Phoenix-bound Bear Goodrick's wild 12 months

Featured image: Aaron Camua | @aaron.camua

As Hunter Goodrick packs up his life to join the South East Melbourne Phoenix, he can reflect on a wild last 12 months where he didn’t know if NBL was in reach but he's now a Sydney Kings champion and hopes to add NBL1 East title at the Norths Bears before NBL27.

Coming off his college career that finished at California Baptist University after starting at the University of South Dakota, Goodrick started his professional career in Slovakia, then had a strong NBL1 East season with the Bears, and figured he'd be heading back to Europe.

That was around this time last year as he was wrapping up his first season with Norths and while he hoped the NBL would be in the future, he had no idea it was so close.

Suddenly his hometown Sydney Kings saw their front court decimated by long-term injuries to Keli Leaupepe and Jason Spurgin, and Brian Goorjian and his crew looked no further than their own backyard to shore up the front court.

They brought Goodrick in, he grabbed every chance presented to him through sheer hard work and desire, and now the rest is history.

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The now 26-year-old went on to become an important member of the Kings squad that won the NBL championship including playing double-figure minutes in 11 games including in the Championship Series.

His rebounding, his hustle, his defence and sheer competitiveness saw him instantly look right at home in the NBL and now, that was noticed by Simon Mitchell, Josh King and the South East Melbourne Phoenix and that's where his future lies.

He has an NBL1 East season at the Bears to finish first, but upon reflection, he had no idea what was to come a little over 12 months ago and wouldn’t change a thing since.

"It has been a crazy time and it was almost this time last year where I didn’t know what was going to happen, do I go back to Europe because I had some opportunity over there, but that's a big commitment," Goodrick said.

"It all happened very quickly and then it's kinda crazy how quickly the year's gone since."

Finals match up with the Sharks

While Goodrick is still processing that he's an NBL champion and is getting ready to move to Melbourne to join the Phoenix to get ready for NBL27, he isn't lacking motivation for a big finish to the NBL1 East season with Norths.

He was part of the Bears team that lost in the semi finals last year to the Centre of Excellence and now they open the finals with a tantalising match up with the Sutherland Sharks this Saturday night at The Cave.

That's a Sharks team on a nine-game winning streak including winning a one-point thriller over the Bears last week, but Norths did finish second at 16-4 to earn home court advantage and Goodrick is hoping that can make the difference.

"It's pretty crazy to be playing them again and they've hit form at the right time and have got some nice momentum coming into the finals," Goodrick said.

"So it will be a great challenge especially playing them at home so that will be a nice advantage for us, but it's going to be a very tough match up. With the players they have and the system they have it's not going to be an easy challenge, but it should be fun."

Battling a championship teammate

It's not lost on Goodrick that a big reason why he got his NBL chance at the Kings was the foot injury that Spurgin suffered that left a spot open for him, but once they were teammates there at Sydney, they created quite a strong bond.

So Goodrick has nothing but good thoughts about the Kings and Sharks centre but for the 40 minutes of action on Saturday night, that will go out the window as the two teams lock into a fierce battle to try and will their teams to a win to open the finals series.

"I do love Spurg not only as a player but also as a person and he just has a great energy about him, and he's a great player," Goodrick said.

"And yeah, we are going to compete, but I'm also super happy to see him back on the court competing and just playing again.

"I saw him as well as Keli doing their rehab all season pretty much and anyone who's had an injury or gone through a stage like that, it's not easy.

"But you can kind of see a person's character when they are put in situations like that and every single day he was so upbeat, such a good teammate and so supportive that you just appreciate a guy like that. When most people struggle, he was still thriving."

Teammate soon to be Throwdown rival

Then there's a teammate at Norths this season that Goodrick couldn’t be enjoying sharing a front court with more and that's championship winning 234-game NBL veteran Fabijan Krslovic.

He has returned home to his original club this season at the Bears and Goodrick couldn’t be more glad even though he knows once they are both in NBL mode in Melbourne, they'll have to become fierce rivals when they do battle in Throwdowns.

"I haven’t thought about that too much because I'm just enjoying having him as my teammate right now but I might worry about that in the future," Goodrick said.

