Bearcats winning culture shining for Parsons

Featured image: Tia De Santis | @tia.desa

De'Sean Parsons always wanted to keep playing NBL1 and wanted part of a winning culture which made the West Adelaide Bearcats so enticing and he remains confident of them picking the nose up of their NBL1 Central title defence.

Parsons has become quite the globe trotter in his professional career to date but the imposing big man has never found somewhere he has enjoyed playing, or living, more than Australia and that's why he is back in the NBL1 for a third straight year.

After two seasons in the NBL1 West at the Goldfields Giants which included making the All First Team in each of the past two seasons where he showed himself capable of being an MVP level player, it's a fresh start in the Central at the Bearcats in 2026.

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A big part about joining West Adelaide for Parsons was to be part of a winning culture and to be a member of a team trying to make it back-to-back championships albeit with a totally new playing group.

There's no Lat Mayen, Cameron Huefner or Keanu Rasmussen who starred in that triumph last year, but Nik DeSantis has returned, Tom Kubank is on board and so is Braelen Bridges along with Parsons.

He has now played the last two games with the Bearcats following his European season that concluded in North Macedonia, and he's already noticed the winning West Adelaide culture standing out even if they are trying still to get the season on track at 1-4.

"It is a brand new team that they've got this year and that comes with its challenges, and me coming in later with them already having played three or four games, doing that and there's always going to be an adjustment period," Parsons said.

"I've been playing a lot of minutes since getting here and am still just trying to figure our everyone's tendencies and what they like to do, and what they don't like to do so it can be tough.

"But at the end of the day they are the defending champions for a reason especially with coach Dean at the head of the table, and he was one of the main reasons I came to West Adelaide because of that winning culture.

"I wanted to be part of something like that and even with a couple of losses this season, you can feel the winning culture and you only have to look up at the banners they've won to understand that."

Settling in at Bearcats, in Adelaide

Parsons is happy to admit that when he thought of a return to the NBL1 in 2026 for a third season he was expecting it to be somewhere in the West and he was looking forward to settling in Perth after two years in Kalgoorlie.

Things never quite panned out with one of those WA teams, though, and now that he has arrived in Adelaide and settled at the Bearcats, he couldn't be happier on all fronts although he wouldn’t mind a win soon.

"So far, so good and it's always an adjustment anytime you get on a plane just rerouting your whole life any time you do it, but it's all been good so far," Parsons said.

"The basketball is good out here and so far the city of Adelaide has been treating me well, and West Adelaide Basketball Club is making sure I've got everything I need to adjust at the proper pace and all that kinda stuff so I can't complain."

What was the lure to Bearcats

While there is a natural link to the Bearcats for Parsons with someone he spent plenty of time playing against the past two years in Nik DeSantis who has returned to West Adelaide in 2026 on the back of NBL1 West championship at the Geraldton Buccaneers in 2025.

That included ending the season of the Giants during the finals but the link actually was a former Goldfields coach of Parsons back in Kalgoorlie, Matt Van Pelt, who recommended him to Dean Nyberg.

Once the player and coach started talking, it didn’t take Parsons long to know it was a coach he wanted to come and play for.

"The connection actually was coach Matt Van Pelt, MVP, who coached me back in Kalgoorlie," Parsons said.

"He knew coach Dean and once I had decided I wanted to play in Australia again around that January time when I was in Europe.

"Coach Matt knew about it and coach Dean was still looking for a player at the time, and it just worked out that he has been looking at me for the past two years when I stayed with Kalgoorlie.

"We got on the phone one of those days and we talked for maybe like an hour or an hour and-a-half about my goals, his goals and everything like that. Then it just worked out where 24 hours I ended up signing to West Adelaide."

Living life as an international basketballer

When Parsons finished his college career at Portland State back in 2017 he was like every basketball player in the world and dreamed of reaching the NBA.

But he soon realised he could achieve his dream as a professional basketballer other ways.

It's been quite the ride all over the world since with stints living and playing in Russia, Armenia, Finland, Slovakia, Israel, Vietnam, Hungary, Austria, Iceland, Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

Then there is Australia and now he is back for a third NBL1 season, and while there are sacrifices and it's not always easy living this lifestyle, he is also getting to live out a dream at the same time.

"Bittersweet is the best way I would describe and it has its challenges, I'm not going to lie especially being so far away from family and all that type of stuff," Parsons said.

"I don’t get to see my nieces and nephews grow up, and don't get to see my mum enough, but at the same time I'm that one per cent who is doing what they love for a living.

"I see that as a real blessing so I'm thankful for that, and people used to say back in the day the dream was to dribble a basketball and get paid for it.

"So that's what I'm doing and it's a blessing and I love what I do for a living, and I love the experiences I get to see the different cultures. The last eight years I've lived in 11 countries and how many people can say that, and basketball's the only thing that would give me that opportunity.

"Everybody's dream is to get to the NBA obviously, but I realised that my life will be overseas somewhere so I just threw all my eggs in one basket and it's worked out where I get to do what I love for this long, and I'm about to go into my ninth season doing that.

"So I am just grateful to be able to do it for this long especially after the injury I had a few years ago when I fractured my tibia so it's all just worked out the way it should for me."

Desire to stay in Australia

Speaking of Australia, it's the one country that Parsons wants to keep coming back to and the one that he could see himself settling in for the long haul to play out the rest of his career, and beyond.

The basketball is one thing and Parsons does enjoy playing in the NBL1, but beyond that it's the people's he has met in Kalgoorlie, Perth and Adelaide, and the lifestyle in this part of the world that puts it right at the top of the list of the long line of countries he has lived and played in.

"I think I will keep coming back and sooner or later I'll try and get residency here for the last part of my career and settle here," Parsons said.

"Right now I've still got the competitor side of me where I want to keep going back to Europe and play at that level, but I'd say overall it's the lifestyle that I like so much here.

"The basketball is really, really good too don't get me wrong, but it's the lifestyle that is what I like and it's so much different to Europe. It's full throttle there and it's all hands on deck when you're in Europe with the more practices, the more games and all that type of stuff.

"But other than that, I like the way it is to live here and the people that are here, I have made a lot of friends here especially back in Kalgoorlie where I made some lifelong friends. I just love Australia for sure and can see myself spending a lot more time here."

Double header weekend to come

Parsons is yet to experience two things after two games with the Bearcats – a West Adelaide home game and a victory in NBL1 Central.

That first one will naturally change on Friday night with the Bearcats playing host to the Norwood Flames before they back up on Anzac Day away to the Southern Tigers.

That presents a pair of chances for Parsons to enjoy that winning feeling with his new team for the first time.

He's confident they can do that and start to get the championship defence on track even with the almost entirely new playing group.

"It's going to be a challenge 100 per cent because we're still figuring out ourselves and our identity because basically the whole starting five is new besides Sean Stock," Parsons said.

"So we're trying to figure it out on the run and trying to get our chemistry down so we can gel, and this is going to be my first home game so I can't wait for that.

"I haven’t played at home yet so I'm hoping that we can pick up that win on Friday night and just get things back rolling because we do have a talented squad.

"It's all just about figuring it out on the fly and that's what we're trying to do. Time's not on our side right now so we have to figure it out a bit quicker, but we'll be fine I think."