New boy to add grit for Rocks
THE alumni list from the fabled Australian Institute of Sport reads like a Who’s Who of Antipodean achievement. Any cricketer of note in recent times. Footballers like Mark Viduka and Craig Moore. Matt Giteau from rugby. And, of late, the production line of championship-winning NBA stars, Andrew Bogut and Patty Mills included, who formed part of the most skilled squad on display at the recent Olympic Games.
“I’d like to join its hall of fame one day,” Lewis Thomas declares. The quest starts here. Signed to his first professional deal by Glasgow Rocks in the summer, the towering forward takes his first steps on to the global circuit when the club tips off their new British Basketball League campaign at Manchester Giants this afternoon. A stint at university in the States served as a finishing school. But the 24-year-old was taught everything he needed on the campus in Canberra that has become the model for others to follow.
“I moved just before my 18th birthday on scholarship,” he says. “I was there for a year-and-half. It’s an incredible system. You eat, sleep and live sport. You get up in the morning and there’s a dining hall. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, it’s all provided. We went shooting in the morning. Conditioning in the afternoon. All with some of the best coaches. They have things like whirlpools and hot and cold tubs as well. It’s all very professional and you get to train two or three times a day.”
It is a structure BBL teams can still only dream of, amid the limitations on court time and the budgetary necessities that require practices to be supplemented by hours of off-court outreach work. Still, Thomas acknowledges, he has come to Glasgow to learn about the pressure to perform for pay and to survive the eight-month grind and the weekly quest to earn enough points to stay in the title hunt right to the end.
Beats working for a living though. “I couldn’t imagine sitting down and working at a desk in an office,” the former Australia Under-19 cap smiles.
Here, he will be asked to add grit to Sterling Davis’ new-look line-up that is expected to challenge for honours. “I’m going to be the first person throwing him to the ground for any ball. When I get out there, I feel the white line fever. I just can’t wait to play.”