Sloan wants to enjoy basketball again after tough 2020

Donald Sloan always knew the level of competition he was going to face in the NBL was going to test him, but coming down under was always something he wanted to challenge himself by doing and he couldn’t be happier with the fit he's found with the Adelaide 36ers.

Sloan has produced quite the impressive career already where his reputation started to be built when he had a standout college career at Texas A & M University.

Since then it's quite the strong decade of basketball he has put together split between the NBA, G-League and playing in China so when the now 33-year-old was signed by 36ers for the current NBL season, there was plenty expected of him.

He might have had a bit of a slower start than even he hoped over the opening three games though.

But factor in that he's barely played in 12 months and that he had only had a limited preparation for the season while also going through two weeks of quarantine upon landing in Australia, and it would have been a challenge for anyone to come out and star straight away. 

It's also Sloan's first real taste of playing basketball outside of the United States or China, but what he delivered in his first game off the bench last Friday night in the win over New Zealand Breakers offered a glimpse of what he's truly capable of.

Sloan came up huge for the 36ers in the overtime win with 20 points on the back of shooting 4/7 from three-point territory and with 11 of his points coming after three quarter-time.

To step up when it mattered most was a terrific sign for the 36ers and Sloan as he and his new team now prepare for a rematch with the Breakers on Wednesday night and then hosting the Sydney Kings on Saturday night at Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

Given last season he went to China to play as a replacement import which didn’t eventuate and then had his season in Germany cut short before it really got started, Sloan is just grateful and excited to be back playing basketball now in 2021.

"It feels amazing to be back playing. You get those day before the game jitters still but I hadn’t played a game since Germany which was in March and even then I was only there for three games before they stopped the league," Sloan said on the Adelaide 36ers podcast, Sixers Fix with Scott Ninnis.

So for me it's been a lot of training, it's been a lot of consistent just individual gym work and trying to stay away from larger groups because of COVID. But to now be a part of a team again and be part of a system, and to have purpose of training is such a nice thing. 

"It seemed like there was no end in sight to the endless training last year but it's just a great feeling to be back playing again."

What Sloan decided with how things turned out this time last year in China for him was that despite the success he had there including winning a championship with the Guangdong Southern Tigers was that he was ready to try out playing somewhere else.

Initially that was in Germany but COVID-19 put an end to that quickly and then looking to 2021, both in terms of basketball and the way the pandemic is under control, Australia seemed the best option.

But having gone through the experience of being brought back to China to replace another import, and then getting there and the team ending up keeping that other player meant that Sloan was ready to experience playing elsewhere in the world.

"To be honest it has been a weird past year especially with COVID, but even going over to China initially to replace a player," Sloan said.

"That's what happens pretty often in China and guys like me kind of know that you sit and wait, and don't go too early because we know that guys who sign in August or September have a good chance of being back on the US side pretty soon. 

"So we know we'll get the call pretty soon to replace them when they can't adjust to things in China either on the court or not wanting to be there. So the pattern has been for me to go and replace a guy, and play out the rest of the season that way.

"That last season I got called in by the team because the import was under performing, but once I got there he started to turn it on. He sensed I was there and he was balling out of control, and they won seven or eight straight games. 

"This was November, December and January, and I was there but I was only training with the team because there was no spot for me because this other guy had picked up his game. That was uncommon for me to just be a training player after what I was able to do throughout my career. 

"It was a little hit I have to be honest and then COVID started to hit and the season in China was postponed so then I got out of there to somewhere else that was still playing."

Once Sloan returned from China last year, he decided that he just wanted to find somewhere to play that would allow him to strut his stuff on the court and he was more than willing to take a significant pay cut to do that.

Just as he was settling in Germany, the coronavirus shutdown the world and it was a long rest of 2020 for him back home from there being largely locked down and just focusing on working out.

But when he found out Jeff Van Groningen, Conner Henry and the Adelaide 36ers of the NBL were interested, it didn’t take him long to say yes.

"I got back home and told my agent and told him that I couldn’t go back to China again in that same situation or with COVID starting to take over," Sloan said. 

"Nobody knew what was going to happen and of course it ended up spreading like wildfire, but I told my agent I needed to find a contract somewhere to play and I don't want to be a training player and sitting around again. 

"I actually took a big pay cut to go to Germany in the end even from being in China waiting to replace a guy. So I got out of my deal in China and I went over to Germany to join Telekom Bonn, and he was there all part of the team fully buying in for three weeks. 

"I got my feet wet in the first game and it was my first time playing anywhere but the NBA, G-League or China. The European style of basketball was different and just as I was getting used to it, after that third game that was it.

"Then it went right back to training and trying to figure out what's next, and I'm thinking I just hadn’t done enough over the past year and people might start questioning what I still had to offer. 

"But for JVG and coach Conner to reach out to my agent and thinking I'd be a good fit for what they are building here in Adelaide was uplifting to me, and just what I needed. It was everything to me."

Sloan had always been aware of the level of competition down in the NBL and in fact he even saw some vision and thought it looks of such a standard and was so physical that he wanted no part of it at one point.

But in reality, he thrives on testing himself against quality opposition and now when he settles into life playing in the NBL, he can't wait for the challenges that lie ahead.

"A few of the guys I've played against over the years and a couple of guys I've played with have had stints over here in the NBL and even during those times when I didn’t know much about the league, I followed them and thought it was looking pretty tough and I might try to avoid that," he said.

"It really did look a high quality league and a gritty, grindy style of play but that suits me. I was following Jerome Randle, Melo Trimble, DJ Kennedy, Carrick Felix, Glen Rice Jr and Shawn Long, I know a lot of those guys and for them to come over talk as highly of the league as they have, I wanted to be part of it. 

"They definitely let me know it's tough and you'll have to bring it every night, which I knew already because that's part of my DNA, so for me to get here and then immediately for us to go up to Cairns was tough. 

"They bum rushed us in the first game and we played better in the second, and I got the competition level I expected and I knew how high the intensity and physicality that guys would play with. I wasn’t shocked or surprised by the level at all but to actually get that competition in again kind of wakes you up a little bit after not playing for 12 months."

It's not just the imports that Sloan is aware of here in the NBL either, he's expecting to enjoy the challenge of going up against the locals as the season unfolds too.

"There's nothing short of great competition here with a great amount of talent. That's not only the imports either and it includes the locals too. I've looked at how these teams are made up and it's not just the imports that are top quality with Bryce, Casper, Scotty and those guys," Sloan said.

"The teams have a real good unit around them that propels the imports to be able to stand out a little bit, but the league is tough all the way around. 

"For that first game, we looked at guys like McCarron and Goulding who were their own set of problems even if a lot of people were talking about Scotty.

"I'm all for a match up and individual tendencies and locking in on guys, but it's going to take a whole team effort defensively and offensively for us to go where we want to go against guys like Cotton, Hopson and others who are so talented in so many ways."

As a guard with 222 games of NBA experience including most recently at the Brooklyn Nets in 2015/16 and prior to that the Indiana Pacers, Sloan is not only well credentialed to help the 36ers win this season, but to also help the development of Josh Giddey as he prepares for the NBA Draft.

"It's going to be great playing with Josh. They've watched him as he has been growing up and now they get to see him go to another level. I think he's willing and wanting to reach that level, and I don’t think he's satisfied at all with where he's at," Sloan said.

"I don’t think he is content at all and he comes up to me every day asking different things and trying to figure out different scenarios and ways to improve. That's what it's going to take so I think he's on the right track and this city has something to look forward to because that kid is special."