The 32-year-old American basketballer, who has been described as “one of the best passers on earth”, is a highly prized import who hopes to lead the Tasmania JackJumpers to victory when the team makes its debut in the National Basketball League (NBL) as the season officially starts on December 3.

Magette arrived in the state in late September with his wife and young daughter and has been happily settling into his Battery Point apartment and exploring nearby parks and cafes when he’s not training with his teammates.

And although he only signed a one-year contract to play here, Magette says he’ll happily call

Hobart home for the remainder of his career as long as the JackJumpers do well.

“I’d love to finish my career here,” he says.

“As long as we can be successful and win games, I’d love to ride it out here.

“We’ll just have to see what happens.’’

Magette, who hails from Alabama, is used to moving regularly and travelling often – as well as playing 26 NBA games across his career for Orlando Magic (2019-20) and Atlanta Hawks (2017-18) and recently returning from the Tokyo Olympic Games, where he was a member of the Team USA Select Team. Magette has also played professionally in the Netherlands, Turkey, Greece, Croatia and Spain.

But he says since marrying wife Christina and welcoming daughter Josephine – who recently turned 1 – to the family, he is fussier about where he will and won’t play.

“When you’ve got a family, there are certain jobs you won’t take,’ he admits.

“You’ve got to think about where your family will live for the next nine or 10 months.

“And [Tasmania] just checked all the boxes.’’

Limited airline schedules due to the pandemic meant they endured an epic series of flights to make it to Australia – travelling from Los Angeles to San Francisco then to Singapore and eventually quarantining for two weeks in a Sydney hotel before flying to Tasmania.

And the couple entertained themselves in quarantine by trawling the internet for Tasmanian content, to try and get some idea of what to expect when they landed in their new home state.

“We spent a lot of nights in quarantine, Googling where our apartment was and
where the restaurants were – it definitely
helped pass the time,’’ Magette says.

Usually when players are looking to sign with a team they approach past players to ask various questions about the club and the city it is based in. There’s also a Facebook group where players’ partners gather to share advice, because, when you’re moving to somewhere foreign, having insight into the best areas to live, the best schools or child care centres, or even recommendations for a local GP or the best parks or coffee shops can make a huge difference to helping you settle in.

But with the JackJumpers being a brand new team, the couple didn’t have that luxury, and just had to trust that things would work out.

However everything has come together beautifully, with the family’s apartment overlooking the River Derwent, while also being close to Princes Park, Salamanca Place, the coffee shops and restaurants of Hampden Rd and Hobart’s CBD. It’s only a short drive to games at MyState Bank Arena in Glenorchy and training at Kingborough.

“The area is perfect, you could not draw it up any better,’’ Magette says.

“It’s better than I could have ever expected. It’s a good city, with good weather … we definitely hit the jackpot with this city.’’

The lack of traffic has also been welcome, particularly after spending time in Los Angeles.

“In Hobart when we landed we were told there was heavy traffic because we’d landed right in rush hour,’’ Magette laughs.

“It took an extra five minutes to get [home] from the airport.’’

While Magette didn’t know much about Tasmania before coming here, he had been keeping a close eye on the NBL for a number of years in the hope he would one day get to play basketball in Australia.

“I’ve been following the NBL and just how good the league was for several years,’’ he says. “I’d always been drawn to the league and the trajectory of it and the style of play.’’

He had been in talks with JackJumpers head coach Scott Roth, who had been keeping a close eye on Magette.

And then, on the first day of free agency, Magette was thrilled to receive an offer from Roth.

“Scott stayed true to his word,’’ Magette says. “Only 30 imports in the whole world get into the league [there are 10 NBL teams who can each have three imports]. So I’m very thankful to be here. To be joining the league on a brand new team in the JackJumpers is so exciting and it’s an honour to play a role in establishing a healthy and winning culture in Tasmania.

“After hearing about the strong vision Scott has for the JackJumpers, I knew it was a journey I wanted to be on.’’

Roth is not content to let his hand-picked arsenal of local players and imports ease gently into the national fixture while they find their feet as a new team – he is determined his Tassie team will be competitive in its first season in the league and he has his sights set on winning the NBL championship while also growing basketball in the state.

“It’s not an easy project to start a franchise,’’ the experienced coach and talent scout previously told TasWeekend. “But I set the goal from day one to win the championship in the first year.’’

When announcing Magette as part of the JackJumpers line-up, Roth said he was “delighted” to have such a talented player on board for the forthcoming season as he would be a “tremendous asset” to the team.

Roth likened Magette to his former Utah teammate John Stockton – considered one of the greatest point guards and passers of all time.

“Josh has been a target of mine for a while and I’m so excited to have him with us,’’ Roth said when announcing Magette as part of his line-up.

“I was fortunate to play with NBA legend John Stockton in Utah and Josh has lots of traits that remind me of John.

“Playing the point guard position, Josh will provide the JackJumpers with great leadership and brings a team-first attitude to the court. He is one of the smartest players I have seen, and his high IQ makes him a terrific passer and a player his teammates will love.’’

And it’s not only Roth who has high praise for Magette, who has been widely referred to in global basketball circles as “one of the best passers on earth” with some “seriously special abilities”. Magette has the second most assists in the history of the NBA G-League.

“I’ve seen him do things in practice already that I haven’t seen anybody do at any level,’’ Roth said of Magette earlier this month. “Not Steve Nash, not Steph Curry [who are considered to be two of the greatest point guards in NBA history].’’

Magette is joined by teammates Josh Adams, Will Magnay, Jack McVeigh, Jarrad Weeks, Clint Steindl, Jarred Bairstow, Fabijan Krslovic, Nikita Mikhailovskii, Sam McDaniel, Sejr Deans, Jock Perry, Matt Kenyon, Sean Macdonald and MiKyle McIntosh.

