Welcome to the Phoenix: Grant Anticevich

South East Melbourne Phoenix have signed local forward Grant Anticevich to a one-year deal.

Anticevich has spent the last five years playing college basketball in the US for the UC Berkely Golden Bears and holds the school record for games played at 139. He grew up in Sydney and was the captain of his high school, Newington College team.

"I got on a Zoom with coach and Tommy, and they just sat me down and talked to me about the club and saw a place for me to fit in and help the team win and impact the team's success. This is a great opportunity and something I was excited about. To have the opportunity to play with such a good ball club, and it is exciting to come back home and play," Anticevich said.

"There is a Melbourne and Sydney rivalry, but I'm excited to be back home and closer to the family and play in my home country."

(Anticevich spent the last five years playing for UC Berkley's Golden Bears basketball team.)

While the 24-year-old was playing basketball for the Golden Bears, he averaged 9.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, and one assist across the 21/22 season.

"It was an excellent experience. Pac12 is a high level of basketball, playing against outstanding players every night. Cal is a great school, and good people surrounded me. I feel like I improved and grew as a player, which has put me in a good position to start my professional career," he commented.

"It was a little adjustment to move to another country. Obviously the Pac12 is a high level of basketball, so you have a slight adjustment. You are playing against grown men, high-level athletes and players, so there was a bit of a growing period.

"At the same time it challenges you, helps you to get better for the long run, and it helped me to play against those high-level players from early on in my college career. It was not too bad of a transition; I feel like it put me in a good position now. I'm very grateful for that," the forward said.

Anticevich believes his greatest strength will be his versatility at both ends of the court but is happy to help his new team wherever they need him.

"I think one of my greatest strengths as a player is my versatility, I think I can shoot on the offensive end, and I can help bring the versatility on both ends of the floor. I want to help contribute to winning; that's my thing, whatever is asked of me. However, I can help the team be successful. That's what I am here to do," he said.

(Anticevich believes his versatility will help Phoenix towards their first NBL championship.)

Head coach Simon Michell was impressed by Anticevich's skill and believes the pro game will better suit him than college, while learning from senior players in Mitch Creek and Ryan Broekhoff.

"He is an exciting young Australian forward who has had a very good career in the storied Pac12. I think his skill sets may be better suited to the pro game, with a more wide-open floor. His catch and shoot, pick and pop game should flourish in the NBL," Mitchell said.

"The opportunity for young Australian talents like Grant and Junior Madut to learn under guys like Creek and Broekhoff is a great opportunity for them and great for our squad."

Anticevich also commented on learning from the players and having the opportunity to pick their brains as he improves his skills every day.

"I am really excited to get down there and start playing with the team. There are so many high-level players, like Ryan Broekhoff, who is a great shooter, I think that is someone I can learn a lot from. I want to keep growing as a player, as it's my first year as a professional, and I want to have as good of a year as I can.

"I think I will have the opportunity to improve a lot, playing in a high-level league and surrounded by incredible players every day and coaches. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to pick their brains and get experience and grow and improve as much as I can as a player," he said.

While growing up, Anticevich played every sport under the sun, but even his parents knew that eventually he would choose basketball, and from the age of 14 Anticevich was all in on Basketball.

"To be honest with you, as soon as I started playing (basketball), I just kind of fell in love with it. My parents are both tall and wanted to put me in a team sport, so they figured I had a chance of being tall, so they put me in basketball; that's what they tell me. That's kind of how I started playing and ever since I started playing, I just really fell in love with the game and as I continue to get older, it became a central part of my life," Anticevich commented.

"It's something I love more than anything in the world, and I am grateful that I found that thing in life that I love and enjoy doing, and I'm thankful for that every day."

(Anticevich is excited to pick the brains of his teammates and coaches at the Phoenix to help him improve his basketball skills in his first professional year.)

Since graduating from UC Berkely, NBL23 will be his first year of professional basketball, and Anticevich's primary goal is to help Phoenix achieve the club's first NBL championship.

"As a team, we want to win the NBL championship. That's the most important goal; I think we got a good chance coming up to do that and put ourselves in a position to do that so that's number one," he said

"For me as a player, I just want to try and improve as much as I can, get better; and as I said, it's my first year as a pro and I want to soak up all the knowledge I can, get all the experience I can and just keeping growing and improve as a player every day in practice and games and altogether.

Anticevich is currently spending time with family in Sydney after a long travel from the US before he makes the trip down to the South East and join his new team early next week.

He hopes Phoenix fans can get behind the team for NBL23 and ride the season's journey.

"I hope you guys get behind us, I have spoken to a few of the guys down at the team already and we are all super excited. I know we will give it our all this pre-season, prepare, and have the greatest season. I hope you guys love the brand of basketball we put out.

"I look forward to having you guys support us this year and as we strive for our goal to win an NBL championship. We want to be the best team in the league, so we are going to fight to do that," he said.

Anticevich joins Kyle Adnam, Ryan Broekhoff, Gary Browne, Mitch Creek, Owen Foxwell, Trey Kell, Junior Madut, Dane Pineau, Reuben Te Rangi, and Alan Williams.

Phoenix has one more full-time roster spot to fill, so keep an eye out for when the news comes to hand across Phoenix socials.

NBL23 Memberships are on sale now!

Phoenix Media (10/8/22)