NICKNAME/S: Baby Iverson

BIO: Rashad Keith Phillips is a American former professional basketball player. At a height of 5’9 1⁄4″ (1.76 m) tall, and a weight of 170 pounds (77 kg), he played at the guard position.

Since retiring from basketball, he started and continues to run, “Skills Unlimited”, a training and mentoring program for children, that uses basketball as a vehicle to help them overcome their obstacles.

Phillips, a native of the North Central section of Detroit, Michigan, grew up in a rough neighborhood.

His father, Virgil, wanted to keep him off the streets, so he created a program called REACH (a acronym for religion, education, athletics, character and hope), where Rashad and others could go to play basketball and stay out of trouble.

Later, when he was a senior at college, Phillips said, “I thank God every day for giving me a father who did the things he did for me.

I’ve seen a lot of people fall victim to the streets, but that was never a option for me.

I always had a gym to go to.

What my father has done has saved so many lives.

”

NBL EXPERIENCE

Rashad Phillips made his NBL debut with the Perth Wildcats at 29 years of age. He scored 13 points in his first game.

After being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, the Wildcat’s moved on from veteran Tony Ronaldson (to New Zealand) and guard Damien Ryan (Europe), looking to get younger and bigger and replaced them with Alex Loughton (Spain) and Tom Garlepp (NCAA). after an impressive debut season, Perth could not retain import Darren Brooks who received several lucrative offers from overseas and replaced him with Rashad Phillips.

Despite leading the league in assists, Phillips (13.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 7.5 assists) was released six games into the season, with the team sitting on a 3-3 record and head coach Scott Fisher citing Phillps fitness being the main issue.

‘ Unfortunately, Rashad never really showed us the athleticism or intensity needed to make himself or those around him better. Plus, he never really contributed to the defensive side of things. He lacked the leadership and on-court management that this group needs. So we felt it was in the best interest of the club to delist him.’

The team immediately replaced him with Gerald Brown (13.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 3.6 assists), who had been a former teammate of Luc Longley at the Phoenix Suns.

Rookie Loughton (14.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.0 steals)impressed during his rookie season, finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting (losing to Nathan Jawai). Shawn Redhage (22.9 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 3.3 assists) delivered a career high scoring season, which incliuded a career-high 40 points against Adelaide (10 Oct 2007) and became the fastest Wildcat to reach 2,000 career points, doing so in 95 games and 3,400 minutes. Captain Paul Rogers (12.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.2 blocks) proved he was still one of the competition’s elite big men, earning a spot on the All-NBL Third Team, joining Redhage who earned a spot on the All-NBL First Team. Despite the high-level play from Redhage and Rogers the team just couldn’t win on the road. Close to unbeatable at home (12-3) but woeful in away games (6-9), the Wildcats finished the season in fourth place (18-12).

Much like their results from the regular season, Perth was able to win at home but struggled on the road in the playoffs. They defeated fifth seed Townsville at home (96-78) in their quarterfinal matchup, but upon reaching the semi finals against Sydney, they were outmatched. Perth would push the Kings to the limit on their home court in game one (101-98) rebound behind a huge game from Redhage (35 points) to gain a win on home soil in game two (94-85) only to have Sydney hand Perth their worse loss of the season in game three (109-77), ending their playoff run. Shortly after, coach Fisher announced that he would not seek a new contract from the Wildcat’s and would return to the United States.

Redhage was selected to the All-NBL First Team, and captain Paul Rogers (12.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.2 blocks), who showed he was still one of the competition’s elite big men, was named on the All-NBL Third Team.

Rashad Phillips played one season in the NBL. He averaged 13.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 7.5 assists in 6 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (835 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.