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The NBL careers of Damian Martin and Adam Gibson have seen the pair become long-term rivals in the league and for spots in Australian Boomers squads, and it’s fitting both celebrate significant milestones this week.
Martin and Gibson have been the two best and most consistent Australian-born guards in the NBL for the past decade, with both having won two championships, having split five Defensive Player of the Year honours and been regulars in Boomers squads.
Both players have had their careers largely influenced by one coach as well with Joey Wright coaching Gibson for the majority of his NBL career, and Rob Beveridge being coach of teams Martin has played in right from junior level to world championships and then in the NBL.
The pair have locked horns in some fascinating one-on-one battles over the years as well whether Martin has been playing with the West Sydney Razorbacks, Sydney Spirit or Perth Wildcats, or Gibson with the Brisbane Bullets, South Dragons, Gold Coast Blaze or Adelaide 36ers.
Those battles have taken them to two semi-final series’ between Martin’s Wildcats and Gibson’s Blaze, and then in last season’s grand final series as well where Perth again prevailed in three games over Adelaide.
The pair have also been locked in a battle over the role of a back up guard for Boomers teams with Gibson having gone to the 2012 London Olympics and most recently the 2014 FIBA World Cup, but Martin has also been a regular member of a host of Australian teams since 2009.
It is then only fitting that Gibson reaches his 300-game milestone this Sunday as the Adelaide 36ers host the New Zealand Breakers at Adelaide Arena just five days after Martin celebrated his 200th match in the league with a Perth Wildcats win over the Wollongong Hawks on New Year’s Eve.
Martin might be a natural scoring threat at the offensive end, but the 30-year-old will go down as one of the best ever NBL defenders having now won four straight Defensive Player of the Year awards dating back to 2010 when he took over Gibson who took out the award in 2009.
He is a two-time championship winner with the Wildcats, including being captain last season, but it hasn’t always been easy to feel comfortable in his game.
As long as he is defending strongly and running his team’s offence, he is happy to not score but also knows it’s his job to still be able to take the shots given to him or it can become detrimental to the team.
“I’m a big believer that everyone has a role in a team to play and it’s firstly about knowing your role, and then embracing it and then doing it each and every time you are on the court,” Martin said.
“That role can change over the course of a career with new skill sets, new teammates, new coaches and it’s about being able to adapt. I rarely look at box scores and I honestly don’t care if I score or not within a game as long as I’m not hurting my teammates.
“At times I still try to be aggressive and back myself to score because I feel confident when I shoot the ball but the biggest compliment I’ve always thought a point guard can get is when they make players around them better.
“My main goal is trying to embrace that role as a point guard and my strength is more so at the defensive end, and that is my main role and I pride myself in shutting guys down.”
It’s doubtful that Martin would have even played basketball professionally had it not been for the influence of Beveridge.
Martin had decided to play rugby league as a teenager before Beveridge talked him and his father around.
The end result was Beveridge and Martin teaming up to win a junior national championship with NSW, win a world under-20 championship for Australia in 2003 and then ultimately win an NBL title together with the Wildcats in 2010.
“It’s hard to even describe the impact Bevo has had. I had given up basketball and was pursuing rugby league because I was sick of travelling and the burden on my parents, and the sacrifices they made just so I could play basketball in Newcastle,” Martin said.
“When Bevo called up my dad and introduced himself as the Australian Institute of Sport head coach and that he wanted to meet with me I had decided to play rugby league. I went and met him at McDonald’s about an hour and-a-half away from Gloucester and he put it to us that he believed I could go on and play basketball professionally.
“That’s the first time I had heard that, but the way he spoke and how much belief he had in me convinced me to go back to basketball and he lived up to every promise he made me. It was nice that we went on to win a national championship together with NSW and then a world championship with the Emus team and then an NBL title.
“If you ask any player who Bevo has coached for any period of time, they have only the best things to say that and that includes guys like Andrew Bogut, Rhys Carter, Matty Knight and a host of others. I’m just privileged to have spent a little bit longer with him than most having started when I was a 15-year-old in NSW.”
Gibson is set to reach his 300th NBL appearance this Sunday with his Adelaide team needing to beat the league-leading New Zealand Breakers to remain in contention for a playoff spot.
Unlike Martin, Gibson is a natural scoring threat and has shown an ability to put in a game-winning 30-point performance when he looks for his shot, but more often than not over his career he has been happy to be a pass-first point guard despite the constant urging from his coach.
“It has been tough at times. Joey has been on me because I don’t mind sitting back and just running the offence, and throwing the ball around but he definitely has been reminding me in recent years to be aggressive and more of a scorer,” Gibson said.
“We have gone backwards and forwards about that, and it has taken me a while to get my head around it, but I’ve played with some good guards as well so I’ve had the luxury to play the two as the scorer and then play the one when they go off for a rest.
“It’s just a balancing act and trying to read the game, and I am trying to be more aggressive and more of a scorer. If I do that, the other stuff will happen for me.”
While Gibson didn’t have the background in the juniors prior to the NBL with Wright that Martin had with Beveridge, the bond the player and coach have built has been equally as significant.
Wright was Gibson’s first coach in the NBL at the Bullets and helped him to a first championship before then coaching him again with the Blaze and now again for the last season and-a-half with the 36ers.
Gibson has no hesitation giving Wright plenty of credit for the success he has been able to achieve both in the NBL and internationally with the Boomers.
“Joey has been huge for me. He was obviously my first coach in the NBL and from being around him, and having him coach me is a big reason why I made the Olympic Games and have achieved what I have,” Gibson said.
“He has had a massive influence on me and out of my soon-to-be 300 games, he would have coached me for about 250 of them so that says it all about what he’s meant for my career.
“I’ve obviously loved playing for him and I think he’s a great coach, that’s why I come back to play for teams that he is the coach of.”
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