How being an Aussie Boomer turned Jock Landale’s life around and now a star in Paris

The year was 2019. Jock Landale was alone and isolated playing basketball in Serbia. Then a call-up with the Australian Boomers would change not only his career, but his life.

Disillusioned with life and feeling alone and isolated while trying to carve out a professional basketball career in Serbia, Jock Landale was descending into a scary spiral of depression when a phone call from Australia came out of the blue.

Landale had reached rock bottom during an “awful” period in his life.

The year was 2019 and Landale was faced with horrendous living conditions, including sewage coming out of the shower drain and no toilet paper, sheets or towels.

The isolation of being in Europe alone, combined with the disappointment of not making the NBA straight out of US college, prompted Landale to drop mentally.

Landale was in his second season with Serbian club Partizan Belgrade. He became so lonely and frustrated that he weighed up quitting basketball.

Jock Landale playing for Partizan Belgrade. Picture: Andreas Gora/picture alliance via Getty Images

Just when Landale looked set to walk away from basketball, the Australian Boomers came calling.

Landale was lying on his bed in his Serbian accommodation when then Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis directly reached out to offer him an Australian debut in a World Cup Asian qualifier in February 2019 in Kazakhstan.

That call changed everything.

“Being with the Boomers, I don’t want to go as far as saying they saved my life, but they gave me a break from the reality that I was dealing with,’ Landale revealed in an exclusive book extract from the Biography of the Boomers.

“It was a breath of fresh air, not just in my career, but in my life, because I was lost and in a period of my life when it was so cold that I wasn’t sure where I was going in this world.

“I was in a dark place, but that call made me feel like the hard work was paying off and I wasn’t alone, and Andrej played a huge part in that. Tears came flooding out.”

Jock Landale is a key piece in the puzzle for the Australian Boomers. Pictures: Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP

On Tuesday night (10.30pm AEST), Landale will come up against Serbia in the men’s quarter-final at the Paris Olympics.

He has come a long way from his dark days playing in the Serbian capital five years ago.

Landale will earn $AU12.3 million in the upcoming NBA season playing for the Houston Rockets.

He has also emerged as a key piece for the Boomers as the team’s starting centre.

Australia will once again rely on Landale’s big man presence in the paint to beat a Serbian side featuring NBA superstar Nikola Jokic.

While the call up from the Boomers played a big roll in reigniting Landale’s career around, he reveals in Biography of the Boomers that his parents saved him when he was struggling in Serbia.

“Mum and Dad are the two people I credit with saving my life,’ Landale reflected in an exclusive book extract from the

“They were such rocks. They spent two months each in Serbia and didn’t see each other, because they took turns taking care of me, and my sister also came across for two weeks.

“To be removed from any familiarity that I’d had in the past was a huge culture shock. Then basketball over there is rough and tough – and I struggled early on in the season and just spiralled into depression, and didn’t know if I could do it anymore.

“Life is too short to have those thoughts. I just didn’t get it – but once I got it, I really got it, and I was like: “Holy crap, this thing is a monster.”

Originally published as How being an Aussie Boomer turned Jock Landale’s life around and now a star in Paris