NBL22: Keifer Sykes on how South East Melbourne Phoenix helped him achieve his NBA dream
Whenever Keifer Sykes felt like giving up on his NBA dream, he knew he had his dad pushing him along. And the former NBL star’s letters to heaven keep him grounded.
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Keifer Sykes has always believed in fate, even when he faced failures throughout his hoops journey.
Sykes’ resilient mentality has helped him overcome multiple challenges, including poverty struggles as a kid, losing his father, and being told he wasn’t good enough before using the NBL as a platform to finally fulfil his NBA dream with the Indiana Pacers this season, seven years after going undrafted.
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There were days when the Chicago-born guard felt like giving in, but he always had his dad James’ reassuring voice pushing him along, even when he died from a heart attack following his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin.
So, when the Pacers came calling on Boxing Day to offer Sykes a contract for the rest of the season, his first thought was his father proudly watching on from heaven.
“My dad would be extremely happy – he would be looking down smiling right now,” Sykes told News Corp.
“This (the NBA) was his dream as well and I’ve always tried to make him proud.
“When he passed away, I lost sense a fulfilment in the game because I played to make him happy and see him smile.
“Getting the validation from dad that I had a good game meant everything to me.”
Sykes senior was his son’s biggest supporter. He watched every game, pacing the sidelines and barking orders, yelling: ‘Man up Keifer’.
There were so signs of babying, just accountability, because he knew his son would get a college degree if he went to Wisconsin to prepare him for life after basketball.
As a 17-year-old freshman, Sykes averaged 11 points and 3 assists per game as the nation‘s youngest starter, before his father passed the following summer.
He struggled without his dad for years, often writing letters to him as a way of communicating and coping.
Sykes plans to pen a few letters to his father in the coming months as he navigates his new life in the NBA.
“I know dad is still watching,” he said.
“When the national anthem is being played, I always take the time to speak to him and I know he would be happy right now.”
DEFYING THE DOUBTERS
Sykes still remembers the sledges.
You’re too small, you’re too young, you don’t shoot enough.
“I’ve heard them all before,” Sykes said.
Throw in lifestyle challenges of being a teenage parent to two children and playing large chunks of his career abroad, leaving his mother to help raise the children, and Sykes has had to juggle a lot of balls.
“But with me being the competitor that I am and me being so humble and hungry, I always stayed focused on my goal,” he said.
“It has been an unbelievable journey after playing on so many teams, and not just in these last six or seven years.
“The last two or so years have been crazy.”
We couldn't be more psyched for Keifer Sykes as he lives out his NBA dream with the @Pacers 🙌
— The NBL (@NBL) January 11, 2022
And we'll never forget that he was a walking bucket/highlight reel for the @SEMelbPhoenix in NBL21
Keep on shining, @ksykesyb ✨#NBLxNBApic.twitter.com/j3Onl5RrUB
Since 2019, Sykes has played in Italy, China, Turkey, Greece, and Australia with South East Melbourne.
He impressed at the Phoenix despite missing games with an ankle injury, opening the door to sign an NBA deal with Indiana.
Sadly, Sykes was waived after training camp before joining the Pacers’ G League team.
He could have folded mentally at this point, but just like he had done in previous years, he fought for his future.
Sykes excelled for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, prompting the Pacers to sign him for the remainder of the 2021-2022 NBA season.
Indiana’s offer was made official on December 27 – just two days before his 28th birthday, which also happens to be his favourite number and playing number.
“Which is crazy,” he said.
“To make the NBA around my 28th birthday in my country and to be starting – I never imagined that.
“The Pacers told me that I’d be signing a two-day year deal, but it isn’t guaranteed, and I had 10 to 15 days until the guaranteed date, but they had faith in me.
“I was emotional just thinking about my family and how they helped me reach this point.
“I always hoped that I’d be in that NBA, I didn’t actually know that it would happen, but I always worked for it.
“It shows that if you belief you can achieve something special.
“For it to happen in this fashion and to play for the Pacers, who are really close to my home, it is such a blessing and I feel amazing.”
PHOENIX FAMILY
Sykes says he wouldn’t be in the NBA without the South East Melbourne Phoenix.
He has fond memories of his introductory zoom with the Phoenix in late 2020 when he was weighing up his future after playing for two teams within two months.
