Exclusive: Brock Motum on Boomers axing, Japan and NBL return

• Brock Motum grew up in Brisbane, QLD where he attended Brisbane State High School
• He played eight seasons in Europe including stints in Lithuania, France, Italy, Spain and Turkey
• Currently leads the Japan B1 League in scoring at 21.8 points per game

The 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medal playoff between the Boomers and Spain could be remembered for two things.

Firstly, a phantom foul call which broke the heart of every Australian basketball fan around the world, knowing we would have to wait again for our first men's medal at a major international tournament. But secondly, where Brock Motum made a name for himself on the world's biggest stage.

With his uncanny ability to get a bucket, Motum had 16 points against his star-studded opponents and if it wasn’t for the call which gave Spain the game-winning free throws, he would have had the play of the game as well – a poster dunk on NBA superstar Pau Gasol.

While he didn’t walk away from Rio with the medal he and his teammates had so badly coveted, Motum’s Boomers career looked at its brightest. But what he didn't realise was that would be his last game in green and gold colours.

Speaking exclusively to Basketball.com.au from Japan, where he plays for the Shiga Lakes, the former Adelaide 36er and EuroLeague star opened up about his shock axing from the Boomers team before the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China, when he thought he would have a shot at redemption just like he and most of his teammates from Brazil had thought about for so long.

“I just finished my second year at (Anadolu) Efes. We went to the EuroLeague final and it was huge, huge year for me,” Motum said.

“Then I came back and took a couple weeks off, I went to Fiji for my honeymoon, came back, started to work out and worked out with the (Brisbane) Bullets for a little bit and even talked with Dre (Boomers and Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis) and he was like ‘oh, is your wife coming to China’.

“I never would say I'm already picked… but I thought I'd been part of the program at the World Cup and Olympics, so it just felt like I was in the mix, I felt I had a pretty good chance going into camp.

“Then after the camp, I don't know what had happened but I got called into the room and here’s (Luke) Longley and Lemanis… I sat down and I didn't know what to expect but I had confidence in that I'll probably get picked. Then when they said I didn't get picked, I thought, I've had some setbacks in my career, even as a junior, I just thought this was (another one).

“For me, it wasn't the right call but I just figured I had to go back and work harder and try and improve to make sure the next time I was in that situation, I wouldn't feel this way again. So, I was upset.”

Motum, who had already played at some of the biggest clubs in Europe, has just signed with Spanish club Valencia, where he had flown back to just days after being delivered the news he had missed out before something that happened that made his omission from the team even tougher to deal with.

Jonah Bolden, who was with the Philadelphia 76ers at the time, controversially withdrew from the Boomers, opening the door for Motum to return to the team but David Barlow was chosen instead for the World Cup, where he was used sparingly at the tournament.

“I went over (to Valencia) and I think a day or two after I landed, Lemanis sent me a text saying ‘hey Brock are you around, can I call you? That was in the middle of the night because I was in Valencia, I think I had a message and a missed call,” Motum said.

“Then before I even had the chance to wake up, I had another message from him saying ‘never mind, mate we're going to go in a different direction’. So that was a bit of a wave of emotions again and then they I saw, they ended up going with Barlow.

“I guess because he was there, he was in Melbourne and (it was) easy to put him on the squad and take him to the World Cup.”

Putting past disappointment to the side, Motum was motivated to earn his way back into the Boomers for the Tokyo Olympics after another impressive season with Turkish club, Galatasaray. The need to space the floor with shooting played right into his hands, having shot 46% from three that season, but he remembers his position all but slipping away after witnessing Duop Reath dominate a scrimmage first-hand in the absence of Aron Baynes.

“We played a Boomers verse some American guys scrimmage and Baynes got injured early on or in the warmups and Duop Reath came out and killed it, like absolutely killed it. So, I think that also cemented his spot,” he said.

Despite the pain, Motum said he still supported the team and there were no hard feelings or grudges from those moments, but did admit missing out on the 2019 FIBA World Cup was the hardest decision to take.

“Whoever (made the calls) wasn't a big fan of me at those times, so that's how it went. Obviously, it was disappointing, but it was just one of those things that sort of gives your career a spark and I guess that has kept me motivated to keep playing still at a high level," he said.

"Having represented the Boomers at the World Cup and Olympic Games that's the biggest thing you can do in your career. It's a pinnacle of basketball, it's what you grow up wanting to do is playing for your country and I did that. I ticked it off my list, made myself, made all my family very proud, and I look back on that time with really good memories."

Motum also revealed he was approached to play for the Boomers during the recent FIBA window but thought it was best left to the next generation. He also said he would still be open to playing at a World Cup or Olympics in the future.

The former Washington State University star, who played alongside one of the greatest shooters in the history of the NBA in Klay Thompson, was part of the initial wave of Australians and imports from the NBL making the switch to the Japanese B-League.

Motum is dominating in his third season in Japan, leading the league in scoring at 21.8 points per game and also grabbing 8.3 rebounds despite his team sitting at the bottom of the ladder.

While the 34-year-old said he had great memories of his time in the NBL, the reality is we haven’t seen him play on Australian shores since the 2014/15 season with the Adelaide 36ers. Although his name is thrown up almost every offseason as a candidate to return to the NBL, Motum hasn’t seriously considered a return until lately.

“I think I've been open to it for the last couple of years, I’m just waiting for the right situation. Obviously, my preference would be to go home (to the Bullets),” he said.

“I think I still I still have a few high-quality years left in me. There were a few years in Europe where… I didn't play a lot… so that's two more years I have, you know of my body that was saved.

“I can add on to the back end of my career still being at a high level and not being as banged up. So yeah, I would love to play in the NBL at some stage, it's just got to make sense in terms of situation and all the other things that go with that. But yeah, I'd never say never and I'm open to talking to teams if the right situations come up.

“But I'm not going to take a huge discount just for the fact that I want to play in the NBL. I have to take care of my family and myself and put myself in the best situation for the next year and if the right situation comes up, I'll consider it for sure.”

In the meantime, Motum is enjoying his time in Asia following eight seasons in Europe in France, Turkey, Spain Italy and Lithuania, where he met his wife Martyna, who he now has a son and a daughter with.

While he looks back on his time in the EuroLeague fondly, Motum said he probably would have made the move to Japan earlier if he knew what it was like.

“In my opinion (EuroLeague) is the toughest league in the world to play in in terms of scoring, rebounding, defence tactics, all those things. So, my role when I was in EuroLeague was pretty specific, you know, be stretch four and play that,” he said.

“I was lucky, I was on really big teams but unfortunately, unless you're a top, top guy like a Mike James, Nikola Mirotic type guy, your role is pretty limited in what you can do.

“From the outside looking in, it's like, oh Brock's struggling, oh, he's not doing very well, he's not playing but I was on a huge team. I had my role, I understood my role but since I was a junior and since college, when I was at Washington State, I led the led the PAC 12, in scoring back-to-back years.

“So, I've always been like scoring inclined, I guess and now the Japanese style and the Asian style of play, I think suits my game a lot more than the European (style) did, so I guess in hindsight I probably would have come to Japan a couple of years earlier.”

Still keeping a close eye on the NBL, Motum said Illawarra Hawks coach Justin Tatum reminded him of Joey Wright and tipped them to win the title over Melbourne United.