Feature image via: Taylor Earnshaw
A good team of players will always beat a team of good players. It’s an old sporting adage that transcends basketball and other codes, and it rings true for a Sunshine Coast Phoenix side that is surging to the top end of the NBL1 North ladder.
To label the Phoenix’s current contingent of players as anything less than uber-talented would be immensely disrespectful. This group – led by the likes of Jamaal Robateau, Nelson Kahler and Kobe McDowell-White – has turned itself into a force under head coach Sean Page, and has gone to battle with some of the top names in the competition, only to come out on top.
The emergence of McDowell-White as a stellar floor general has been of paramount importance to the Phoenix’s competitive run-up at this early stage of the season, and the young guard’s mentality perfectly represents that of his wider team on a game-to-game basis.
Kobe Mcdowell White is magic ??
— NBL1 (@NBL1) June 1, 2024
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The 20-year-old is averaging 16.6 and 6.7 assists per game in what is his comeback season from a serious foot injury suffered in the opening stages of last season. He’s come back with a fire and a vengeance to make his presence felt amongst his older, more awarded peers around the league.
“We’re going up against all these guys who have had amazing NBL careers already and still have more to do, but what we harp on a lot is we’re not that good on paper, but you don’t play the game on paper. It’s played on the court,” McDowell-White told NBL Media.
“That’s what we feed off, we play with a chip on our shoulder and we like to prove we can go against the bigger teams with all the big players and we just want to make the most of the season.
“We played Northside and Spartans first, Mitch Norton was out that game but going against Tyrell and those guys, Jackson Makoi who is representing his country and just signed a Cairns deal, but going against those guys and holding my own, it built back up and I’m feeling good now.
“It just goes to show I can go with the big dogs and that’s what we think as a team – we can go against the big dogs.
“Going against these big NBL guys, that’s the next step for me. To go against these guys and get my name out there and hopefully something comes from it.”
As the side’s point guard, McDowell-White has become the Phoenix’s offensive linchpin this season. Not a bad effort considering the severity of the foot injury he suffered last season.
He – along with the likes of Rockhampton’s Ben Tweedy – is part of the emerging generation of young, capable point guards who look all but certain to earn an NBL opportunity at some point in their careers.
Kobe Mcdowell-White makes it look so easy ?
— NBL1 (@NBL1) April 28, 2024
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The obvious natural talent McDowell-White possesses means he has slipped into his starring role at Sunshine Coast with ease, but the desire to give him the platform to perform was a huge show of faith from head coach Page, who backed the youngster to provide a point of difference for his side despite an extended time on the sidelines.
Related: McDowell-White keen for Indigenous All-Stars "connection"
After four years representing Spartans at QBL and NBL1 level, McDowell-White says the move to the Phoenix came out of the necessity for a change of scenery following his injury, and that fence-swinging show of faith from Page locked him into this new and exciting project.
“I was injured last year, I broke my foot and sat out for pretty much the whole season – I only played the first game,” McDowell-White reflected.
“I’d been a Spartans junior my whole life so I just kind of needed a new look at things. I’d played in NBL1 and QBL since I was 16, so I just needed a new look, a new opportunity to showcase what I’ve got.
“I spoke to Sean and saw him a bit in the off-season. He watched me work out a bit in the off-season and was onto me straight away and said, ‘I think you’re the guy we need, I want to get you locked in and pretty much build the team around you’.
“Hearing that and that they need me, I was pretty much in and that was it.
“Sitting out a whole year, you don’t know how you’re going to come back. Hearing those words from Sean made it feel like they have a lot of faith in me.
“I’m only 20 now, so being young that’s all you want to hear as a player, pretty much having the keys to the team and do what you want, there’s a lot of faith from the club and Sean and so far it’s turned out really well.”
He added his outlook on the game has changed since the long and arduous recovery from his broken foot last year.
“The first eight weeks I was in a moon boot and on crutches, so I couldn’t even walk. Then it was a long build from there,” he reflected. “Getting back to walking was even hard, I did my right foot so I was pausing on that right foot step every time.
“When you think of coming back from that, you used to just run around and play games like it was nothing and now you can’t even walk properly? It was really tough mentally because even doing all the exercises, rehab and recovery was so hard, but my physio and I got through it.
“Touch wood nothing happens again, but I’m fit again now, and it’s been good so far.”
Watch the Sunshine Coast Phoenix take on the Mackay Meteors live on Saturday, streaming from 8:30pm AEST via NBL1.com.au or the NBL1 App.
