Family matters: Hannah and Warrick Giddey give a rare insight into the real Josh Giddey
Boomers Paris Olympic standout Josh Giddey carries himself with a reserved maturity and class that belies his tender years. But big sister Hannah says that’s not quite the Josh she knows.
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The real Josh Giddey is a generous joker who is obsessed with the gym and his diet, big sister Hannah says.
And, while he does it with a maturity and class that belies his tender years, Hannah says the almost reserved facade little bro presents to the world hides a playful side who puts others before himself.
“I feel like he portrays a more introverted persona than what he is,” Hannah, who is keeping the family’s Melbourne Tigers link alive in NBL1, told Code Sports.
“He’s actually very outgoing and he loves to joke around, he’s a funny person to be hanging around with and he’s always making me laugh.
“He’s very generous. He’s helped my family out so much, given back to mum and dad and helped me and my sisters.
“He’s very thoughtful.”
Hannah, 23, has been Josh’s strongest support during the past three NBA seasons in Oklahoma City. The siblings were separated by an hour-and-a-half drive as she hooped and studied at Oral Roberts, Tulsa. They then shared a home when she transferred to Southern Nazarene University in Bethany.
“After my freshman year, he ended up getting drafted to OKC, which was a coincidence,” Hannah said.
“When I decided to transfer after my sophomore year, he was like, ‘well come live with me, go to a school in the city’ and I was like, ‘Yep’, so I went to the best D2 school in the city and I lived with him for two years.”
Hannah’s influence and friendship has been a godsend for Josh, and it goes both ways, with the pair leaning on each other, 14,500kms from home.
“I’m the only family he has in the States and he loves home so to have me there I think really helped him out a lot and it helped me having him there,” Hannah said.
“I kept him company, I did the cleaning, I did his laundry, I just helped him out.
“He’s such a boy, he doesn’t know how to do all that stuff and that was our agreement if I came to live with him.
“We’re really close and It’s funny, if mum and dad ever need him to do anything, they always go through me to get to him. I can call him whenever and he will answer.”
Hannah watched her obsessive brother’s dedication to improve his already unique game with a strict diet and regimented training program.
“He loves working out, he’s always wanting to get in the gym and get better,” she said.
“That’s a big thing for him. He’s very strict on what he eats.
“I admire his hard work. Like, it’s a lot, but he knows that’s what you have to do when you’re at a high level like he is and I really look up to him in that aspect.”
DAD’S ADVICE AND EXCITEMENT AT A NEW BEGINNING
When proud dad Warrick Giddey found out son Josh would join Chicago he came up with this gem: “Take the Bull by the horns.”
Chicago is, of course, famously known as the Bulls, and Warrick, the former Melbourne Tigers enforcer who did the dirty work that allowed the likes of Andrew Gaze, Lanard Copeland and Mark Bradtke flourish in the 1990s, admits he was a little excited to hear his son would wear the same colours as the legendary Michael Jordan once did.
“We know what Jordan did at the Bulls, it’s an iconic place to play,” Warrick said.
After three years in Oklahoma City, where the team went from a 22-win cellar dweller to a 57-win juggernaut, Josh faced a difficult choice.
He’d been forced into an unfamiliar role last season with Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who he faced off with on Tuesday night for the Boomers in Paris, becoming the primary ballhandler for the Thunder.
“It became a choice between coming off the bench (in Oklahoma) or starting fresh (in Chicago),” Warrick said.
“Any sportsman, if he gets to that stage he has to make a hard decision, do you stay and take a lesser role?
“The analogy is the Geelong Football Club (AFL). When they won their grand finals (2007, 2009, 2011) they had blokes who were the 14th or 15th best players at Geelong who would have been the fourth and fifth best at other clubs.
“You’re trying to balance between team success and your own individual opportunity and future.
“Josh, being at this age, it’s about having that opportunity to play, have the ball in his hands and really showcase his talents and show, like he did in Oklahoma, he can help build a contending team.
“He’s backing himself.”
So, did dad, who played 449 NBL games across 16 seasons, ever have to make a similar decision?
After two seasons with Illawarra, the Tigers and Geelong Supercats made a move for the 196cm forward in 1989.
“Geelong was keen, Shane Heal was coming in and I was good mates with Shane but just decided to stay here (Melbourne),” Warrick said.
“A couple of other clubs tried to recruit me over the years, telling me I’d get more shots, recruiting me to be 20 (points) and 10 (rebounds) but they would have got a huge shock.
“I was a role player and support role and I knew where my ability was at.
“I was labour on the building site.”
SQUARE PEG, ROUND HOLE
When Josh was initially shifted off the ball, Warrick thought it was a teaching moment that would do him good.
Josh, a point guard used to having the ball in his hands and initiating the offence — he averaged better than six assists in each of his first two seasons — was relegated to the ‘dunker spot’ — a position near the basket usually reserved for post players or non-shooters.
“The position he was playing was basically the four man, the dunker spot — for an unathletic 6’9” kid who can’t dunk,” Warrick said.
