure of import Arne Duncan then made room for the return of former Spectre Bruce Bolden.

To kick off the season, Eastside was tipped to be the big improvers of 1990 after finishing ‘best of the rest’ the year prior.

Bieker would see limited playing opportunities this season, playing in only two games for the year.

1991
After making the playoffs for the first time in three years, coach Brian Goorjian was able to bring back almost the entire squad for another shot at the championship, the team’s only key loss being bruising forward Shane Froling, who was replaced with Scott Ninnis.

Behind Eastside’s formidable frontcourt, led by Bruce Bolden (27.2 points and 10.4 rebounds), Kent Lockhart (18.6 points and 5.7 rebounds) and Dean Uthoff (16.8 points and 13.6 rebounds) the Spectres finished the season with a 17-9 record. Bieker continued to see limited minutes by was able to contribute 2.9 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 0.2 assists across 11 regular season games.

Eastside Melbourne would go on to reach the NBL Grand Final, falling short to Perth in two games. Bieker failed to appear in any playoff games.

Neal Bieker played three seasons in the NBL. He averaged 2.7 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 0.3 assists in 23 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (832 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.