Why we couldn't get enough of Josh Giddey's low-key homecoming

Sydney Morning Herald07-05-2025

That bloke? Yes, that bloke!
And we all know the rest. Despite Giddey playing like – well, like an NBA superstar – his own team react to his blinder by being a little blinded themselves, while their opponents rise to the occasion and the Vales go down.
No matter. This was not about the result. This was about a bloke wanting to play with his mates for the joy of the game, and so he did. Yes, the same bloke who, as we speak, might be about to sign a new five-year contract worth a lazy $250 million between friends – all of which would be put at serious risk if he sustained a serious injury in this match. But does he care? He does not. Gimme the ball!
They gim him the ball, allowing every man-jack on the court to boast of the time he played with or against the man, the legend, the Vales Basketball player, Josh Giddey!
True, we might all be overblowing a simple game of basketball, but the idea of superstars playing their sport at a low level for the sheer love of it has become something close to a trope. We cherish it because it is proof positive that the superstars have not lost their sporting soul, and so when it happens it is to be celebrated. Consider:
Since retiring, Sweden's decorated striker Zlatan Ibrahimović has occasionally turned up for training and games with amateur teams in both Sweden and Italy.
More famously, David Beckham once turned out for his son's youth team.
Closer to home, if you are looking for genuine superstars who played in low-level community sport, let's not forget that Romario even played in our own A-League. (INCOMMMMMING!)
More seriously, it is heartening every year to see rugby league players of the quality of Latrell Mitchell, Josh Addo-Carr and Cody Walker turn out for the Koori Knockout.
Tennis? Back in 2017, Serena Williams was walking by a local court in San Francisco when she noted two good male players finishing up a match. Could she play the winner? Sure!
And a good time was had by all.
The second-best of the genre, even if it was for a soft-drink ad, was when another NBA superstar in Kyrie Irving got himself made up as a very old man – 'Uncle Drew' – and manoeuvred to get himself included in a pick-up game on his local court as the secret cameras rolled. For the first couple of minutes, he indeed played like an old man – before suddenly exploding into action and wiping the court of young punks, who never gave him no respect. For the sheer fun of it, it is seriously worth watching.
The best of the lot though, in my experience, was recalled by your correspondent on the occasion of the tragic early death of the great All Black No.8 Jerry Collins, in a car accident in 2015.
Back in 2007, I had written about how Collins had played a game of reserve grade for a village team in England, the Barnstaple Seconds, in their match against Newton Abbott – simply because he had been taking some R&R nearby, had been asked, and wanted to help out.
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Of course Collins dropped back four gears so as not to destroy the game. Yet at one point, when the Newton Abbot wing Aidan Tolley was about to score, the ball tucked under his left arm and his right arm raised in celebration, Collins's killer instinct was too strong.
'He didn't see me coming,' Collins told the Sunday Times. 'I caught him in the air, faced him the other way and carried him back a few yards. He said, 'Damn, it, you could have let me score that.' 'I couldn't help myself,' I said.'
Late in the game, it was one of Barnstaple's props who couldn't help himself.
The prop was injured and waiting for a stretcher to remove him, when he noted a concerned Collins standing over him.
'Any chance of a photo, Jerry?' he said. Collins obliged, lying on the ground next to him for the photo to be taken. Once the game was over, Collins went back to the clubhouse and got to know his fellow reserve-graders. They bonded further. And Collins made a decision.
'I have asked the Barnstaple guys,' Collins told the Times, 'if it would be OK for me to wear their socks when I play for the Barbarians against South Africa at Twickenham. I have played for the club and it's something I would like to do.'