B&B: From the court to the screen
TweetWE sat down this week for one of our favourite interviews, Brad Rosen and I doing a "blast from the past" session with the one and only Wayne McDaniel, a former NBL import who excelled at Adelaide 36ers, Geelong Supercats, Newcastle Falcons and Hobart Tassie Devils. We covered a lot of ground in our Brad&Boti podcast.
Wayne is another in a long line of great players who seem to have been lost in the shuffle over the years while our pundits-of-the-day can only name a number of the usual suspects from our game's glorious past.
Wayne, with 22 NBL games where he scored 40 or more, including a 57-point haul, was a superstar of his era, recruited first in 1983, originally by the 36ers.
He averaged 30 points in a season four times, playing either as a small forward scorer or over at the power forward slot.
A powerfully-built big man, he comfortably and successfully would slot in among today's imports, as would many of the imports of his generation.
His NBL-championship-winning son Sam at Tasmania Jack Jumpers is carrying on the family tradition which Wayne started during his extended stint with Hobart Tassie Devils in the 90s.
It gives the new NBL franchise a great connection to the state's former NBL entrant.
Wayne's journey from San Francisco and the players he duelled with back in the USA - players such as Horace Grant, Doc Rivers and another former 36ers import Orlando Phillips - is a compelling one.
How long did he expect to stay in Australia when first recruited by Dave Adkins 38 years ago?
Honestly? Wayne admits he had no thought about it, being a self-confessed chilled "black hippie" from San Fran.
And post-playing career, he's appearing in movies - Sapphires was a biggie - in Netflix series, his is quite the story to tell.
To hear all this and more, hit this link now, or go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Like any point guard keen to pad his assists totals passing it to Wayne on the wing, you will not be disappointed.