Boomers, NBL sharpshooter Cameron Gliddon retires from professional basketball

He’s lowkey one of the greatest shooters of the NBL’s 40-minute era and been involved in some of the biggest moments in Boomers history. Cam Gliddon looks back on a superb career.

Cam Gliddon has announced his retirement from professional basketball.

When Cam Gliddon phoned mum Sue to tell her he was retiring from basketball, the tears flowed.

The skinny kid who discovered hoops in the regional WA town of Bunbury had become an Australian gold medallist and, across a 12-year pro career, grown into one of the greatest shooters of the NBL’s 40-minute era.

But, for mum, one thing was missing.

“Mum started tearing up and said ‘I wish you had won a championship, you deserved it’,” Gliddon, who, on Friday, called time on his basketball career, told Code Sports.

“And I said ‘yeah, but mum, look at all these things I got to do and things I won and things I achieved’ and I was like ‘if you had have told me back when I picked up a basketball that you get to do this but you don’t get a championship, sorry, I’d take it every day of the week’.

“That’s where I’m at right now. Yeah, I didn’t get a ring, yeah, I didn’t go to the NBA, yeah, I didn’t play at the Olympic Games, but I did a hell of a lot of stuff for someone who came out of WA country.”

Cam Gliddon set to launch — a familiar sight for NBL fans over the past 12 seasons. Picture: Getty Images

The sharpshooter, who spent the last two seasons with New Zealand, has made more three-pointers in the NBL’s 40-minute era than all but two players — greats Chris Goulding and Bryce Cotton.

He might not have a championship to his name, but Gliddon has a sneaky reputation as someone who brought instant success to teams he joined.

The 2012-13 NBL Rookie of the Year led Cairns to its first minor premiership in 2014-15 and to the grand final, where the Taipans lost to New Zealand, 2-0.

In 2018, he joined Brisbane, leading the Bullets to their one and only playoff appearance since their 2016 rebirth.

A 2020 move to South East Melbourne brought the franchise’s first playoff campaign and then his shift to New Zealand for the 2022-23 season ended one-win short of the ultimate prize

“Mate, there’s a lot of heartache but that’s sport,” he said.

“What I’ve come to realise is, every year, one team gets to win, so 10 players or 11 players get to win and every other player in the league is a loser,” Gliddon said.

“I feel like I contributed to a lot of different teams’ successes in being able to have a right to play in the playoffs, so I’m proud of that.”

MARVEL-OUS MOMENTS AND BASKETBRAWLS

Gliddon has been a part of some of the biggest moments in Australian basketball history.

The 55-year first victory over Team USA in front of over 50,000 fans at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium in 2019 sits high on the list.

“That two-month block was a fairytale,” Gliddon said of the Team USA exhibitions and subsequent FIBA World Cup campaign.

“Patty went FIBA Patty on Team USA and being in the same team as Bogues (Andrew Bogut), Joe (Ingles), Patty and (Chris) Goulding, who I played with at the U19 World Cup years and years ago in Serbia, was pretty special.

“I think, in everyone else’s eyes around the world and the general public in Australia who maybe weren’t 100 per cent invested, seeing the Boomers beat USA at a football stadium, you can’t ignore that.

Australian Boomers v USA Basketball at Marvel Stadium. 22/08/2019. Cameron Gliddon of the Australian Boomers . Pic: Michael Klein

“Whether it was my first ever time putting on the green and gold as a senior player against China in a four-game series that didn’t mean anything to going to the World Cup, those are two very different experiences but they kind of feel the same because you’re wearing the green and gold.”

At the other end of the spectrum was one of the darkest days in basketball history — the infamous basketbrawl with the Philippines in Manila that attracted world headlines and resulted in the suspension of 13 players and over $1 million in fines.

The events of the July clash are well-documented and Gliddon calls them “sad”.

“I get asked about it a little bit randomly but it more pops up on Instagram because it’s just all basketball,” Gliddon said.

“It might have only been two weeks ago the last time it popped up but I just scroll, because I don’t want to watch it.”

Returning home from Manila in 2018 with Luc Longley and Daniel Kickert. Picture: AFP

FAMILY FIRST AND WHAT’S NEXT?

Gliddon says his decision has been “bittersweet” for American-born wife Sarah — who he met while at Concordia.

“A bit more sweet than bitter — she wanted me to keep going because she knows how much joy it brings and because I didn’t get that elusive championship but, at the same time, super happy that I’ve got more time to spend with my kids and for her,” he said.

“She’s been with me my whole professional career, so she’s seen the sacrifice and she understands when I’m letting go of it, the amount of work I’ve put into it.

“Penny is five this month and about to start primary school, so that was a huge factor in our decision and Jimmy turns three in June.

“The last month, the Breakers jetted off to Sydney for games, they’ve had pre-season training and I’ve been able to be home and take my kids to school, pick them up from school, take them to their swimming lessons, it’s been awesome.

“I’m sure there will be a time when it really hits me that ‘Jeez, I want to be running around again but when that happens, maybe I’ll go down to the local and have a run with the old boys.”

He plans to stay in basketball and will likely remain in New Zealand for the foreseeable future.

Not that it matters — “home is where my wife and kids are”.

“We’ve lived together in California, Cairns, Brissy, Melbourne, Auckland, Canterbury, we’ve done some trips to America, but it’s just wherever I’m laying my head down with my wife and kids.

“All I care about, right now, is being there for my kids and providing enough for them that they can have a great life.

“But I don’t want to miss anything else, I’ve missed too much already.

“It’s funny that you can dedicate your whole life to something and then your kids come about and your perspective is 100 per cent switched.”

SLIDING DOORS

The 342-game NBL veteran made his own luck, sneaking his way into the NBL by putting his best foot forward in front of the right people.

“Every off-season I’d work out with (former Perth assistant) Shawn Dennis at the Wildcats and then I eventually made the Australian University Games team and that was coached by Mick Downer,” Gliddon said.

“He was an assistant at the Cairns Taipans at the time and I did really well at the Uni games and surprised people because people didn’t really know who I was.

“Before my senior year, Mick Downer tells (then-Cairns coach Aaron Fearne) Fearney, ‘hey, you should look at this guy’.

“Fearney flew me over for a workout and then word got out that I’d been in Cairns so then the (Townsville) Crocs flew me down for a workout.

“I went from having nobody to having Perth, Cairns and Townsville.”

Cam Gliddon in Cairns with his first NBL coach Aaron Fearne. Picture: Brendan Radke

Fearne offered Gliddon a one-year $35,000 contract — something he’d never dreamt of — but, in a sliding doors moment, coach Ken Ammann convinced him to return to Concordia for his senior year.

“He said, ‘if you come back and finish your education and have one more year, I’m sure it will be there when you’re done,” Gliddon said.

It was there — and more. Gliddon won the NAIA Tournament MVP and led Concordia to the National Championship, which convinced Fearne to offer a three-year deal.

“Sometimes you can pinpoint one moment in your life as to why it went the way it did and one of those main ones for me would be in between my junior year, not taking that one-year pro contract, going back to school and finishing and then being offered a three year deal instead,” he said.

Originally published as Boomers, NBL sharpshooter Cameron Gliddon retires from professional basketball