James Batemon and his young family are already enjoying their new life in Brisbane as the Bullets point guard looks to wreak havoc on the NBL floor and to take the next step in his professional career.
The 27-year-old has already been quite the journeyman in his pro career playing in Latvia, France, Greece, Germany and Israel, but he did get a taste of the NBL on a pre-season tour down under while at Loyola Marymount University.
Because of that, he somewhat knew what to expect upon a first season in the NBL at the Bullets in terms of what the league would be like. He also knew that playing down under was something he wanted to experience after his time in Europe since graduating in 2019.
Batemon has shown exciting signs already too in pre-season wins for the Bullets against the Shanghai Sharks, Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix as he finds his groove at his new team, in a new city and with his young family settling in to life in Brisbane.
What Bullets fans can expect
Batemon will fill the role as point guard on this Bullets team of NBL25 and prides himself on the array of talents he brings as a player who can run an offence and create for his teammates, get to the rack himself, and shoot from the outside.
Perhaps the best news for Bullets fans is that Batemon takes his defence just as seriously as anything he does with the ball in his hands, and is looking forward to the challenge of defending the best guards across the NBL this season.
"They can expect someone to come to work and show up every day, and go hard on both ends and try to lead this team to something they haven’t experienced probably in a while," Batemon said.
"I'm just motivated to come work hard every day and they can expect a guy to give them everything.
"Then skill wise, they can expect a guy who can shoot the three, who can attack and who can get his teammates involved, and look to wreak havoc when defending the opposing point guards on the other end."
First road trip with Bullets
While Batemon somewhat knew what to expect in terms of the physicality of the NBL based on his pre-season tour with Loyola Marymount while in college, he now feels he has a clearer picture of what to expect after the two games in Melbourne.
Batemon has come to the Bullets and to play in the NBL to test himself and to take his game to the next level, and he got a good view as to what that's going to take in those games against United and the Phoenix.
"The road trip was too long, five days was kind of long but it was good. The games were real physical, I kind of knew it was physical from when I played here six years ago with my college," Batemon said.
"So it's a real physical league with skilled and quick point guards and it's going to be a real challenging year. But it's something that I'm ready for and I want to take my career to the next level. I was pretty excited by the first week of NBL basketball."
Learning to play together
Given this Bullets group has only played three games together, there will always be things to work on and Batemon simply just thinks it comes down to getting more accustomed to playing with one another.
They get another chance to do that on Wednesday in Mount Gambier against the Adelaide 36ers ahead of the NBL Blitz on the Gold Coast where the Bullets have matches against the Tasmania JackJumpers on Saturday, Melbourne United on Tuesday and the Cairns Taipans the final Saturday.
"One thing we can probably focus more on is our communication especially in down moments and I can try to find my spots where I can fill in a leadership role," Batemon said.
"I mean, we have good leaders, but some of them have been off the court due to injuries so it's just about filling the void with communication.
"Other than that I feel like we're just learning as a new team and learning what guys can do, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and everybody just learning to play with me as well. It's just about learning about each other as a new team."
Impressed early with Deng, Ty
While Batemon was familiar in one way or another with a lot of his Bullets teammates upon arrival, two players he didn’t know too much about were Tyrell Harrison and Deng Adel.
However, based on what he has seen from them now in the pre-season games so far, he's been blown away by what they are capable of and can't wait to build on that point guard-big men relationship.
"Since I've been here I've noticed a couple of different things. I wasn’t familiar with Deng Adel so I didn’t know too much about him other than he went to Louisville, and then I didn’t know nothing about Tyrell either," Batemon said.
"Those two really surprised me and the other guys I knew about a little bit but those two, they surprised me in the first week or two that I've been here and how they've performed in the pre-season."
Camp to get to know new teammates
Prior to those first three pre-season games at home to Shanghai and then away to Melbourne and South East Melbourne, Batemon and his Bullets teammates and coaching staff got away for a bonding camp together.
It's something that Batemon enjoyed especially for the chance to accelerate the process of getting to know his new teammates on a personal level and not just on the basketball court.
"I really enjoyed it and I've had things similar before, but nothing exactly like that. You're staying with the guys for three or four days and you get to know them personally not only just on the court," he said.
"So that was always cool and we had a night where all the guys hung out playing cards and stuff like that where you get to mingle and talk.
"That's when you get to understand that guys who come from different parts of the world have different struggles, different upbringings and it was really unique to have that moment especially our culture sessions where guys had to open up with each other.
"That was pretty unique and I really enjoyed it, but whenever it's time away from my family I'm sad because we have our three-year-old. But it was well worth it and I'd do it again."
Settling in to Brisbane with family
The move to Brisbane isn’t something Batemon is doing alone with his fiancé Nickayla and their three-year-old son Jay making the move with him.
While the time he has to spend on the road isn’t quite ideal, the positives of living in Brisbane are already standing out even more.
"They are loving it here. It's an easy transition to make because everyone speaks English so going to the grocery stores and stuff like that is easier to adapt to," Batemon said.
"They're just ready for the season and they hate that I travel so much and that we're always on the road getting on airplanes.
"Last year in Israel everything is close and you don’t really have road trips so they are still getting used to me having to go away a lot. But other than that, the weather is nice, there's so much to do here in Brisbane and I've been loving it and they are really enjoying it too."