Jontee Brown’s move to the Just Better Care Roller Hawks will see the rekindling of a front court combination that began almost a decade ago.
Credit: Kilsyth Basketball
It was for the Kilsyth Cobras where Brown first came onto the national league scene, starting as a rookie in 2017. At the time, the star high pointer on that team was Tristan Knowles.
“My first, initial thought was he’s a bit intimidating and a bit scary for a fresh young 19 year old but he’s a competitor and he’s been at the top of his game for nearly 20 years now.”
“To be around that and be in that environment in a team that had come off back-to-back (championships), they were a powerhouse group and just to be involved and to learn from that was probably the best thing.”
Brown and Knowles spent three years as teammates from 2017 to 2019 before COVID cancelled the 2020 season. When the league returned in 2021, Kilsyth did not. Knowles had already returned home to Wollongong while Brown also looked interstate, playing 5 games for the Sydney Metro Blue Hornets before COVID again shut down the season
In 2022, Brown was again in search of a new team, this time the newly established Darwin Salties came calling.
“It’s been a bit of a roller coaster for us up there, my first time up there was their first year in the league as well so for us it was about trying to find our feet in that first year.”
In year three, both Brown and the Salties won their first NWBL championship, against the Roller Hawks no less.
“It’s something I’ll always remember and to cap it off, unfortunately against Wollongong, but at the time it was great and to take down a powerhouse team that had been there for years and years (it) was a pretty incredible feeling.”
Brown will always look at his time with the Salties fondly. The calibre of players around him and Darwin’s willingness to accommodate fly in, fly out were a huge upside but the high pointer admits travelling from his home in Canberra to Darwin was taxing.
“I was fly in, fly out, we had the option to move up to Darwin. A lot of the guys that play most of the year in Europe fly in and live in Darwin but for guys like myself, I have a partner and a house down in Canberra and a fulltime job so for me to fully commit to that was a bit difficult.”
“The fly in, fly out for Darwin is a massive task. Catching red eyes on a Thursday then catching a red eye on Saturday you’re essentially not sleeping and then you’ve got to rock up the next week to try and do the same thing.”
“For me and my development, it didn’t really help not being able to train with the team, it was essentially just to rock up and play for those guys.”
When Knowles made the call to Brown to try to lure him to Wollongong, Brown was keen to be reunited with his old Kilysth teammates.
“From the get-go, Wollongong has been pretty incredible with where they see me fit and how I can bring my game style in to suit those guys and what the team wants.”
“Just their communication around bringing me and how they see fit, being able to train are really big things for me and being a bit closer to being able to train and play was a really big positive to me.”
“It feels surreal to play with them and still be really close mates with them and still be in touch and now to link with them, yeah I’m really excited.”
While friendship is nice, both players are too competitive to let sentimentality get in the way of the real goal.
“I’m excited to put on some new colours and try and bring a championship back to Wollongong.”