Few have gotten as much out of wheelchair basketball as Nick Taylor, which is why he has no regrets choosing now to retire from the sport. 

Work plus a growing list of commitments outside of his job, leaves little time to dedicate towards training, not to mention the body’s not as willing as it used to be. 

“I know when I’m playing well, what level I can play at and I saw that in small glimpses last year. I just don’t play that way consistently anymore because I don’t train at the same level that I used to and the body is not able to allow me to train that way anymore,” said Taylor.

His career has included two Paralympics, gold at the 2014 World Championships and five NWBL Championships with the Roller Hawks.

Taylor won’t be lost to the game, continuing to give back to the sport that has given him so much in his role as chair of Wheelchair Basketball Australia.

“I was really proud of what we were able to achieve in the first year.”

“We’re excited that there’s two new women’s teams joining the competition so we’ll definitely strengthen the women’s game.” 

“There’s lots of work to be done in terms of supporting the national program to get back to qualifying for major tournaments like world champs and Paralympics. We feel like getting a good foundation in terms of a national league competition of reasonable quality is going to help get the Gliders back into qualification for majors.”

Taylor began playing the sport after becoming paralysed as the result of a car accident at 18 years old. Up until that point he was a promising able-bodied player, playing for the South African junior national team. 

He admits it took time for him to warm to wheelchair basketball as he struggled with the trauma of his accident but soon the competitive juices took hold. 

A scholarship at the University of Texas gave him the opportunity to play college basketball in America, before he set his sights on Australia.

“I was not enjoying living in Johannesburg. My older brother had immigrated out here to Australia in 2004 and I started writing to every NWBL team, to see whether anyone was interested in me coming over as an import player and Andrew Tarrant was the interim coach of the Roller Hawks at that stage and he said, yep, very interested and that led to me coming out as an import.”

“It was a great introduction to Australia, travelling around, playing in the national league, seeing Brisbane and Perth and Melbourne and just getting to see what Australia was all about. I was sold, sold straight away and wanted to stay.”

After a couple of seasons in Australia, Taylor found even more reason to stay when he answered an SOS call from a rival team to compete at a club championships in Japan.

“The West Sydney Razorbacks were down a few players and they had asked me to come and play with them as a ring-in and Sonia was coaching that team and I ended up being seated next to her on the plane.”

The relationship quickly bloomed, leading to Taylor living, working and playing in Sydney for a couple of years before returning to Roller Hawks and settling down in the Illawarra’s northern suburbs.

During that time Taylor had also made the decision to switch allegiances. After representing South Africa at the 2008 Beijing Games, he was determined to also play for his new country.

“I made the transition and sat out of international competition for three years so I could change my basketball nationality which is a pretty big sacrifice at the peak of your powers but I really wanted to represent Australia.”

“I knew my future was in Australia and obviously I’d met my wife by then. I wanted to have a family here in Australia and it was important to me to be able to tell my kids that I’d represented Australia and been to a Paralympic Games and World Championships in the correct green and gold!”

Retirement means the father of two will now have more time to encourage some burgeoning junior careers. 

“It gets a lot more fun and interesting as my kids get older being involved in their rep basketball journey and helping coach their local level comp teams and just wanting to be there on the sideline and enjoy seeing my kids play basketball as well.”

“Lots of time on the driveway, teaching them the fundamentals and how to shoot the ball well and lots of advice after watching a game, that just comes naturally and I’m enjoying that and they appreciate having parents who take an interest in their sport as well.”

Taylor will continue to train with the Roller Hawks where he can, to help with numbers and advice.

“It’s been life changing. Not only getting to travel the world and represent both South Africa and Australia and take great pride in that, but to see the world and overcome the adversity of having a disability after having a car accident and acquiring my spinal cord injury, that stuff was tough to deal with and having the support system of a wheelchair basketball club, a bunch of blokes who have been through it all, are ahead in the journey and are able to provide that peer to peer support has been invaluable.”   

“Also just the life experiences of getting to travel around the world and playing wheelchair basketball, going to university in the states and see Australia as an import player and fall in love with Australia and wanting to be here for the rest of my life and none of that happens if wheelchair basketball doesn’t have a significant influence in my life.”

“It’s been an amazing and integral part of my life and my identity and who I am."