<\/p>\n
Jacob Wiley\u2019s path to the NBL and beyond was anything but straightforward.<\/p>\n
Long before he became a fan favourite in Adelaide and carved out a professional career across the globe, Wiley was forced to grow up quickly through personal tragedy, uncertainty and setbacks that nearly pushed him away from basketball altogether.<\/p>\n
The former Adelaide 36ers import appeared on Episode 7 of NBL: Alumni<\/a>, where former imports share stories from their time in Australia. <\/p>\n Speaking to Fox Sports Australia<\/i> just hours after a game in Puerto Rico\u2019s BSN league, where he currently plays for Santeros de Aguada, Wiley reflected on the winding journey that shaped both his career and his life.<\/p>\n Watch live coverage of the 2026 NBA Draft with ESPN on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Now 31, Wiley spent two stints with the 36ers during the 2018-19 and 2023-24 NBL seasons. But there was a point where a professional basketball career seemed highly unlikely.<\/p>\n LEARNING LIFE AWAY FROM BASKETBALL <\/b><\/p>\n After a difficult freshman season with the Montana Grizzlies, capped by an 81-34 loss to Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament on March 21, 2013, Wiley walked away from the game entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cI played in the NCAA tournament as a freshman against Syracuse. We lost. It was the biggest deficit loss in NCAA tournament history. It\u2019s a true story,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was our leading scorer on the team with five points and I quit basketball the next day so I could run track and play football because I said this, \u2018this is not for me\u2019. This is not worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n Before eventually joining Lewis-Clark State College, where his basketball career reignited, Wiley spent a year pursuing his passion for American football and track and field, sports that ran deep in his family.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Teen Aussie basketball phenom Luke Paul joins Cairns Taipans as NBL Next Stars deal done<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI was good at football and I was good at running track. And that\u2019s just how my mind worked at the time. I just wanted to experience everything I could experience as an athlete, you know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Wiley especially loved the 400 metres, admitting the brutal event suited his personality.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m the type of idiot that loves to suffer. So I loved running the 400 metres,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad was a really good 400m runner. My grandpa was a runner. I was just always really good at that race for that reason, because I could just suffer. And anyone who\u2019s ran that race knows it\u2019s literally, in my opinion, the hardest physical event.\u201d<\/p>\n Stepping away from basketball also exposed Wiley to life outside sport.<\/p>\n \u201cI started living real life. After I quit basketball and came back to school, I had to take out loans. I was working a job as a dishwasher. I was washing dishes, I was doing odd jobs just to feed myself. I was running track, trying to do the football thing and just almost living like a normal student and everybody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of criticism and judgment, but for me, I always just live my life on my terms and I never had really guidance, no one ever really told me what to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI did what I felt at the time. I was 17 going into college. I was a kid, you know. My father had just passed a couple of years prior and he was really the guy that was in my ear. After he passed, all the guidance I had was gone as far as sports and that went.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut it was a blessing at the same time because I was allowed the freedom to explore these things. So when I came back to basketball, all that was out of my system. I\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to go back to suffering running the 400 meters\u2019. That gets old after a while.\u201d<\/p>\n After a year away from the game, Wiley returned to basketball at Lewis-Clark State College, where he played from 2014 to 2016. The decision transformed his future.<\/p>\n He averaged 14.8 points and 7.5 rebounds across 62 games, earning All-Conference honours, First-Team All-American recognition and helping the school claim its first ever National Championship.<\/p>\n THE LETTER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING<\/b><\/p>\n Yet the biggest influence on his resurgence came from a handwritten letter left by his late father.<\/p>\n Wiley\u2019s father passed away following a battle with alcoholism, and Wiley was the one who found him. Among his most treasured possessions is a note written by his father predicting he would become a \u201c20 and 10 guy\u201d.<\/p>\n Years later, after transferring to Eastern Washington, Wiley fulfilled that prediction.