Sobey’s volley at coach

Thrown under bus: star

Star South East Melbourne recruit Nathan Sobey has hit back at Brisbane coach Justin Schueller after his parting shot at the long-serving Bullets’ three-time club MVP.

After Sobey, pictured, worked with the two clubs to negotiate a buyout of the final year of his contract to allow him to join the Phoenix – which will happen when free agency officially opens at 9am on Monday – Schueller took to Queensland radio SENQ, intimating the club’s leading scorer didn’t fit with the club’s revamped culture and questioned his habits.

“I don’t agree with it and I think it’s pretty average, but I’ll let my basketball do the talking,” Sobey said, when asked about his former coach’s comments.

“You don’t expect that, being a pretty long-time servant of the club and always trying to improve every way I can, individually and as a team. It’s disappointing to see stuff like that.

“That’s not what I’m about, throwing people under the bus.”

The 33-year-old said a number of basketball figures had reached out in the wake of the comments, which were slammed by former Boomers Chris Anstey and Mark Worthington on their podcast Hasbeen Hoops.

“I appreciate the people who have reached out checking in and having conversations over it after it came out,” the Boomers Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist said.

“He’s (Schueller) reached out since but, at the end of the day, the words were said.

“I’m not really too fussed about it anymore, it was said, I don’t agree with it and I’ll just move forward and let the basketball do the talking.

“It’s just one person’s opinion, really.”

The Warrnambool native is eager to play for a pro team in his home state, closer to family and friends, for the first time since he left for college in 2010.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to be close to home and having two kids now gave me even more reason to move back,” the father of two said. “My whole family’s still here apart from my brother so they’ll be able to come to more games and it’ll give the kids a chance to hang out with the nephews and nieces a lot more.”

He will play under Phoenix coach Mike Kelly for the first time, but the pair has a long history – Kelly was a mentor during his college years at Cochise (JUCO) and then Wyoming.

“I spoke to Mike a few times when he was coaching over there when I was making my decision after leaving JUCO,” he said.

“We haven’t chatted full roles here as such yet but Mike knows what I’m good at, he’ll put me in the best spots to be able to succeed.”