Malik Potter continues to rise. With experience playing college basketball over in America, Malik made the move over to Australia in 2023. His first season was safe to say, a success, winning the MBL Rookie of the Year Award, as well as becoming an All-Star. With big plans for the future, we recently sat down with Malik to talk about the cultural and basketball differences between American and Australia, his favourite players of all time and even his piano-playing origins.
So, my first questions is why did you move to Australia? Was it the basketball or was it the culture or lifestyle?
I originally had a person I played against in college come out here [Australia] to play and I had just seen a post that he had made about him playing overseas. I enquired about it, and after I had enquired about it, he put me onto his agent. The agent told me to get a flight out to Australia and then I came over. It took about five or six months to actually get it up and running, just because the season was ongoing.
So now that you have been here for a little bit, what are the differences between the Australian basketball programs and American basketball programs, as well as that obviously you have played basketball at the college level and now, you are playing as a semi-professional, what are the differences between that?
I’d probably say the differences here [Australia] are that it's a lot more organised in the sense of the playstyle. Back home, it is a lot more isolation basketball, whereas here it’s a lot more play-oriented basketball. I would also say the skillset is a big difference. Even young kids back home are really good, whereas here I would say the skillset hasn’t fully developed yet.
Do you believe thats a result of encouraging isolation plays in America where kids must develop their dribbling and their shooting and stuff like that, compared to here where it's all about running plays?
Yeah, I think that is a big reason. I also think because Australia is very new, they are still very behind in the basketball sense. When we were getting around basketball, they had just thought about it. I definitely think the more time that Australia puts into basketball, I think the better they’ll get. It’s on the verge of trying to become that, so I think they are on a good path.
Yeah, I agree, it’s only been in the last 10-15 years that we have really picked up basketball. But I want to go back to your college days when you were playing college basketball, what is it like balancing being a student athlete? How do you balance work and how do you balance basketball in general? I feel like you’d be on a very busy schedule, knowing myself, I go to uni and it is busy enough already without having to play sports. Is it difficult to manage?
It’s definitely difficult. Majority of the time we’d have to get up for workouts around 4:35am in the morning, workout, then afterwards some players shoot for about 30 minutes to an hour. Then we wpuld have an 8am class, go to that, have a little break and then probably workout again then have practise. As well as this, there are players who work, so it’s even more rigorous just because now they have a job that they have to balance with all that. It’s definitely hard, and it’s not for the weak minded I say. But it was definitely a good experience so I will say I enjoyed it.
I want to move back into the basketball aspect of your career are competitions more intense here compared to America?
The skillset is a lot higher back home, and I will say it’s a lot more competitive just because Americans like to trash talk!
There’s not much trash talk over in Australia. The only time I’ve experienced that has been with other Americans, while Australians don’t trash talk too much. Back home, it could be a random pick-up game, it’s going to be trash talk no matter where you’re at. I think they need to bring that over here.
Yeah, that’s strange it doesn’t really happen here even in our other sports, and even if there is trash talking it’s usually started by an American player, most notably Mason Cox who plays AFL. Moving on, has playing in a semi-professional basketball league been different to playing at the college level? From what I can gather about what you’ve said I’m inferring that the college levels are a bit higher than just semi-professional basketball.
I’d probably say the closest thing to college basketball is probably NBL1, but the NBL is obviously above college level for the most part. Even in that though, the semi-pro league is definitely not as hard as college, but I definitely think that’s a good thing and a bad thing. If you’re a player coming here, you can obviously boost stats to the point where once you get to the pro league, you’ll be straight. It’s good and bad but it’s not necessarily a challenge.
My hope after this year is to at least go state championships and then NBL1. My goal would be to just go straight to NBL1, so it’s definitely a consideration that can happen. But to get to NBL as an American import, you basically need NBA experience. The imports that they recruit have all played in the NBA for some stint of time, whereas NBL1 not as much. I feel like if I had stayed here and had a good agent before, I could be there now. But NBL1 will probably be next year, and then to play NBL you basically have to become a citizen. It’s either that or you just play in the NBA or G-League for a certain period of time and then come over here.
That actually makes a lot of sense, I never knew you had to be a citizen to play in the NBL. Moving on now, I want to know what has been the most memorable moment of your basketball career? Through high school, college and now semi-professional do you have any moments that just stick out to you?
In my junior year of college, maybe like the first two years, I didn’t really get to play. I transferred schools and wanted a new start. Then after three or four games, I finally got to start and I probably had my career high that game. After that, I thought, ‘Ok I think I can play this game at a pretty high level.’ Ever since then I have just worked to where I am now.
You mentioned how you realised you can play basketball at a high level, did that feeling come to you in college? I feel like for most people that feeling would probably have hit them when they were 15-17 years old when they realise they can have a crack at the sport.
