Galloway keen for NBA opportunity

Adelaide’s Kyrin Galloway is a player who represents the next generation of NBL superstar. He’s young, athletic, skilled and exciting. In short, he’s a bit of an entertainment machine.

After spending two seasons at the New Zealand Breakers, Galloway has moved to the 36ers. He’s one of a number of exciting recruits for the organisation over the off-season, and he’s one of a host of players who will get a taste of the top level in the upcoming NBLxNBA series.

With upcoming games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Phoenix Suns, Galloway could find himself matching up directly on stars like Cam Johnson or Mikal Bridges, or even the star former 36er himself, Josh Giddey.

“This is a huge opportunity to showcase what we can do,” Galloway told NBL Media. “I think it’s everybody’s dream to play at that level someday and to be able to get an early chance to put ourselves on that stage – I’ve been looking forward to it the whole summer.

“I don’t really know Josh too well, but if he was willing to sit down with me I’d be really interested in talking about his journey and how he made the NBA.

“Obviously we’ve got a few big names in, the organisation spent a little bit of money over the off-season. We’re all looking forward to the year.”

The roster the 36ers have assembled is, on paper, quite a remarkable one. Veterans Mitch McCarron and Daniel Johnson are set to be supported by established NBL imports Robert Franks and Antonius Cleveland, and former Bullets sharpshooter Anthony Drmic. A young core including Galloway and Filipino star Kai Sotto are also preparing to take their games to the next level.

Galloway says the vision 36ers head coach CJ Bruton had for him was the sealer in his move to the city of churches.

“I had a team option coming up with the Breakers last off-season, but I think it was just more of we both decided it would be better to go in a different direction. I think they wanted to go with a more New Zealand, locally-based team this year – they’ve always been very vocal about that,” he said.

“The role I was offered here in Adelaide was a lot more versatile than a lot of other teams were talking to me about, so I felt like this would be the best fit for me moving forward in my career.

“It’s huge to have guys like Mitch (McCarron) and ‘DJ’ (Daniel Johnson) around. I’m just trying to open my brain and absorb as much knowledge as possible.

“They’ve been in the league for so long that there are things they’ll casually say that I’ll have never even thought about. I just want to keep my mind open and absorb as much as I possibly can from those guys.”

Galloway will come into the new season high on confidence after a stellar season for the Mackay Meteors in the strong NBL1 North conference.

Pairing up with his brother younger brother Jaylin, Galloway averaged almost 17 points and 10 rebounds a game on just under 50 per cent shooting.

His most dominant performance of the season came against the Rockhampton Rockets where he registered 26 points and 21 rebounds in 32 minutes of play.

With Jaylin currently on the books of the Sydney Kings, Galloway said the chance to play together for the Meteors was an irresistible one.

“This was actually our first time playing together because of the age difference – that was one of the main reasons that I ended up playing this off-season,” Galloway said of playing with his brother.

“We’re obviously two whole very different positions anyway so there’s not too much overlap in what we do but I think it’ll be good for us to be able to grow on our own [at NBL-level].

“I’m happy where I am, he’s happy where he is and we’re happy for each other.”