Josh Nicholls' Inspiring Story

By Lachlan Everett for NBL1.com.au

Josh Nicholls has overcome significant adversity to be where he is today. 

Being born without a left hand, Nicholls had to adapt early on, from tying shoe laces (which he insists he’s got “down pat”), to officiating basketball games and photography. 

“I've always just sort of dealt with it, [I was] born like this, with an arm difference,” Nicholls said. 

“So just below the elbow, with nothing there. There's no rhyme or reason for it. Just one of those things. But I guess I've always just sort of had to find a way to do things and adapt.

“I can do everything that everyone else can do. Probably with the exception of the monkey bars, which is still something on my list that I want to knock off my list at some point.”

Nicholls is a referee in the NBL1 South. Over two seasons he’s officiated 36 games and has spent 11 seasons in Big V as well. 

Nicholls has always preferred to use his arm over a prosthetic arm and he has only recently revisited the idea of using one for gym equipment. After 20 years of technological advancements, he’s started using it again to help him balance his exercise and muscle growth. 

“I think I was the third child to have a myoelectric arm (style of prosthetic arm) in Australia, back in the very early 90s, late 80s,” he said. 

“I was involved in a lot of the research and development with the Royal Children's Hospital back then. I think I was about five or six years old when I decided that I'd had enough of it. It was heavy and it was bulky in the very early days of it being mechanical. 

“So it was not the most responsive of hands to open, close, grip and things like that. And just generally felt that it got in the way.” 

Nicholls explained that without having any sensation in the prosthetic, he wasn’t comfortable using it in sports as he’d worried it would “fly around”.

Josh Nicholls officiating NBL1 South (Ian Knight photography) 

Having learnt to referee without the prosthetic, Nicholls adapted his strategy, focusing more on communication with the players, coaches and score bench over the reliance on hand signals.

Basketball Victoria's Jo Chu, who is the General Manager of Technical Officials, was a part of the committee that awarded Nicholls with the Referee Advisor of the Year Award for 2022. 

“He really is incredible,” she said. 

“It was one of those ones where we couldn't look past him, I suppose is the best way to describe it.” 

Chu explained that in Nicholls’ role as Referee Advisor with the Casey Basketball Association, he has created a strong culture, has produced many high-quality referees and has built a strong connection between the club and Basketball Victoria – making him the best candidate for the award. 

“When I met Josh about six years ago, it was never about his disability. It was never about the ability of disability with his arm. It was always ‘what do you need from me to meet the criteria? (as a referee)’,” she said. 

Chu explained that Nicholls had focused on being a strong communicator, having knowledge of the game and accuracy as a referee. That mattered more to her than his limited ability to give hand signals. 

“As far as we're concerned, he operates 100 percent the way everyone should operate as a referee,” she said.

 “He's a really strong communicator, he's very emotionally intelligent and he operates the game as a service. So for us, that's why he's been successful in this pathway.”

Nicholls spoke about the lack of representation in media for people like him when he was growing up. He highlighted Dylan Alcott’s Australian of the Year speech where he said the only people in wheelchairs on TV were from TAC (Transport Accident Commission) ads. 

“Growing up, there was no one, no one like me,” he said.

“But now, (there’s) people like Carson Pickett, there's a very famous photo of her fist-bumping a toddler with the exact same arm differences, what she's got, stump the stump.

“It just sort of really highlights and celebrates the disability and the fact that those kids now have role models out there in the community, that they can look up to and strive to aim for.”

Carson Pickett greeting young fan, (Colleen Tidd)

Nicholls has been a role model for many children and families through his work at Aussie Hands, a charity that provides information and support for families and people with arm differences. 

Nicholls found the charity while researching prosthetics. He primarily is involved by responding to questions submitted by parents in their private Facebook group, featuring over 1100 members. 

“In the group, questions come up like ‘how is my kid going to tie their shoelaces?’, Something like that which I've got down pat by the way, don't worry about that,” he joked.

“It’s a really good platform, being able to put some of that back out there and reassure the mums and dads that you know, this isn't the end of the world and there is there are still pathways out there. Things can be achieved and this is the platform I have right now (being digital).”

Aussie Hands Board President Stuart John says Nicholls has been extremely valuable to the charity in helping their members. 

“Where Josh sort of comes into his own is being able to contribute to that forum in particular and share his stories. You'll get people who’ll say their kid is thinking about getting into sports or getting into officiating, things like that, but they have a hand difference,” John said.

“And that's where he steps in and goes ‘hey actually, I've done this and I'm a referee and NBL1 level and played sport my entire life’.

“That's the kind of thing that really helps parents out, particularly when you've got something like a hand difference or disability in general, there's no handbook. It’s a fairly unique experience. I think just having Josh in there is so powerful. And it provides such reassurance to our younger members and to their parents.”