Five years after leaving Melbourne’s St Kevin’s College to join the Adelaide 36ers, Josh Giddey has a signature shoe with Puma, a growing business portfolio and the keys to one of the world’s most iconic sporting franchises.
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Josh Giddey can still vividly recall his welcome to the NBA moment.
He was 18, newly drafted, and lining up against the Milwaukee Bucks in a pre-season game. On the other side of the court stood the “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo – a two-time league MVP, 211cm tall and 110 kilos of muscle.
Giddey, six foot seven and still growing into his frame, barely had time to react. “He drove and put his shoulder straight through me,” he says. “That was my welcome to the NBA.”
It was a split second that summed up everything waiting for him in America: faster, stronger, louder. A world away from the modest NBL arenas of Adelaide, where the Australian teenager had run point for the 36ers just months earlier.
Back then, most 17-year-olds were finishing school. Giddey was skipping class to sign his first professional contract. He had offers from other clubs, but Adelaide promised him what others didn’t – the ball. “They handed me the keys from day one,” he says. “It’s not easy for a club to do that for a 17-year-old, but they did.”
It worked. Within eight months, he had gone from a raw local prospect to a top-10 NBA draft pick. The night his name was called at pick six, he was sitting in a hotel ballroom in New York surrounded by family, his manager, and cameras. “I had no idea where I was going,” he says. “I knew anywhere from six to twenty, but when the cameras came over to our table, that’s when I knew.”
Twelve hours later, he was on a flight to Oklahoma City. There was no pause to take it in – media, fittings, facility tours, and then straight back to Los Angeles to train before summer league. “It moves fast,” he says. “You wake up one day in Melbourne and the next you’re living out of a suitcase in the States.”
The transition wasn’t easy. His rookie season was a blur of travel and fatigue – 82 games, four or five nights a week, city to city. The schedule hit harder than the opponents. “You hear about it, but when you actually play 82 games, it’s not easy,” he says. “The rookie wall is real.”
He adapted. By his third season, Oklahoma City had turned from one of the lowest-ranked teams in the league to the top seed in the West. He was part of the young core driving that surge, but he was also learning how quickly the league could turn. When the playoffs arrived, he lost his spot in the starting rotation.
The coach sat him down before Game 5 against Dallas and told him changes were coming. “It’s never easy to be benched, especially in the playoffs,” he says. “But I’ll look back at that time and be grateful. It taught me a lot.”
Two months later, he was traded. Giddey found out through a phone call with Oklahoma’s general manager, Sam Presti. “I knew something might change,” he says. “I thought about it a lot and decided a new environment was probably best for me.”
That new environment was Chicago. The Bulls offered him something he hadn’t had since Adelaide – space to lead. “I love the pressure that comes with it,” he says. “In a city like Chicago, with fans who care about winning, you want to give them something to cheer for.”
Overnight, Giddey became the face of one of basketball’s most storied franchises, which has seen minimal success since the Michael Jordan era. His recent form to start the season has also pushed him into rare company. A recent triple-double in a tight win over Washington moved him past Kobe Bryant and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the NBA’s all-time list (at just 23).
While he’s decidedly modest about his 2025 form, he can’t help but grin when I bring up his half-court buzzer beater over LeBron James and the Lakers. It’s one of the few moments he’s kept a record of, panning his camera to the left to show that shot (see below) blown up and hung on his wall.
“I grew up watching those guys. Steph, LeBron, KD… they were on my wall as a kid. So lining up against them that first year was pretty unreal. You try to act like you belong and play it cool, but it hits you. You’re on the same floor as the players you watched your whole childhood. I loved those matchups. I still do.”
In the following months Oklahoma City went on to win the championship – the franchise’s first since moving from Seattle. There’s no bad blood. Giddey has nothing but praise for his former team and teammates. “They deserved it,” he says. “That group worked hard for years. I’m still close with a lot of those guys.”
And, after prolonged contract discussions over the off-season, he and his camp signed a four-year, US$100 million (A$153 million) contract extension with the Bulls – the biggest of his career and one that rockets him to the top of Australia’s highest-paid athletes list, sitting alongside last year’s 30 Under 30 debutant Oscar Piastri.
So, how do you celebrate a $100 million payday when you’ve already paid off your parents’ mortgage? “I was already planning to see my watch guy in Melbourne, but it just happened to be the same day I signed [the new deal],” he says. “Three hours later, I went in and got it.” The purchase: a meteorite-dial Rolex Daytona to join a rotation that includes several Rolex Datejusts, a Patek Philippe and another Daytona with a Tiffany dial. “I probably should slow down,” he admits with a grin.
Off the court, Giddey is learning how to turn recognition into equity.
His deal with Puma, announced this year, positions him as one of the brand’s global faces alongside LaMelo Ball and Tyrese Haliburton. His first signature shoe, the Giddey One, is due for release in Q2 and takes inspiration from the golden wattle and the colours of the Australian outback. “I was with Nike my whole life,” he says. “But when I met the Puma team, I loved them straight away. Good people, good energy. It felt right.”
He’s also investing at home. Courtside, the new basketball facility he co-owns in Port Melbourne with his Olympic teammate Dyson Daniels and agent Daniel Moldovan, has become a hub for elite athletes. The New Orleans Pelicans recently used it for their pre-season training camp, and the Atlanta Hawks are expected to use it next year. The complex includes two full-size courts, a gym, café and retail space – part sports centre, part business play. “It took almost two years to build,” he says. “There were a lot of roadblocks, but it’s something we’re really proud of.”
For all the milestones – the draft night, the trade, the contract, the signature shoe – Giddey’s focus remains on what happens next. The Bulls haven’t been serious contenders in years. At the time of writing, Giddey
He’s aware of what that means. “I probably didn’t grasp how big the Bulls were until I got here,” he says. “Then you realise – this is Michael Jordan’s team. Everywhere you go in the world, you see Bulls gear.”
When asked how he wants to be remembered when it’s all over, he pauses. “As someone who did things the right way,” he says. “On and off the floor.”
At a glance
- Toughest opponent: Kevin Durant
- Toughest defender: Ausar Thompson
- Hardest away stadium: Boston
- Favourite city to play in: New York
- Best trash talker: Kevin Durant (He talks a lot, and he’s good at it.)
- Most underrated player: Tre Jones, my teammate
- Which NBA player would you trust with the final shot: Kobe
- Pre-game ritual: Always eat a bowl of berries when I get to the arena
- Favourite basketball shoe right now: Tyrese Haliburton’s Puma model
- NBA idol growing up: Russell Westbrook
- If not in the NBA: I’d be playing AFL, ruck-forward.
- Pick for 2026 MVP: Luka Dončić, with a nod to Wembanyama
- Dream starting five: Stephen Curry, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- GOAT: MJ
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