Adelaide 36ers import Jacob Wiley on his rise from washing dishes in a retirement home to living his professional basketball dream
TATTOOED on Jacob Wiley’s left wrist is the last thing his grandmother said to him before she died nearly 10 years ago. The 36ers import reveals how the words have inspired him to rise from washing dishes to living his professional basketball dream.
TATTOOED on Jacob Wiley’s left wrist is the last thing his grandmother said to him before she died nearly 10 years ago and it became his life motto.
“It’s something my grandma used to say to me all the time, and one of the last things I remember her saying to me before she passed was ‘carpe diem’,” the Adelaide 36ers’ newest recruit said this week.
“She was in a wheelchair for years before she passed and would always say ‘if I could get up and move like you I would seize the day’.
“That became a motto for me. People would say ‘man you’re crazy getting up early to do all this stuff’ but I love what I do and appreciate it.”
Wiley was 15 when his grandmother died — the same age when he also lost his dad who had a drinking problem.
Wiley was the one who found his dad when he died and he still clings to a note that he left behind.
“I don’t have any pictures of him, I don’t have hardly anything, he was kind of a drifter,” he said.
“But the only thing I have is a letter and at the end it says ‘oh you’ll be a 20 and 10 guy this season’.
“He kind of lived vicariously through me because he quit sports so to see me stick with it and show up to practice he was proud of that.”
Wiley did become a 20 and 10 guy in his next season of high school — averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds per game — which put him on a path to playing professional basketball and eventually the NBA.
“I look back at that letter and it’s crazy,” he says.
“So it is important to maximise myself as a basketball player to keep making him proud.”
Wiley is now 24 and much more than just a basketballer. He is a husband to Brittany and dad to two-year-old daughter Aliya with a second child due this week.
He says his upbringing in the US taught him what’s important in life.
“I’ve probably learnt more from negative situations than positive but never-the-less I’ve learned,” he said.
“You can take things one of two ways — you can do those same things or say ‘no I don’t want to do that, let me do something different’.
“It’s a huge lesson how he (dad) lived his life and it’s sad because he had a lot of potential but never got close to fulfilling that as a human and a father because he had these issues.
“When I view my life I always ask ‘am I getting close to what I’m capable of? Am I letting things distract me? Because as much as sometimes I think I’m not like him, I am, he’s my father.
“But I take that on as a parent because I know what it’s like when your dad isn’t there and is disconnected.
“Seizing those moments with your family is so important, everybody is on their phones and distracted with work, but someone told me love for kids is spelt TIME, and that’s so true.”
His late father’s battle with alcohol hasn’t stopped Wiley from having a drink but he knows where the line is.
“I drink, I like to go out and have fun but it’s sparing,” he said.
“During the season hardly at all, it’s an off-season thing if I’m with friends or at a wedding.
“I’m very mindful of not drinking too much, I don’t have the same problem that he (dad) had but it still bothers me a little bit.”
Wiley has been in Adelaide for just over six weeks after a sliding doors moment with Mitch Creek in the NBA Summer League put him in touch with the 36ers.
Creek was on his way out and Wiley, keen to play in the NBL, was looking for a way in and coach Joey Wright reached out.
Under Wright, the 36ers have been known to recruit on character before talent and Wright had a few questions for Wiley before asking him to join the team.
“What do you value, what kind of guy are you, how do you handle certain situations?,” Wiley said.
“The coaching staff make it easy, the culture they’ve built here is solid, all the guys are on the same page and there are no egos.
“I’ve been on teams where there is a hierarchy of sorts but here everybody is on the same page.
“Everybody understands what their expectations are here.”
So how did Wiley answer when Wright asked what he stood for?
“In basketball to be the best that I can but it’s different now than when I was younger,” he said.
“Now I’m more focused on family and taking care of them. And that makes me focus more on my job because that’s how I support them but it’s also made me realise that it (basketball) is not everything.”
Wiley went to three colleges and excelled in three sports before settling on basketball but it only became a dream to play professionally when he was 21 while washing dishes in a retirement home and working at a service station.
“Right before my daughter was born I was working at a gas station in the mornings then at night I was working at a deli cooking,” he said.
“The goal was not to do that forever, I’d be shooting in the afternoons and working on my game because at some point I knew I’d have the opportunity.
“I’m just grateful to be doing this at all as a job, just to be playing basketball for a living is a big, big blessing.”
Last year he signed a two-way deal with the Brooklyn Nets and made his NBA debut on his way to five games against Denver, Portland, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami.
At 203cm and 97kg, the athletic forward cuts an imposing figure and will go a long way to helping replace the aggression Creek brought to the Sixers in his eight seasons in Adelaide.
But despite wearing Creek’s No.55 jersey in two practice games against Perth, Wiley was quick to shut down any suggestion he would be wearing it full-time.
“No, no, no,” Wiley said.
“I feel that jersey should be retired. It was the only jersey that fit last week, we didn’t have the new jerseys at that stage and everyone was asking me ‘are you wearing 55?’ and I said ‘No, Mitch is my guy, that’s his thing’.”
“I’m a 24 guy.”
Wiley shone in the NBL pre-season Blitz, hauling in 15 rebounds in Adelaide’s opening win over Melbourne United, responding to Wright’s demand he bring intensity to the team.
“To be an energy guy, to play hard on both ends,” Wiley said of what he will bring to the table.
“We’ve got guys who can do everything, but I feel what I bring to the table is a certain intensity and effort level that can help this fast pace team.”
Wiley said Wright had high expectations of everyone on the roster as the Sixers look to return to the NBL grand final this season.
“Every coach is demanding but the thing I recognise with Joey is he’s specific with what he wants,” Wiley said.
“He lets me know ‘I want you to do x, y and z’, where as before coaches would be more general with their demands with the team.
“But Joey takes each individual player and tries to maximise their strengths.
“You’ve got to be really mindful of what you’re doing on the court because he’s been coaching so long he picks up straight away if you’re not giving 100 per cent or in the right spot, he doesn’t miss anything.”
Despite playing in the NBA last season, Wiley isn’t looking at his NBL journey as a step backwards.
“My goal when I turned professional was to come to Australia because we came when I was in college and we played a few NBL teams,” he said.
“I had some success and felt maybe I could play professionally and I thought of Australia.
“I exceeded those expectations by playing a little bit in the NBA but this was my goal so I don’t feel it’s a step back at all, I’m exactly where I pictured myself a few years ago so I’m very excited.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au