Sydney's Abi Curtin fire-proofs her basketball career

• Decorated women’s basketballer Abi Curtin has years of experience playing in the WNBL, NCAA, NBL1, and internationally
• She attended the University of Denver between 2016 and 2019
• Curtin won the Malaysian Women’s Basketball League 2024/25 title playing for Selangor EST Jersey
• She became a firefighter while playing for the Sydney Comets in NBL1 2025

In her senior year of high school, Abi Curtin decided she wanted to play basketball professionally.

Three countries and a new career in firefighting later, the 27-year-old has positioned herself as one of the best players in the NBL1 East Women’s Conference in 2025.

“I wasn’t super talented until under-16s, and then I had a knee injury,” Curtin told basketball.com.au.

“For about a year and a half, I couldn't run. So, I was like: ‘Alright. I'm done playing basketball’.

“Then I came back and one of my teachers said: ‘Come down and play in my team. We need some more people at training. I can't promise anything.’

“I showed up, and it was what the NBL1 team is now.

“The coach was Shannon Seebohm, and Jamie Kennedy was on the team, and it was just this phenomenal team of players. And I was like: ‘Oh my gosh, I love basketball again’.”

Seebohm is now one of the most successful and respected coaches in Australian basketball. He leads the Townsville Fire in the WNBL and the New Zealand Tall Ferns.

A reflective Curtin said she probably always wanted to play basketball professionally but it just didn’t seem feasible for her as a child.

“I wasn’t athletic,” she explained, “and then I hit 16 and I was like a string bean.”

Now 27 and 6’1”, Curtin is playing for the Sydney Comets and is averaging a rock-solid 22-11 points and rebounds double-double in NBL1 as one of the clubs two imports alongside point guard Miki Pirini.

This is Curtin's first season at Comets. She was a development player for the WNBL's Sydney Flames in 2022-23, played for Kilsyth in the 2021 and 2022 NBL1 South Conference, Newcastle Falcons in the NBL1 East in 2023, and Darwin’s Salties in 2024.

Sydney Comets assistant coach Peter Brown, who is also a consulting editor for basketball.com.au said: "Abi is an outstanding leader, she makes everyone around her better and she makes us better and that's all you can ask.

"From the moment I first saw Abi when she walked into the gym during a morning individual with one of our other players, I thought 'gee, I hope she's on our team'.

"Abi is a player's player but an even better human."

Curtin has also played internationally in America and Malaysia.

After being offered a firefighting position in Sydney and knowing a season in Europe would overlap the start of pre-season at the Comets in February 2025, Curtin jumped at an opportunity last year to play for Selangor EST Jersey in the Malaysian Major Pro League alongside fellow Australian import Nes’eya Parker-Williams.

“It was awesome. It was really, really awesome. It was a great season. It's good people. It's a great place to be,” she said.

Despite already having several years of international experience, Curtin said playing in Malaysia required an entirely new approach, given she had to navigate an unfamiliar language and cultural etiquette.

“One of the rules was ‘don't hand the basketball to the coach’ because it's like you're asking them to hold something,” she revealed.

“That's something I never would have thought of.

“Someone said that to me, and she was like: ‘Pass me the ball’, and I was like: ‘Oh, am I am I allowed?’.

Despite being an import, Curtin said she never expected to be “babied” and spent the initial few weeks working hard to prove herself.

“There’s a lot of respect,” she said.

“Once you build respect with the coach and the team and the players, you're one of them.

“You play fast. It’s fun. It’s physical. It’s super physical.

“It was good, in a way, to set me up for this season because when communication falls through because you don’t speak the same language, you have to just fix it.”

Selangor EST Jersey won the MWBL 2024-25 title, a result Curtin said showcased the incredible talent continuing to develop in Malaysia.

Playing for the University of Denver

Most aspiring Australian basketballers go to college in the United States to test themselves against the best aged players in America and as a pathway to professional basketball. For female basketballers: The WNBA.

Times have changed since Curtin attended the University of Denver in Colorado between 2016 and 2019 on a full scholarship and said, “while you have no life, you get to be an athlete the whole time.

“They feed you. You get gear. It’s great.

“I pretty much showed up and was poor. Had nothing. And everything was looked after.”

College basketball now has the NIL (Naming, Image and Likeness) which allows players to make money, for some a lot, while in college before they become professionals.

The new income stream is well deserved but for many WNBA players they need a second contract, such as the WNBL or Europe, outside of the WNBA season.

In 2024, for example, the minimum wage for WNBA players was USD $66k, whereas WNBL players could expect a minimum of AUD $23k, reflecting a 15% uplift from AUD $20k after a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was announced last year.

Curtin started playing basketball as a youngster in Sydney almost accidentally, after being asked to fill in while watching one of her friends play when she was six. Little more than a decade later she said she approached college in America knowing she had her work cut out for her.

One of her highlights, she said, was beating New Mexico in the opening round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) in her Junior year.

“They [WNIT] ranked us number 16, which we thought was rubbish, and we played number one, which was New Mexico State at home.

“It was a massive game, and I’ve never seen a women’s basketball stadium that big completely sold out. And by locals too.

“They were chanting. They were loud. And we have this one girl, Lauren, who’s amazing. She’s shooting threes, making all these threes, and the crowd was getting on this young girl, and she turned to the crowd and was like: ‘Shut up!’, and started screaming at them.

“And then the crowd turned on her and started going for us, and it was at least 10,000, maybe 15,000 people.

“We ended up winning, which was great, but it was just hilarious to watch all these people be like: ‘Nah, we’re going for the underdogs.’”

Curtin played 13 games as a college Junior and recorded her first career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds during that season.

Becoming a firefighter

She now balances basketball with her new career as a firefighter — working two 24-hour shifts a week and playing NBL1 on the weekends.

The decision to become a firefighter came after realising she needed to future-proof her basketball career by having a more reliable, secondary (primary) income.

“If you wanted to get to a place where you were paid really well as a basketball player, you needed some way to pay your way there or to exist up until that point,” she said.

“Firefighting is something I can do where I can go to work, do something physical, something that’s super interesting as well, and is really good for the community, good for society, and I can spend time doing basketball as well.”

Managing both isn’t without its challenges. Curtin said while it is easier now she’s qualified, her initial firefighting training involved four, 10-hour shifts at a college an hour’s drive away in Penrith, NSW, meaning she regularly worked 12-hour days before training and playing basketball, “already exhausted and smelling like fire”.

“It’s fun, it just depletes you a little bit,” she said.

But Curtin is no stranger to hard work and said she had no intention of reducing her workload anytime soon.

“I love playing. I love getting better. I want to keep playing as much as I can for as long as I can,” she declared.

Women’s basketball is becoming increasingly more visible, resulting in better viewership and more opportunities for female players.

Where basketball was a side-hustle for many high-level players, who instead relied on coaching or a second job as their main source of income, full-time basketball careers are becoming more financially viable for younger athletes.

However, women’s basketball is still several years off seeing every professional player earning a liveable income, a reality Curtin has, in many ways, embraced.

“I want to be good at my job. I want to say yes to everything,” she said.

“Firefighting is a great career and it’s lifelong, so, I just want to keep getting better.”