“But still, he played that position with a high IQ and still was able to go OK there but the bloke’s a point guard, he’s not really a four man.
“I thought it was good for his overall development playing without the ball and the coach was giving him a chance to expand his game. I didn’t realise it was going to last the whole season.
“They spoke highly of the fact that he was out of position and just doing everything he needed to do to help the team.
“I felt for him because they (the Thunder) just looked so good in the first half of the year when they all shared positions and you didn’t know who was going to handle the ball. I don’t know if they panicked, but they just went away from that towards the end of the year and it became stagnant and not as fun to watch.”
The experiment ended with Josh benched in the back-end of the playoffs as teams sagged off, daring him to shoot.
The three-point shooting has been an chink in the armour of the 203cm playmaker but, while it’s still a work in progress, he’s made small inroads in each of his three seasons — a career-high 34 per cent last campaign — and the shot has looked solid during the Olympic build up and proper.
Through two pool games in Paris, Josh has orchestrated victory over Spain and led the way in pushing Canada to 10 points, knocking down six of his 11 three-point tries on his way to averages of 18 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7 assists.
KING OF THE REBUILD?
Warrick sees similarities between the Bulls of today, who have let veteran Demar DeRozan go and are looking to revamp the roster, and the Thunder when Josh arrived as the sixth pick in the 2021 NBA draft.
“I just told Josh ‘You’re going to be presented with a great opportunity, a young team, up and coming and it’s probably very similar to Oklahoma when you got there where you’re in a rebuild’,” he said.
“Josh is going to be at the forefront of it, trying to guide them.
“He built up OKC and now he’s off to do that in Chicago.
“He’ll be able to deal with losses and adversity, which I think they can see from his time in Oklahoma
“Josh makes people around him better. That’s his forte.
“I think that he’ll be allowed to play with a level of confidence and freedom and that will help his game.”
LEARNINGS FROM DAD AND MAKING THE MOVE
Hannah’s inherited the defensive gene from dad — she’s a shotblocking machine who averaged nearly 3.5 per game in college over the past two seasons. She reckons Josh has had to work harder at that end of the floor.
And the stories about dad, a two-time NBL champion who had his No.6 retired by the Tigers, she’s heard and seen plenty.
Hair today, gone tomorrow.
— NBL History (@nblhistory) October 11, 2021
A short film starring Warrick Giddey (@GiddeyWazza)
Cc: @joshgiddeypic.twitter.com/0sxLAtjqYn
“Yeah, I’ve heard it all, I’ve seen the hair and the mohawk and the headband,” she laughed.
“I’m 6’2” (188cm), definitely on the taller side for women’s basketball. I’m the tallest in my team, so it’s definitely an advantage.
“I think I take dad’s defensive genes. Josh probably didn’t.”
During her teens, Hannah fell out of love with the game and didn’t step on a court for over three years but was convinced to lace up the kicks as a fill in and, from there, it was full steam ahead.
“Dad coached me in 16s and then in NBL1 for three years and that was super fun,” she said.
“This is my first time in NBL1 not getting coached by dad. So it’s a change but it’s good.
“I love (Tigers coach) Kaleb (Sclatter), so it’s been good for me to have someone else.”
After two years riding the pine at Oral Roberts, she made the move to Southern Nazarene and has thrived on the court and off as she works toward a degree in sports management.
“I was at a D1 and I didn’t play, just sat on the bench for two years and I didn’t even have any film (of her playing that she could show a potential professional team),” she said.
“My assistant coach at Oral Roberts coach spoke to the head coach at Nazarene and he basically went off his word and he was like ‘OK, yep, we want to offer you a scholarship’.
“I took it and I played my best two years of basketball I’ve ever played, had the ball in my hands, really improved, loved it.
A career night in a 73-42 win over Oklahoma Baptist — in front of Warrick and Josh — was a special highlight.
“Josh and dad got to see my career high, I had 30 (points), 12 (rebounds) and seven (assists) and that was really big for me to have them there,” she said.
“Josh texted me after he’s like ‘great game way to work’ and I was like, ‘thanks’, and that was about it.
“It’s funny, that’s pretty much how it always is. People always ask what we talk about and it’s anything but basketball.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE GIDDEY HOOPERS?
Things are going to look a little different this season for Josh and Hannah.
Little bro will be in Chicago — hopefully after a successful Paris Olympics — as Hannah returns to Southern Nazarene for a fifth year.
“I was a Covid kid coming in 2020 and everyone affected by the lockdowns got an extra year so I’ve decided to go back,” she said.
“I’m going to stay in OKC and live in an apartment by myself but I’ll get to visit Josh in Chicago.
“I’ve never been so I’m excited to go see him and I think the move will be good for him.”
It might not be the end for the dynamic duo, though — Hannah loves the game, but playing professionally isn’t the be-all and end-all it is for many college leavers.
“I really like living in America — and Josh wants me to come live with him in Chicago,” she said.
“I want to play NBL1 for sure and maybe training with a WNBL team, but I might try work at a D1 college in an athletic department or something like that and live with Josh.”
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