‘Everything you do is magnified’: Australian NBA stars Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels talk fame, fashion and friendship

As they pose in their first joint fashion shoot, Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels reflect on their multimillion-dollar careers, and why they ‘would love to be unknown sometimes’.

EXCLUSIVE: From a wild “buzzer beater” for the Chicago Bulls to a defensive hustle the NBA has rarely seen before, Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels have skyrocketed to a level of fame not even the down-to-earth Aussies and best friends could have dreamed of.

Giddey, who plays for the Chicago Bulls, and Daniels (of the Atlanta Hawks) have courted attention on the world’s biggest basketball stage. Speaking to Stellar from Beverly Hills, Melbourne-born Giddey – who is expected to earn a new mega contract this off-season – admits: “I would love to be unknown sometimes”.

“I am not complaining; there are definitely good things to come with it,” Giddey tells Stellar in an exclusive interview.

“But everything you do is magnified and you always have a spotlight on you following you around.

“I guess it comes with being an NBA player – there are definitely times where I’d like to be a regular guy and blend in.”

Dyson Daniels and Josh Giddey star in their first joint shoot in a Stellar exclusive. Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

Daniels, who was raised in the country Victorian town of Bendigo and has been playing basketball since the age of five, made his NBA debut with the New Orleans Pelicans in 2022, before being traded to Atlanta last year.

“I saw it as a fresh start,” Daniels, 22, tells Stellar. “I wasn’t happy with how I performed in my first year in the NBA.

“It wasn’t what I was capable of doing.”

Being traded led Daniels to overhaul his training – and perspective – and it paid off.

This year, he won the NBA’s coveted Most Improved Player award, and was nicknamed the “Great Barrier Thief” – a reference to his strong defensive play.

“The mindset I had going into this season is what changed everything,” says Daniels. “Coming into my third year I thought, ‘I am going to go out there, be confident in myself, give it everything I got’. And I was able to find my feet. I made my imprint on the league and gained people’s respect.”

‘We grew up playing against each other …’ Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

Daniels and Giddey – who are both 22 – have been friends for more than a decade; they met while playing junior basketball.

The pair share banter on Stellar’s set (Giddey calls Daniels his “little brother”) as they star in their first joint fashion shoot. Says Giddey, “We grew up playing against each other … [Dyson] was a Bendigo boy, from the country, and I was Melbourne, in the city, we crossed paths a lot.

“When we were 16, 17, we both moved to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. And then our paths have been aligned from juniors to the AIS to the NBA. We’re still very close.”

Adds Daniels: “We kind of went through every phase of life together. We’ve grown up together. I became really close with [Josh’s] family.”

Game face! The Australian duo arriving in Paris last year for the Olympics. Picture: Michael Klein

On each other’s team! Josh Giddey, far left, and Dyson Daniels (far right) during a practice match at the Olympics in 2024. Picture: Adam Head

Both Giddey and Daniels are known for their head-turning pre-game “tunnel fits”, a term used to describe the outfits NBA players wear on their arrival at a stadium.

With his own streetwear brand – Vouseti – Daniels describes his go-to pieces as “a bomber jacket … and some accessories”, “jorts” and a Louis Vuitton bag, while Giddey says his looks are “pretty casual”.

“A lot of it depends on where we’re playing. If we’re playing in a big city like New York or LA or Miami, the outfit is a bit wilder.

“If it’s a city that’s not as big … the outfit is a bit more relaxed. If it’s at home [in Chicago], I’ll decide maybe an hour before.

“But if we’re on the road, if we have a six- or seven-game trip, I pack outfits. I never wear the same [outfit] to a game. I plan a bit ahead. If it’s four days, I’ll take one [suitcase]. If it’s 10 days, I’ll probably take two and a duffle bag.”

Dyson Daniels has been dubbed ‘The Great Barrier Thief’. Picture: Getty Images

Dyson Daniels in action for the Atlanta Hawks earlier this year. Picture: Getty Images

Josh Giddey of the Chicago Bulls during the Bulls’ clash against the Lakers in March. Picture: Getty Images

Once they have styled their “tunnel fits”, Giddey and Daniels settle into their game day rituals.

As Giddey tells Stellar, “I don’t have a superstitious routine – I kind of just do whatever”.

“Say we have a game at 7pm. Usually, I’d wake up at about 8am, I’d go into the arena – if we’re playing in Chicago – around 9am, eat breakfast, get treatment.

“Then we’d have [a] ‘shoot around’ at 10am and I’d get home by about 11:15am … and then I’d have until about 4:30pm ish until I have to go to the arena.

“If I have friends in town, I’ll hang out with them – if not, I’ll play PlayStation or watch Netflix.”

Josh Giddey has opened up about life in the public eye in a Stellar exclusive. Picture: Getty Images

It’s a similar schedule for Daniels, though his involves eating a lot of pasta – specifically, spaghetti alla vodka or carbonara.

“I try to keep it the same, every game,” Daniels says. “I usually wake up around 8am, and do some stretches in my room. I’d get a hot chocolate before I make my way to ‘shoot around’. It goes for an hour – [we] go through the set up for the game.

“If I’m at home in Atlanta, I’ll have lunch at the facility – it’s usually a wrap or pasta. Before the game, I’ll have another snack, usually more pasta …”

It’s fitting that while they may be rivals on the court, the friends spend their time away from it working together.

Next month, the pair will unveil their joint venture CourtSide, a 10,000 square metre state-of-the-art basketball facility in Melbourne that will span four basketball courts, a gym, saunas, a recovery centre, and a retail precinct designed for from children playing at a grassroots level to professional athletes.

Daniels says “it’s second nature” for him and Giddey to work together, and he hopes the pair will spend more time training in Melbourne during the NBA off-season.

Explains Giddey: “What we’re trying to do is create an environment that anyone can be a part of, whether you’ve just started picking up a basketball or you’re a 35-year-old that’s been playing in the NBA for 15 years.”

See the full shoot with Dyson Daniels and Josh Giddey inside tomorrow’s Stellar. For more from Stellar, click here.

Originally published as ‘Everything you do is magnified’: Australian NBA stars Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels talk fame, fashion and friendship