Magette has been impressed with how competitive the league is and although there are always challenges that come with joining a new team – particularly a team that’s starting from scratch – he’s excited about the season ahead and is confident the JackJumpers will be successful.

The season was due to begin in October but was pushed out to December, which Magette says has been a blessing.

“Yes, we’re 15 new guys coming together to play for the first time,’’ he says. “But when you have two months of practice … we’ve gone hard.

“I don’t have that uncertainty that you have sometimes with a new team. Just seeing the improvement from the first pre-season game to the second pre-season game. I don’t think we’ve played our A-game yet … there’s room for improvement … hopefully we can bring both ends of the floor together and do some damage.’’

Magette says he liked the idea of being part of a brand new team and being able to make his mark.

“I think it’s super exciting,’’ he says. “We kind of get to lay our own groundwork and build the foundation.’’

And he says, whatever happens, people will forever look back on this season as the year the JackJumpers made their debut.

He’s also pumped to be playing in front of large crowds again. The revamped MyState Bank Arena, formerly the Derwent Entertainment Centre, can seat up to 4800 spectators for basketball. Many games Magette has played since Covid have been without live spectators, or with strictly limited crowds.

“It’s a great crowd [in Tasmania],’’ he says. “It’s the most people I’ve played in front of in probably three years because of all the Covid stuff. Obviously our guys feed off the energy of the crowd. So it’s great to see a ton of JackJumpers gear around the crowd.’’

Magette says the buzz during pre-season has been great but expects that to jump up a notch when the official season kicks off.

“Not that pre-season doesn’t count,’’ Magette says. “It’s just knowing that it’s the real deal and it goes on permanent record, it’s definitely a different mindset. But I’m feeling optimistic.’’

Magette grew up in Alabama, the youngest of three children.

With a brother eight years his senior and a sister nine years his senior, Magette spent his weekends tagging along to the various sports his siblings played.

“I always had a ball in my hand,’’ he recalls.

He also played a lot of 1-on-1 basketball with his brother, and with an eight year age difference, Magette says the competition was tough. Because when he was 10 he was playing against a much bigger, and much stronger, 18-year-old.

Magette says he was a “skinny kid” and not really that tall initially.

But he “grew another inch or two in college” and was approached by an agent and told he’d be able to play professional basketball.

And despite his impressive career highlights to date, the 185cm, 73kg sportsman feels the best is yet to come.

“Other than feeling a little extra sore after games I feel like I’m a better player than I was 3-4 years ago,’’ Magette explains. “My career motto is to just continue to improve every day and every season.’’

And he’s still as fiercely competitive as ever.

Christina laughs as she recounts how competitive her husband is, not just on the basketball court, but also when he gets a chance to hang out with his parents and his siblings who live in the US.

“They’re competitive in everything they do,’’ she reveals. “Whether it’s volleyball, cards, board games … every time the family comes together it centres around some sort of competition.’’

Christina hails from California where her parents still live, although they do hope to come to Tasmania for a visit in January if border restrictions allow it. Both she and Josh say it’s hard being away from their loved ones, especially when they now have a child who is growing and changing every day. There were a lot of tears at the airport when they left the US bound for Australia.

Fortunately modern technology helps them stay connected and they FaceTime family every morning, when it’s early afternoon in the US.

Online shopping has also been a saviour as doting grandparents have been able to buy gifts for Josephine – known affectionately as Joey or JoJo – and have them shipped to her. One of her favourites is a cuddly toy koala, a mascot of the family’s adopted homeland.

“It’s hard but they understand what our lifestyle is now,’’ Magette says of being apart.

“We call every day.’’

Christina says having other players on the team with young children – including captain Clint Steindl, vice-captain Jarrad Weeks and guard Sam McDaniel – has also been a saviour, as there is a bit of extra support from other wives and girlfriends on the sidelines when watching the JackJumpers play. Some also get together socially for play dates.

“It’s really great that there are other players with kids because we can all help each other,’’ she says.

The now 32-year-old was working as a sideline reporter for the G-League (the NBA’s official minor league which prepares players for the NBA) when she met Magette, who was playing for the Los Angeles D-Fenders (a team owned by the LA Lakers), in early 2016.

Their relationship was purely platonic at first – they used to say hi when they passed each other in the corridor. Then Josh asked Christina out on a date, but she turned him down.

“I said ‘I can’t go out with you, sorry – I work for the team.’’ But despite the knock-back he kept asking and Christina was impressed by his persistence.

“I said ‘okay, we can go on one date and then you can stop asking’,” she says.

But Christina got more than she bargained for, saying it was “an amazing date’’ – and they’ve been together since, getting engaged in 2017 and married a year later.

They welcomed Josephine to their family in November last year – she already has far more stamps in her passport than most adults will accumulate in a lifetime.

And while it can be hard to be away from home so much – the family has a house in Alabama – the doting dad says having a family has been good for his career.

“It has made me a better player on and off the court,’’ Magette says, adding that while training starts early he’s usually home by 2pm, giving him afternoons to spend with Christina and Josephine.

“Obviously it’s challenging every eight months to pack up and move. And the uncertainty is the hardest part when you sign a one-year contract.

“But you only have so many years to make it in this career. We’ve been very lucky to live in some amazing places. And we absolutely love it here [in Tasmania].’’

Only time will tell how long he’ll stay, but for now Magette is focused on winning the season and is confident the JackJumpers will be successful. “I’m definitely feeling optimistic.’’ ■

The Tasmania JackJumpers will kickstart their first season in the NBL with a blockbuster debut against the Brisbane Bullets at MyState Bank Arena in Hobart on December 3 at 7.30pm. Other highlights will include games on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. For the full fixture and ticket information visit jackjumpers.com.au