When Patty Mills hits a 3-pointer, Spurs play-by-play announcer Bill Land shouts “G’Day Mate!” or “Good On Ya!” as a nod to Mills’ Australian heritage. In Western Australia, there are two professional basketball players who know that voice well.
Land’s sons, Taylor and Cooper, are living out their hoop dreams in Australia’s State Basketball League. They both play in Rockingham, 10,400 miles away from San Antonio, which might be the farthest basketball team from the Spurs. And in the land of kangaroos and koala bears, the Lands found a second home.
Taylor is in his fifth season and Cooper in his fourth Down Under, and both called the experience a “dream come true.”
“They really are on the other side of the world,” Bill Land said. “And that says something about them and about basketball. You can love a game so much that you’ll do whatever you can to keep playing.”
Bill Land will begin his 14th season as the Spurs’ lead play-by-play announcer in 2016-17. In that time, basketball has taken his sons further than he ever could have imagined.
Taylor, 30, a 6-foot-1 guard, played college ball at St. Edward’s University in Austin, while Cooper, 27, a 6-9 forward, played at Wright State University. Taylor was looking for a league to continue his basketball career, and a college roommate was playing in the SBL, a league one step below Australia’s top league, the National Basketball League.
Before Taylor went in 2012, Bill spoke to then Spurs-assistant coach Brett Brown about the opportunity. Brown, now Philadelphia’s head coach, spent more than 10 years coaching in Australia, and also coached the national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
“If he goes,” Brown told Bill Land, “he isn’t coming home for a while.”
Brown has been right so far. Taylor found opportunity and paradise in Australia. He was right by a beach, the people were friendly and the sport was rapidly rising in popularity.
After Cooper had been playing professional basketball in Norway and Germany, he joined his brother in Australia a year later.
In the southwest corner of Australia, Rockingham is a town of about 100,000 that’s about as far from the United States as a town can be. Any flight takes more than a day with multiple connections, but that commute is a small drawback from the life the Lands have carved there for six months of the year.
They’re in a laid-back beach town playing basketball for a living. Taylor said he’ll see a kangaroo at a street corner every now and then, but that might be one of the few differences from life in America.
“I feel like the biggest thing about Australia is that if you’re a good person, if you’ve gotten over yourself, they welcome you with open arms,” Cooper said.
This season, Cooper is second in the league in scoring, averaging 28.6 points per game. Taylor leads the league in assists with 6.5 per game, while averaging 13.7 points as well.
In the Australian offseason, both are assistant coaches at colleges stateside. Taylor is an assistant at his alma mater, St. Edward’s, while Cooper is an assistant at St. Francis in Illinois.
“We’re playing basketball for a living and chasing our dreams,” Taylor said. “I always wanted to be a professional athlete, but didn’t know it would be possible. This opportunity has been such a blessing.’
In a few years in Australia, the Lands have also seen basketball’s popularity continue to explode.
Mills is one of eight Australians in the NBA, including Ben Simmons, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft.
Australia is a medal contender at the Rio Olympics, where the team is 2-1 in pool play and gave Team USA a scare entering Friday’s game against China.
“It’s probably the second biggest sport here,” Cooper said. “People really do wake up at 6 a.m. all the time to see Patty play.”
Rockingham is 13 hours ahead of San Antonio, so Bill spends many mornings tracking Rockingham games online with his breakfast. The Australian basketball season runs from March to September, so Bill has taken a trip to Australia almost every summer to see his sons play.
“He does a great job calling us before games and giving us words of encouragement,” Cooper said. “We grew up watching him do something he loves with announcing, and I think that’s a big reason why we’re in Australia doing something we love. We’re putting our all into our jobs like he does, and he fully appreciates that.”
lchan@attcenter.com
Twitter:@lornechan