I don’t know. I mean, I went to a smaller high school, so not a lot of people knew about it, nor did I get looked at that much. Over here in America, we have a program called AAU, which is similar to rep basketball in Australia, just maybe at a higher level. I played on one of the best AAU teams in my senior year, so even then I thought I could probably do this at a pretty decent level. But after college, I didn’t get recruited by any high major schools. When I finally got my break and opportunity, it kind of reaffirmed the thought process that I had before coming into it.
Well, there you go. I’m not too sure if you saw this, but a few weeks ago I wrote an article about how I felt timeouts and excessive stoppages kill basketball. As a huge NBA fan, I don’t know if you can relate, but when you’re watching crunch time the final two minutes always takes half an hour to finish. Does it feel that long when you’re playing in a close game? Or does the time fly past given the adrenaline you’re probably experiencing in those moments?
I’d say in the moment and depending on the game it can feel like a while, but majority of the time you’re in a rush that you don’t even really think about it. I always say that the team who is able to come out on top even if they have two challenges, two timeouts and all these fouls is always the more mentally tough team. In a way I do hate watching it, but then playing in it definitely feels a little different, whereas it’s an ‘in-the-moment thing’ so I don’t really think about it as much as I would if I’m just watching it on TV.
As a hooper, who is the goat? Jordan or Lebron?
Me personally, I go off the eye test, so I pick Michael. I’m not really about stats, but my favourite player is Kobe. If I had to pick between the three, I’m taking Kobe all day.
Due to the eye test, I would solely pick Kobe versus anybody, but if I needed to pick a GOAT, I’d pick Jordan. That’s not to say I don’t like Lebron, but Lebron was gifted with every physical attribute and just played it really well, so I would expect him to be that great. I mean, it’s impressive how he’s able to do it in year twenty, and that’s insane to me. In terms of that, I probably pick Jordan, but my favourite is Kobe.
I’d like to move away from basketball now, my biggest question to an American living here is how do you find the culture here? Do you enjoy living here?
It’s different, it’s definitely a little different. There’s a couple of things I like and a couple of things that I don’t like. I’m going to stay, because I found my girlfriend here, so that was a huge part of me considering staying here. But there are certain things I don’t like, for example the people here drive way too slow, I don’t like that. The food’s a little different too. But I will say it’s a lot nicer here in terms of the people than back home. People are a lot more friendly and go out of their way to help you, but back home it’s kind of like, ‘no you’ll figure it out.’
That’s very interesting to hear, but what about the food is it that you don’t like?
Well, in terms of purely American food, they have the burgers, they have the fries, hot dogs, hoagies, but in terms of that, I’d say even restaurant quality is very different here. I remember I went to a restaurant the other day, and it was a pretty high-end restaurant and I was kind of disappointed. But if I went to a restaurant like that back home, it would be thinking, ‘nah, I need to come back here.’ The quality of the food though, I will say you guys have fruits and vegetables that are obviously a lot fresher than America, but I’d say the way it’s cooked is a little bit different and better back home than here.
Another thing I’ve always wanted to ask an American is do people pick up on your accent often? How much attention does that draw?
I would be at work, and a good amount of people would ask, ‘oh, which part are you from?’ and they would obviously know America and I tell them which part. I don’t really go outside too much to converse with people, but when I do, they definitely pick up on it. For example, I’ll be on the phone and I’ll just see people turn their heads when I start talking.
Moving on, I’ve also seen that you’re a keen piano player and your favourite musician is Ray Charles. How did that come about?
That’s an interesting one! As a child, there was a movie about Ray Charles called Ray, and Jamie Foxx starred in it. My mum would never let me watch it, and I always thought about what he was doing that was so bad. When I started to watch it, I thought ok, he was on drugs, so my mum didn't want me watching that at a young age. Later on, as I was able to appreciate it, I grew up listening to a lot of soul music, R&B, and then I watched the movie and learned a lot about his life. He became one of my favourite musicians just because he was able to do so much despite being so held back. Being blind and still being able to perform like that in front of the world and being one of the best at his crafts, it was pretty inspiring to see.
Moving onto my final question, do you have any words of wisdom for anyone wanting to play basketball in general, whether it’s semi-professionally or professionally, as well as anything to promote or anyone to shout out?
Anyone to promote and shout out? Well, I'm a very faithful man, so I always say I wouldn't be able to do anything without my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But in terms of basketball, I’ll just say to keep going. It’s not going to be easy. There are a lot of downfalls you’re going to experience playing basketball. There’s a lot of high moments, and there’s a lot of low moments. But at the end of the day, if you’re able to stay faithful, and if you truly believe that this is the sport for you, then it’ll work itself out. You just got to put the time and effort into it, just like anything. You can’t shortcut basketball. Even though there are people out there who are God gifted with athleticism and height, if they’re not able to work hard, you’ll always be able to beat them in the long run. Basketball is a marathon, not a sprint. If you’re able to keep pushing and keep being faithful, it will work itself out.
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