Light Blue - Semester 2 2021

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SECTION 04 — MAILROOM

After two seasons plying his trade in the Serbian and Lithuainian basketball leagues, the pandemic sparked a decision for Jock Landale (M’13) which would culminate in an NBL championship, a Bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics and the realisation of his ultimate dream; signing a two-year deal with the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA.

Jock mutually parted ways with Lithuainian champions Žalgiris Kaunas in August 2020 and returned home to Melbourne, signing a one-year deal with Melbourne United in the NBL. “The decision was easy in the end. Melbourne is one of the safest places to be during this pandemic and that is hard to turn down,” Jock told NBL.com.au. After a dominant season which saw him crowned United’s MVP, Melbourne defeated the Perth Wildcats in the 2021 NBL Grand Final with Jock earning the Larry Sengstock Medal for most valuable player in the series. “This has been the goal since the start of the year,” Jock said post-game. “Everything’s been directed towards winning a championship.”

There was little time to celebrate as Jock boarded a plane for Los Angeles to link-up with the Australian Men’s Basketball team for a pre-Olympics training camp, then on to Tokyo where he would go on to start every game for his country, averaging 12.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game as Australia claimed its first ever men’s basketball medal - a Bronze - at an Olympic Games. “Going into that Bronze Medal game against Slovenia, I’ve never been more nervous or felt more of a pressure-filled moment,” Jock said. “Those emotions tied in with the buzzer sounds in the fourth quarter, it sunk in that we were the first team to medal at a major tournament... you can’t really put those feelings into words. Walking back into the Olympic Village and all of Team Australia’s out the front clapping us because they know how much it means to us... those waves of emotion keep coming up.” He joins a select group of Old Geelong Grammarians to medal at a Summer Olympics which includes Kate Allen (nee Slatter), David Dickson, Rebecca Joyce, John Landy, Garth Manton and Adrian Monger.

On the eve of Australia’s semifinal clash with eventual gold medallists the USA, Jock received a call from his agent which he believed was a primer for what to expect in the NBA free agency period. Thankfully, the phone call was more absolute than hypothetical. “He said, ‘I’m not calling you to talk about how it’s going to go, I’m calling you to tell you that you’ll be in the NBA next year, you’ve got an offer from San Antonio.’”

Jock’s NBA career has had an interrupted start, spending time on the sidelines due to concussion and the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols. A dominant two-game stint at the Spurs’ G-League affiliate in Austin in December was a timely reminder of what he can bring to an NBA team, elevating him to the role of back-up centre upon his return. “It was good to be able to reiterate to them (San Antonio) why I’m here and show them they picked me up for a reason.” Jock’s journey to the NBA has had plenty of twists and turns, not unlike the slopes at Mt Buller where an unfortunate accident set Jock on the path to basketball stardom.

“I had an incident where I fell over in the last hour of our last skiing day for the year and I snapped my wrist really badly,” Jock told the Rogues Bogues podcast. “I had surgery and the doctors were looking at the growth plates in my wrist and saying ‘you’re already like 6’ tall and your growth plates are wide open like you haven’t hit puberty yet... you might grow to be 7’2” or something like that.’” He began to ask himself “what he could do with this height” and, after taking a break from the sport for a few years, Jock rekindled his love of basketball playing on “a little dirt quartercourt” at Timbertop. The Timbertop experience was a turning point for Jock. “It is hands-down one of the most life-changing and defining years of my life,” Jock said. “I don’t think I would be here without learning as much about myself as I did that year.” He had taken a break from basketball in Year 5 in part because he hated waking up early to go and work out and play basketball. At Timbertop, he gained a love of hard work and the resilience required to face whatever the day would throw at him.

Fast-forward to Year 12 and Jock is being scouted by Saint Mary’s College of California; a famous pipeline to college basketball for many Australian players including Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova. One of their scouts was in Melbourne watching another prospect and asked Jock if there was an opportunity to come to Geelong to watch him play. With no Geelong Supercats or representative games on the calendar, he was able to throw together a scrimmage on the Handbury Centre courts with a bunch of schoolmates. “Saint Mary’s flew a coach out to watch me play against a bunch of football players... that’s what they recruited me off,” Jock recalls. “As the story goes, the scout called back to the coach of Saint Mary’s and said ‘I’ve just seen him play and he looks like Lebron James... but he’s also playing against a bunch of five-foot kids and he’s 6’11” and that’s all I’ve got to go off’.” A week later, Jock flew to Saint Mary’s for another workout, was offered a scholarship on the spot and the rest is history.

52 LIGHT BLUE - GEELONG GRAMMAR SCHOOL