<\/p>\n \u201cHe told me \u2018you\u2019re gonna be a 20 and 10 guy\u2019. I actually just sent this to my mum the other day. It\u2019s the last thing he ever wrote to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s very important because he planted that seed in my mind that was somebody I could be. And I wanted to almost fulfil that prophecy for him. And I think it was subconscious in a way. I would say that\u2019s where it started.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: \u2018Love to come back\u2019: Former NBL champion\u2019s near miss revealed as bad timing thwarts return<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Wiley granted Fox Sports Australia<\/i> permission to publish the letter, which remains a source of motivation in his life and career.<\/p>\n \u2018Hi Jake,<\/p>\n Just wanted to say hi, how r u doing? I\u2019m doing really good. I am going to my AA meetings and my therapy with a counsellor.<\/p>\n Just like Jerry Garcia said \u201cI will get by\u201d, \u201cI will survive\u201d. I love you man. We have to talk. I\u2019m coming over and will go fishing.<\/p>\n I am sorry about the last fiasco with me, I can\u2019t be drinking anymore. I black out and don\u2019t remember anything. I don\u2019t remember anything that night.<\/p>\n I need your support and I know you do. I am going to job training as soon as my knee will let me get my s*** going.<\/p>\n But I need to talk to you. I love you very much. You\u2019re all I have as family goes. Please forgive me and support me. Hope your basketball team did good.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll be a 20 and 10 guy this year, love Dad\u2019<\/p>\n The prediction became reality.<\/p>\n During his lone season at Eastern Washington in 2016-17, Wiley averaged 20.4 points and 9.1 rebounds while shooting 64.3 per cent from the field. He was named Big Sky Conference Player of the Year and suddenly found himself on the NBA radar.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started with just the belief from the one person who knew me the most. You can\u2019t play like that or have a season like that if you don\u2019t absolutely wholeheartedly believe you can be that player first and foremost, like you have to, you don\u2019t just accidentally become that, and so it started there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the time I got to Eastern Washington, my last season, it was the combination of really like two years of intense hard work, like believing I could be this person that my Dad always wanted me to be, believe that I could be. I felt like I kind of let everyone down when I walked away from basketball. I said, I got one year, one shot, one opportunity at this.\u201d<\/p>\n AUSTRALIA ENTERS THE PICTURE<\/b><\/p>\n Wiley\u2019s first taste of Australia actually came before his breakout season.<\/p>\n Eastern Washington toured Australia in August 2016, facing NBL clubs including the Sydney Kings, Cairns Taipans and Nunawading Spectres. One performance in particular opened eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore the season, we go on an international tour and we\u2019re playing NBL teams. And so the first team we play is Sydney Kings. They had Jason Cadee. And he remembers this and I had 20-something against the Sydney Kings. And everyone\u2019s kind of like, \u2018who is this guy?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The experience also introduced him to lifelong friendships with several Australian teammates, including Melbourne product and former NBL champion Felix Von Hofe.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are all really close to this day and that\u2019s what\u2019s so special about that group of guys and my Aussie brothers, man.\u201d<\/p>\n After going undrafted in 2017, Wiley earned a two-way contract with the Brooklyn Nets following Summer League. He made his NBA debut later that year before eventually finding a longer-term opportunity overseas.<\/p>\n That opportunity arrived through Adelaide and legendary coach Joey Wright.<\/p>\n \u201cJoey Wright recruited me at Summer League going into my second season. And for me it was just a no-brainer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI owe him my whole career, man like he believed in me and saw something in me when no one else did.<\/p>\n \u201cNo disrespect to any other coach, but it\u2019s just about the timing and who I was as a player when he coached me. I was not a pro at all. And Joey got me. He turned me into a pro.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe is a master manipulator in a good way. He manipulated the best basketball out of me and he worked with me and still to this day, you know, we have a great relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n Wiley\u2019s first season in Adelaide proved successful, averaging 12.3 points and 4.9 rebounds before Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos bought out his contract midway through an extension agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I actually extended during the season but Panathinaikos bought me right out of that contract. So they paid Adelaide a nice sum so that everybody could be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a path and I guess was an opportunity I just could not turn down.