Sunshine Coast star Robateau aiming to complete NBL journey

Written by Julia Montesano

 NBL1 North championship, national championship and an NBL contract.

While those may be lofty goals for some, for Jamaal Robateau and the Sunshine Coast Phoenix, they are achievable in the new 2021 NBL1 North season.

For Robateau, his NBL1 North journey was supposed to begin for the Phoenix in 2020 before COVID-19 halted those plans.

Thankfully, he got to suit up in the QSL and make it all the way to the semi-finals with his team, only to go down by just two points.

If that didn’t ignite the fire in his belly enough, Robateau also got to taste basketball at the highest level in Australia when he spent some time with the Brisbane Bullets as an injury replacement player earlier this season.

Now vying for a full-time contract in the NBL, Robateau wants to start making an impact on Thursday night when the local Sunshine Coast derby opens up the NBL1 North season.

“I’m super excited to play in the NBL1 North,” he says.

“It’s going to be a very talented league.

“Once the NBL’s done, it will be great to have the NBL boys come in.

“In NBL1 North, from top to bottom, there’s some high calibre players on every team.

“You can’t take any game lightly.”

Not only did Robateau play with the Bullets, but he was also a part of the Adelaide 36ers as a development player in 2018 as well.

After NBL1 North, the 6’5” guard hopes to go from being a development player to injury replacement to a full-time player in the NBL.

“My experience with the Bullets reignited my dream to play NBL,” he says.

“I plan on having a really good NBL1 North season and hopefully that can make some noise in the NBL world.”

Robateau’s basketball journey started to take off at college level, when people started taking notice of his stats with NCAA Division 1 school, Gardner-Webb University.

He says this college experience played a big part in preparing him for professional-level basketball.

“It took a little bit of adjusting, coming from Australia and then going to America,” Robateau explains.

“I think the skill level is the same, the athleticism is just a big adjustment.

“Growing up, we would have rep practice twice a week and then do our own stuff during the week.

“Coming into a college program, we were doing weights, a three-hour team practice and a three-hour individual practice every single day.

“It just takes your game to another level.”

With most basketball journeys comes injury troubles and Robateau’s setback came when he sliced his hand on a stainless-steel fan and was sidelined for four months, just one week before he was set to suit up for Rockhampton in the 2019 QBL season.

This incident helped him realise how important injury prevention was to a professional athlete, so when going into the Bullets’ program, it was a big focus for himself and the team.

“People don’t quite understand, I know I didn’t, the jump from QBL level to NBL level,” the 26-year-old says.

“The preparation involved in being a professional athlete includes the mental side, rehab and most importantly, prehab.

“At that level, there’s a lot of injury prevention, you’re working on something every day.

“I wasn’t accustomed to it, but I soon realised how important it was.”

In order for the Phoenix to take one step further in the NBL1 North season, Robateau will come up against some of his former Brisbane teammates later in the year once the NBL ends.

These players include Anthony Drmic, Jason Cadee (both Gold Coast), Matt Hodgson and Nathan Sobey (both Ipwsich).

“I look forward to those Bullets games but at the same time, I try to not focus on that and try to get the win instead,” he explains.

“When I go out there and focus on winning with my team, I usually play at my best.”