The EuroLeague teams were offering significantly more money, but Sykes only needed South East Melbourne coach Simon Mitchell to utter two sentences to seal his signature.
“The first thing Simon said was we are going to let you play point guard and run the team,” Sykes recalls.
“He then said the club’s goal was to help me reach my dreams in the NBA.
“That is the first thing he said and that is the reason why I signed.
“The Phoenix played the biggest role in helping me get to the NBA.
“They just lined up with my goals of playing in the NBA and wanting me to play the point guard position.
“They let me be the player that I needed to be to show the NBA that I can run a team.”
Sykes has backed up the Phoenix’s faith in him with standout performances for the Pacers, including a 22-point game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
He has received constant messages of support from his former South East Melbourne teammates, which doesn’t surprise him.
“I had such a good chemistry with those guys, even when I got injured for about eight weeks, but those guys continued to push and rally around me and show me so much love,” he said.
“Those guys are like family to me.
“It was such a blessing playing with the Phoenix and all those great players.”
NBL IS LEGIT
Sykes has played all over the world, but he says the NBL is the best behind the NBA.
He believes the Australian domestic league is ahead of its time compared to other leagues due to factors like its competitiveness, ease of communication in an English-speaking nation and high standard.
Sykes says the NBL is widely respected in the NBA as a breeding ground for quality basketballers.
“People see guys that come from the NBL as not just good enough to play in the NBA, but also ready to thrive when they get here,” he said.
“I’ve scored 22 and 18 points, Josh Giddey has the record for the youngest triple-double, Ball has plenty of records.
“Joe Ingles has the record for the Jazz for three-pointers, former King Jae’Sean Tate was among the standout rookies last season, and he is striving this year.
“So, it’s not like we are just playing in the NBA coming from the NBL, we are more than ready.
“I’m hoping that I made the NBL proud that I was another example of guys like Cam Oliver and Scotty Hopson.”
NBA REALITY
Ask any pro baller and it’s hard to enjoy the moment in a fast-paced and competitive NBA game.
Your energies are so focused on performing that you can forget to have fun.
There was one occasion, though, when Sykes stopped to soak up the reality of playing in the world’s best league.
The moment came in his fifth game for Indiana against the Brooklyn Nets. He started for the Pacers after eight players withdrew due to Covid, leaving him to go up against his favourite player in Nets superstar Kyrie Irving.
Sykes stayed locked in for the majority of the match, but he briefly stopped to take in the occasion when Irving went to the free-throw line late in proceedings to ice the ball game.
“I zoned out for a second and all I could hear was Kevin Durant talking trash,” he said.
“I’m listening to James Harden talk trash to Lance Stevenson and then I see Kyrie at the line.
“That is when it hit me, ‘I was like, wow this is real and I’m here’. I’m in the NBA and this is Irving that I’m guarding, this is Durant and Harden talking trash.
“These three guys on the court are three of my favourite players and that is really them and this is really me.”
New Phoenix import’s ‘surreal’ NBL return
When a league with a proven pathway to the NBA comes calling, you can’t knock it back, no matter the circumstances.
That’s how American-born power forward Brandon Ashley felt after receiving a call from the South East Melbourne Phoenix this week.
Ashley, who played 27 games for the NZ Breakers in 2019, had just finished a season in Italy and was weighing up his next move with multiple offers on the table.
Then suddenly, to his surprise, the Phoenix called to offer a one-year deal.
“There were a couple of other options, but it’s hard to pass up something like this in the NBL,” said Ashley, who has had NBA Summer League stints with Atlanta, Dallas, and Sacramento.
“I was in LA and was walking into my apartment with my agent when I got a phone call and it just happened to be the Phoenix.
“They said they are looking for a four or five and brought up my name.
“It is all kind of surreal now with how everything has unfolded, but I’m extremely excited to be back in the NBL and to be a part of the Phoenix.”
Ashley has always loved the Phoenix‘s style of play and believes they are a genuine championship contender.
He was particularly drawn to South East Melbourne to potentially follow in the footsteps of ex-NBL players now in the world’s best league like Keifer Sykes, Scotty Hopson, Jae’Sean Tate, and Cam Oliver.
Sykes, who was undrafted in 2015, is the most recent former Phoenix player to use the NBL as a platform to the NBA, joining the Indiana Pacers this season.
Ashley also went undrafted in 2015 but seeing Sykes finally achieve his NBA dream has given him hope.