"It has been really fun playing with him and you can tell how much an impact him coming in has had on Norths and the organisation. Just someone with such a veteran mindset, it's just very much helped the team become what it is with the addition of him."

Tight battle in the East

As the finals are about to start, it's quite the tight battle in the NBL1 East and Goodrick sees no reason why any teams who have made the top eight can't be having championship aspirations.

Obviously he hopes it's the Bears who end up triumphant, but whether it's the Illawarra Hawks on top or Central Coast Crusaders in eighth, or even the Centre of Excellence who haven’t played in five weeks, he won't be writing any team off.

"I know CoE have lost Robbie McKinlay who's an unbelievable coach and that's a big loss for them and guys like (Alex) Dickinson were really important players for them so they've had some big losses, but they always just find a way so I wouldn’t take them lightly," Goodrick said.

"Then even below them every team's a threat and you've got the Gunners and Maitland who have been killing it since about halfway through and then you've got Central Coast, and it's nuts how much the East is getting better and better every year."

Grabbing the chance with Kings

Going back a year ago and Goodrick dreamed of an NBL opportunity at some point, but he had no idea just how close he was to it.

All of a sudden, the Kings were in need of some bodies for their front court, they signed him up and he grabbed every opportunity starting with his debut in the season-opener where he had four points and two rebounds in eight minutes against the Cairns Taipans.

He went on to hit the floor in 32 games including a high of 18 minutes against the Tasmania JackJumpers, a best of eight points against the Illawarra Hawks along with 10 rebounds against Melbourne United.

He played some crucial roles for Sydney right throughout the season and he felt more and more at home knowing he had the faith of coach Goorjian, all his staff and then all of his teammates including Kendric Davis, Xavier Cooks, Torrey Craig and Matthew Dellavedova.

"It is pretty crazy to look at and just coming into it, I didn’t really know what to expect to I guess but I also knew what they wanted from me because they did a really good job of communicating the role they wanted me in," Goodrick said.

"That's kind of the role that wasn’t too foreign to me and I played a similar role in college so it wasn’t too hard transitioning and just by showing up every day and being around a group of guys that were amazing, they made it really easy to transition in.

"And then as my confidence got up I kinda felt like I could actually contribute here a little bit and when my opportunity came up, I guess I made the most of it. Then once I had that trust there, it was just what it is and I felt comfortable there."

Crazy Championship Series to be part of

Not only did Goodrick get to live out his dream of playing in the NBL for his hometown team, but he then became a championship winner after being part of one of the all-time great Championship Series where the Kings beat the Adelaide 36ers in overtime in Game 5.

To go through all of that and ultimately celebrate a championship in front of a home crowd of 18,589 took some time to sink in for him.

"To be honest that was a crazy time just because that series was so insane and you had Game 1 and that was a big win, but you kinda felt like with how good that team is that it wasn’t going to be smooth sailing," Goodrick said.

"And it definitely wasn’t. There was stages even in Game 5 where it wasn't smooth sailing at all but that (Tim) Soares that offensive rebound and putting it back in, without that it might be a very different conversation and result.

"It was kind of a surprise as soon as we won because it had been so stressful. Then after that, I think the feeling was more satisfaction just because we had such a close group and it was nice to end it the right way with that group."

Game perfectly suited for the Phoenix

While Goodrick couldn’t have asked for more than the opportunity provided to him by the Kings last season, there was another top four team that he couldn’t help but look at and think all his attributes would be ideally suited to.

That was the South East Melbourne Phoenix and in so many ways, Goodrick is the epitome of a Josh King player with the way he crashes the boards and fights for offensive rebounds, the hustle he provides, the screens he sets and the way he will always be willing to get down and dirty.

So once Goodrick heard from Phoenix GM Simon Mitchell and coach King, he didn’t need much convincing to jump on board and pack up his life in Sydney, and get ready to move to Melbourne which he will be doing now officially on Monday.

"Even just playing against them last year and watching their system, I did think it would have been a great for me and then Josh, Simon and their team reached out and I thought it could actually be a really good fit for both of us," Goodrick said.

"I was honestly stoked that it kinda turned out that way. I'm also looking forward to moving to Melbourne, I've been there quite a bit and I like it down there so it should be a bit of fun. Sometimes change is good and I'm looking forward to it."