NBA: South Australian basketballer Joe Ingles setting records for Utah Jazz after signing $80 million deal

HE’S the South Australian sporting superstar who looks like a Bunnings assistant but is blitzing his basketball team towards the NBA title. Now Joe Ingles’ dad reveals the secret behind his success.

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THE journeyman from Happy Valley, Joe Ingles, can’t stop smiling — shooting an Aussie NBA playoff record 27 points — and his proud dad reckons his US triumph is big-screen material.

Modest Ingles has set the NBA alight and is in career-best form for Utah Jazz in the western conference play-offs.

“I was lucky enough to get a few to fall early,” said Ingles, 30, who is married to Australian netballer Renae.

The guy who looks more like a Bunnings hardware assistant than NBA star signed a four-year, $80 million deal with the Jazz last year.

Ingles never featured in the draft, instead grinding his way through European leagues — from Tel Aviv to Barcelona — before signing with the Jazz in 2014. Father Tim Ingles noted his son took the road less travelled to the NBA.

Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles steers the team to victory against the Houston Rockets. Picture: AP / Eric Christian Smith

“It is a difficult route he has taken. He has got there and is 30. It would make a good movie,” Tim Ingles told The Advertiser. “It is not every day you get a kid from South Australia and a place called Happy Valley taking to it very good players in the highest league.

“He did a very good apprenticeship. His goal was to play NBL which he achieved and won with South Dragons. He won with Maccabi in Israel in 2013-14 which was massive.”

Tim Ingles lauded the way dual Olympian Joe responded to being cut by the Clippers after the 2014 pre-season to win a spot with Utah.

“The Clippers said they didn’t want to let him go but the fact Utah knocked them out of the finals last year was poetic justice,” said Tim Ingles.

Ingles, in typical Australian style, isn’t overawed by big reputations. The Adelaide product dishes out trash talk, even inviting NBA MVP favourite James Harden into the Jazz

The South Australian small forward and fellow Australian Dante Exum combined to shoot down the highly fancied Houston Rockets in game two of the series.

Joe Ingles of the Utah Jazz. Picture: Bill Baptist / NBAE / Getty Images

Overlooked for a deal with home town NBL franchise the Adelaide 36ers, journeyman Ingles has exploded to prominence on the Jazz roster and is fast gaining cult status. Ingles’ infectious sense of humour and easygoing personality is rated the glue that binds the Jazz locker room in contrast to rival teams with superstars and commensurate egos.

“All the players speak well of Joe,” said Tim Ingles of a son who is so unfashionable he’s cool. “He is fairly busy with his two youngsters (twins) which is a great leveller. He is a larrikin, can get in peoples’s faces but has a good demeanour.”

Originally published as NBA: South Australian basketballer Joe Ingles setting records for Utah Jazz after signing $80 million deal