“That was a big motivator for me,” the 27-year-old said.
“I’ve seen talent come from the NBL and find their way to the NBA.
“Jae’Sean Tate is a great example and more recently Keifer Sykes as well.
“These are guys that I’ve known and played against, so it is great to see them get an opportunity and they absolutely deserve it.
“I feel like me getting this opportunity to come back to the NBL to compete will also help to catapult me a little bit further to take that next step as well.”
Ashley averaged 10.7 points and 6.5 rebounds for the Breakers back in the 2019-2020 NBL season.
Since then, he has played in the G League with the Ignite and had a stint in Italy.
Ashley feels like he is a more complete player compared to his last time in the NBL, especially after his G League stint.
“The Ignite was a great opportunity playing with some very good veterans like Jarrett Jack, Bobby Brown and Amir Johnson,” he said.
“I was also a mentor to the younger players, so I learnt a lot and helped me grow, in terms of being more mature and a leader.
“It was then really fun to see those young guys develop.”
Ashley is new to South East Melbourne, but he is a far from a rookie when it comes to familiarity with the Phoenix players.
He played against Chinese big man Zhou Qi during his time in the G League and he played with and against guard Xavier Munford.
Ashley faced off South East Melbourne during his season with New Zealand in 2019 and believes he will fit in seamlessly at the Phoenix as a strong rebounder and defender who will perfectly complement Zhou and fellow big Dane Pineau.
“I’m pretty familiar with a lot of the guys on the team and I do feel like we have a legitimate chance of being a contender this year,” Ashley said.
“I’m a really big fan of the league, just with the way it operates, the competitiveness and I was a fan of the Phoenix, even when I was at the Breakers playing against them.
“I like their style of play and I felt like I always had really good games against them.
“I feel like the Phoenix are a really good fit for me.”
Ashley will arrive in Australia on Saturday but won’t play against the Bullets in Brisbane, with his first game for the Phoenix likely to be against the Illawarra Hawks on January 22.
Milwaukee to Melbourne: X’s chance Delly beach date
—Michael Randall
Another stop in a foreign land with unfamiliar faces and few people to lean on.
That was South East Melbourne Phoenix import Xavier Munford’s reality when he landed in Australia.
Or so he thought.
There was one connection, dating all the way back to his college days — and then later to his NBA stint with the Milwaukee Bucks.
So it was perhaps a little serendipitous that, shortly after he arrived in Melbourne, a big smile greeted him at the beach, of all places.
Those pearly whites belonged to none other than Melbourne United recruit and Boomers Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Matthew Dellavedova.
Both men have arrived in the NBL this season, and the duelling point guards were at the centre of one of the league’s biggest rivalries on Sunday afternoon when the two Melbourne teams met in the NBL pre-season Blitz — Munford’s Phoenix emerging victorious in an 89-87 thriller.
But there was no talk of hoops on that sunny day at Mordialloc beach. The former college rivals, who later became NBA teammates at the Bucks, “caught up on life”.
“I went to the beach and he saw me and I chatted with him and his son and his wife,” Munford told the Herald Sun.
“At the beach we didn’t really speak about basketball, we were just talking about life, because it had been so long with the Covid restrictions.
“He said he hadn’t seen his family in maybe two years, so I’m like ‘wow’ and I’m telling him about my kids and we just really caught up on a personal level, not talking about basketball.”
Munford, like Dellavedova, has had to scratch and claw for everything he has achieved in basketball, with multiple stops in the G-League as well as Spain, China, Turkey and now Australia.
“Every guy has a different story and a different path to where they have made it,” Munford said.
MY YOUNG ‘KINGS’
Munford’s story involves a love of basketball that goes back “as far as I can remember”, inspired by his father Darren.
Darren and his mother Zamora were high school sweethearts — “they’ve been together forever” – and he has a brother, Elijah, 21.
A father himself, the New Jersey native is working hard to attain the necessary permits to bring his two boys to Australia to spend time with him while he plies his trade in The Heartland.
“It’s kind of tough with the borders and corona and all the restrictions — hopefully it’ll come through,” he said.
“I’m just basically playing it by ear now, listening to what people are saying and what the news is saying, checking up, doing my research. I talk to people in the front office and they are updating me as well.
“They are telling me it’s been a struggle to get (new Phoenix import) Devin Thomas out here, so I imagine how it will be trying to get my kids out here.