\u201d<\/p>\n ADELAIDE RETURN AND FRUSTRATIONS DURING THE 2023-2024 SEASON<\/b><\/p>\n After stops across Europe and Puerto Rico, Wiley returned to Adelaide for the 2023-24 season under coach CJ Bruton.<\/p>\n While grateful for the opportunity, he admitted concerns emerged before the season even began.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone can agree on this one. I remember there was a press conference that our coach C.J. Bruton did right before the season where they announced we were going to sign an 18-year-old Next Star to be our starting point guard. I knew that from that day on the season was going to forever be changed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Despite expressing respect for Trentyn Flowers, Wiley believed the decision created tension within the group.<\/p>\n \u201cI got a lot of respect for Trent. First of all, coming in as an 18-year-old kid to a professional league like this in an English speaking country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you go play in Greece or something, you don\u2019t really know or understand everything that\u2019s being said about you, but you come to Australia and you\u2019re going to see and hear your name in English.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe effect that can have on a mind of someone that young, you know what I\u2019m saying? So to bring in a player who is 18 and say \u2018Hey, this is going to be the leader of our franchise and our point guard.\u2019 It caused a lot of tension within our team, with our veteran guards and members of our staff and players.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were trying to be a solid team early on. How much time do we have to develop and how much patience? It was tough. And so from day one, it just seemed like the chemistry, the trust and our locker room was already kind of divided.\u201d<\/p>\n Wiley also questioned the reduced roles given to veterans such as Mitch McCarron and Jason Cadee.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had really good players, man. We had someone like Mitch McCarron, guys like Jason Cadee. We had solid guys who could have really helped us, but they were kind of put on the back burner.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt one point in the season, they were told they couldn\u2019t play at all. Which was crazy. So yeah, you got to think if the veterans and the leaders of your team are already being compromised from day one, it\u2019s going to be hard to have a successful season.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the frustrations, Wiley spoke glowingly of teammates including Nick Marshall, who has since joined the Tasmania JackJumpers.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s my dog. That\u2019s my brother, man.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s an excellent player, an excellent person, an extremely hard worker. I wish people could understand how hard this guy works. I mean, I\u2019m a psycho and I look at him like, \u2018yo, you got to chill out, bro.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHis success this last season is not any surprise to me at all.\u201d<\/p>\n THE FLIGHT THAT LEFT HIM FEARING FOR HIS LIFE<\/b><\/p>\n The most difficult moment of Wiley\u2019s second Adelaide stint, however, came during a flight home from Perth after suffering a severe bout of gastro.<\/p>\n He alleges the medical emergency left him fearing for his life.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I was going to die on the plane. A doctor stopped the plane from taking off and was screaming and they had to wheel me, they had to bring an ambulance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey stopped the plane right before it was going take off. The last thing I remember was the doctor screaming, \u2018he\u2019s gonna die, get him off this flight.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut the problem was there was no response from any of our team who was on the flight and the only person that responded was Jared \u2018Jazzy\u2019 Campbell, the team manager, longtime manager, 20 plus years of Adelaide.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShout out to my man Jazzy. He got off that plane with me and into that ambulance and stayed at the hospital with me overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n Wiley later vented his frustrations publicly after not receiving what he felt was adequate communication from the club following the season.<\/p>\n \u201cI signed a two-year deal with a mutual option. After the season, I went to play in Spain and I didn\u2019t hear anything from anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll of a sudden I\u2019m getting all these calls saying, \u2018man, thank you\u2019, \u2018sorry\u2019 that made it seem like I was the one who decided to part ways.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI got pissed, man. I got emotional. I said, \u2018you know what? people don\u2019t even know how hard this season was, what we went through, what I personally went through.\u2019 The least I could get was a phone call.\u201d<\/p>\n