“I’m staying optimistic about it, trying to stay positive (because there’s) not a lot I can do.”
Munford’s boys are four and one, and he has bestowed royal names on them: Khari, which is of African origin and means “son of a king” and Sire, which means “kingly” or “regal” and is of French etymology.
“They both kind of mean the same thing. They mean ‘kingly’, so that’s basically where their names come from — they’re my young kings,” he said.
“They’re definitely my ‘why’. They are the reason why I sacrifice and go all the way across the world, not being able to see them. They don’t really understand it yet, but they know it’s all in their best interest. That’s just the toughest thing about (being an) overseas player, leaving behind your family, parents, brothers, friends. You’ve got to really stay mentally strong with this, it’s not for a weak person.
“So many times when you’re lonely you feel like you’re by yourself, but you need to understand you have to come in every day and do your job.”
‘PRO’S PRO’
The “do your job” ethos gives context to Phoenix chief executive Tommy Greer’s description of the 29-year-old as a “pro’s pro”.
And it is moments like his decision to stay home earlier this month and nurse his aching body, rather than go out for Phoenix captain Kyle Adnam’s birthday, that underlines it.
Munford had played 25 minutes and poured in 20 points to go with four assists and four rebounds in a pulsating 92-90 loss to New Zealand Breakers.
“I was supposed to go to Kyle’s birthday dinner but, after the game, I was feeling a little sore, so I just stayed home and iced, but I’m definitely looking forward to getting out with the guys and spending some time off the court,” he said.
Adnam may have had a hand in the soreness — “X” says the captain and fellow Phoenix point guard Izayah Le’Afa go their hardest at him in training.
“These guys are tough,” he said.
“Every day going to practice against Kyle and Izayah, those guys are pushing me every day, they’re high-quality guards.
“You can tell they’re motivated, determined — they have hunger in the way they play, with their physicality and they’re pretty quick as well.”
Munford’s expression rarely changes on the court; he is measured and focused and, at 190cm, taller than most NBL point guards.
He sees this as an advantage at both ends of the floor.
“I just try to make the right play, whatever’s best for the team and try to stick to playing to my strengths and not getting out of the rhythm of my game,” he said.
“If you had to label me as something, I’d be your scoring point guard; I can also play the two (shooting guard).
“I have some length, use my length on defence and I’m usually taller than other point guards, so that is to my advantage.”
He’s very capable of highlight reel plays, too, whether it be nifty passes or finishes in the lane – or something really special, like his incredible three-quarter-court heave against Illawarra in the Blitz that has to be seen to be believed (watch it below).
There's "from the logo" and then there's "from the LOGO"
— The NBL (@NBL) November 15, 2021
Xavier Munford from the MG in the car park 🤯@SEMelbPhoenix#NBL22pic.twitter.com/FsmqBFTTQA
NBA IS WATCHING
While the focus is on getting acclimatised with his teammates and then hopefully leading them to NBL glory, the ultimate goal is a return to the NBA, where he has had but a taste — 20 games across stints with Memphis and the Bucks.
He jumped at the chance to play in the NBL, given the buzz of the past few seasons that has helped a number of locals and imports win NBA chances.
“I knew they (the NBL) had the ESPN contract and a lot of eyes are on this league, especially (from the) NBA, so it was a no-brainer,” he said.
“The league is very competitive.
“I was talking to Glizzo (teammate Cam Gliddon) the other day and I was just telling him this is one of the toughest domestic leagues that I’ve played in.
“It’s definitely growing. Guys like, for example, (former Cairns Taipan) Cam Oliver, (ex-United big man, now with San Antonio in the NBA) Jock Landale, Keifer Sykes (the point guard Munford replaced at Phoenix), guys who are getting noticed through the NBL.
“The Australian players are high-quality players.
“The talent is definitely there domestically and you see the list of imports who came in — guys who have been in the NBA or played a high level overseas. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I see the sky’s the limit for the NBL.”
He played against teammates Mitch Creek and Zhou Qi in the G-League, so has some familiarity there, and Munford was also a teammate of Perth Wildcats superstar Bryce Cotton at the Grizzlies.
“I haven’t seen Bryce in a while, but I’ve always been watching and paying attention on him doing his thing out here, and he’s had a great career in Australia,” he said.
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